JosephC

Badger website has Smith at 4 games played. I also checked the bio and it indicates his debut was against Washington, which was game #9 of the season.

Reports are that Michigan State is firing head coach Jonathan Smith. Smith finished with a 4-8 record this year (1-8 in Big 10). His buyout is 33 million.

Offensive points per game during the Don Morton era- 1987 = 0, 10, 14, 24, 14, 26, 19, 9 = 14.5 points per game 1988 = 14, 6, 6, 14, 6, 12, 14, 0 = 9 points per game 1989 = 0, 24, 35, 9, 22, 17, 22, 3 = 16.5 points per game So I do stand corrected, 1988 was equally as bad as 2025. 9 points per game. There are 134 Division 1 teams (stats include all games, not just conference games)- Scoring offense = 133. Wisconsin = 13.4 points per game (only UMass was worse, 11.1 points per game) Total offense (yards per game) = 133, Wisconsin = 251.7 (only UMass was worse, 247.5 yards per game) Team Passing Efficiency = 130. Wisconsin = 108.82 Rushing Offense (yards per game) = 113, Wisconsin = 119.5 "Down to fourth quarterback" stuff is getting old. The Badgers have gotten stuck with bad quarterbacking a lot in the past, and have still been able to have a functional offense by running the ball. Badgers leading rusher in 2025 = Darrion Dupree = 363 yards That's right, team's leading rusher had 363 yards. But guys were injured..... Add up Dupree, Jones and Ituka rushing yards and all three of them had a combined 918 yards. The teams leading receiver in terms of yardage was Lance Mason, 398 yards. Pitiful. Back to the "4th QB" stuff. Edwards had a grade 3 PCL strain and was KO'ed. When he committed to the Badgers, most of the football fans in Madison went running for the toilet. O'Neil got KO'ed in the Washington game, but had been relegated to a very limited role in the previous four games due to a coaches decision and had become a non-factor. Hunter Simmons simply is not Big 10 material, not even backup Big 10 material. The fact that they sat Smith for the first 8 games to preserve the redshirt, and then pull him in a meaningless last game of the season where he could get more game experience to go back to Hunter Simmons is just mind-boggling. But that is Luke Fickell. After a terrible year last year, a year that I posted was likely the program's worst year in the last 35 years (and got no arguments), Fickell's big off-season fix was to fire the offensive coordinator and the result was an even worse offense, and offense so bad that we have to, once again, go back over 30 years to try to find a comparable. It will be interesting to see what assistants get fired next week, but at this point, who has any confidence that Fickell can hire the right guys to fix this program?

How did Illinois allow 27 points when playing the Badgers? And people want to know why I just wanted to rip on Illinois and not give Bucky any credit last weekend. Badger point totals against Big 10 competition- Maryland = 10 Michigan = 10 Iowa = 0 Ohio State = 0 Oregon = 7 Washington = 13 Indiana = 7 Illinois = 27 Minnesota = 7 They averaged 9 points per game against Big 10 competition this year. In Alvarez's first season, they scored 3. 10. 34 (Northwestern), 3, 3, 7, 10, 9 = 79 points / 8 games = 9.875 points per game. I was flipping through pages pretty fast, so there is a good chance I missed a bad season somewhere. But from what I saw, it looks like the last time Wisconsin scored less than 9 points per game in Big 10 play was 1968. Historically bad offensive team. Historically bad.

With 13 minutes left in the second quarter, Michigan leads Ohio State 6-3. I bet at least 20% of Ohio is crying for Ryan Day to be fired.

TE snaps on offense in the Lions game- Musgrave = 37 Whyle = 32 FitzPatrick = 15 Musgrave out of the dog house.

WR-Jayden Petit just decommitted. He was considered the top player in the Badgers class.

Had a Bear fan at work getting awfully mouthy today. I could only take that as a near guarantee that the Bears are in for a beatdown on Friday.

OT-Brady Bekkenhuis flipped from Boston College to Wisconsin. CB-Julian Peterson committed to North Carolina.

Sorry if this has been brought up, it probably has, but I'm too lazy to look through the previous pages. Snap counts on offense against the Vikings- John FitzPatrick = 40 Josh Whyle = 27 Luke Musgrave = 25

Doesn't seem likely that any recruits would flip back. I'd guess they are still working hard on offensive lineman Maddox Cochrane, who decommitted without having any other team lined up (he is from Richmond, VA and reportedly wants to play closer to home). One of 247's reporters is projecting Louisville, KY linebacker Karsten Busch to Wisconsin. 3-star, #38 LB prospect in class. There is a JUCO linebacker that is visiting named Taylor Schaefer. He is from Brussels, WI and has been playing at Iowa Central Community College. There are also 2 CBs on the radar, Julian Peterson (Atco, NJ) and Azel Banag (Columbia, SC). People were all hot on Peterson prior to the entire city of Madison losing all interest in Badger football, so he was a coveted guy at one point. Banag seemed like a fall-back option, but he recently got an offer from Oregon.. The 85 scholarship limit may be gone, but it's still a good baseline to use as to where the team is at. I think the Badgers are currently 10 under, which is a big number at this point, as that number will grow with guys transferring out. Only having 13 high schooler committed at this point has to be considered a major disappointment. Fickell must do better in bringing in higher quality transfers.

The Gophers are a 1 1/2 point favorite as I type this. So it's basically a pick 'em. Wisconsin has been playing better than Minnesota lately. Two games ago the Gophers got torched by Oregon and then lost to Northwestern this last weekend. Looking at the schedule, Minnesota only has one good victory, a 24-6 home win against Nebraska. The problem with thinking that Wisconsin should have an "easier" game this weekend is that Wisconsin have 4 road games this year and have lost all 4 of those road games by at least 14 points. Now it has to be pointed out that those games were against Alabama, Michigan, Oregon and Indiana...so even if Wisconsin had a good team those games were likely going to be losses. Wisconsin as a road team is still a complete unknown when playing a ~.500 Big 10 team like Minnesota. I felt there was a good chance that Illinois would come into last week's game flat since they were ranked but really had no chance of finishing better than 6th in the Big 10. Minnesota is 4-4. A win for them means they are a winning Big 10 team, a loss for them means they are a losing Big 10 team. I have the feeling we will see their best effort this weekend.

Shedeur Sanders, can't say I'm overly impressed. Only two passes completed more than 10 yards down the field, and one of those guys was wide open. There wasn't a single completion from the pocket that was completed more than 10 yards down the field. One terrible INT mixed in there. In summary, one nice throw to Bonds and one terrible interception and the rest was really pedestrian stuff. But hey, he's a QB...the defense that posted 10 sacks had little to nothing to do with winning the game. I should look at the bright side, his QB rating is all the way up to 52.5. The following link is video of all the pass attempts in the Raiders game.

I gave the Badgers credit after the Washington game. I gave some thought before replying to this post, looked at the Badgers 2-6 record in the Big 10, and decided I would rather just criticize Illinois and Bert and leave it at that. Sorry.

Have to give Bert credit for that win against USC....but looking at the rest of the schedule....pretty questionable that they were a ranked team coming into this game. Well they certainly won't be ranked after this performance.

Here is a brief interview with Ted Kellner. When it comes to donors and supporters of the athletic department, Kellner is high up on the list. If you are completely uninterested in stupid sports radio talk, you can skip to the 2:30 mark. I found the 4:24 mark to be very interesting. "I think Chris' recommendation was the right recommendation."

Two more decommits for Wisconsin over the last couple days, bringing the total to 3 this month. Aden Reeder, a linebacker from Cincinnati, decommitted in the first week of November. This week offensive linemen Maddox Cochrane (Richmond, VA) and Benjamin Novak (Merrillville, IN) have decommitted. Reeder is now a Michigan commit and Novak is an Indiana commit. The Badgers did get a running back commit, Qwantavius Wiggins (Fairburn, GA) who flipped from Florida International. On the surface, losing guys to Michigan and Indiana and picking up guys from Florida International is not real encouraging.

How many people remember Gary Cuozzo? As I type this, Carson Wentz has attempted 29 more passes than J.J. McCarthy for the Vikings in 2025. As Wentz is out for the year, McCarthy will finish the season with the most pass attempts if he can survive for two more games (maybe just one more game). McCarthy's passer rating is 61.7. That is bad. It's much worse than most people realize. The last time the Vikings had a QB, who had attempted the most passes that season, with a lower passer rating than 61.7 was 1971. That was Gary Cuozzo, who finished the season with a QB rating of 52.2 (largely due to a 44.6 completion percentage). In 1971, there were 21 QBs that had enough attempts to qualify, and the median QB rating of those 21 players was 67.1 (Pete Liske - Philadelphia). In 2025, Pro Football Reference has 35 QBs listed, and the median number of those 35 players is 93.5 (Jaxson Dart). McCarthy has only started 5 games, so I would agree that it's still way too early to tell, but so far it has not been good. McCarthy has a far, far better supporting cast than Dillon Gabriel, and Gabriel has posted an 80.8 QB rating in his first 6 starts.

FitzPatrick and Whyle both had more snaps on offense than Musgrave. Talk is cheap, LaFleur can say what he wants to say, but Whyle getting more snaps speaks volumes. From what people have told me about Musgrave...I just don't think the guy is a tight end. He may have tight end dimensions, but he really is a wide receiver stuck in that body.

The Franklin hire seems like a great fit for both side. Franklin likely has a huge recruiting net, but going from Vandy to Penn State to Virginia Tech, he's staying in the region where the roots are probably the deepest. Virginia Tech hasn't been able to recapture that Beamer magic, Franklin should put them back in 9+ win territory year-in and year-out. So Kotelnicki went from hot Badger head coaching prospect to nothing when Franklin got fired. I wonder if Franklin will hire him at Virginia Tech, because there is little to no chance the next Penn State coach keeps him. If Kotelnicki does not go to Virginia Tech, I have to wonder about the chances of him being Wisconsin's offensive coordinator next year. The Badgers have scored a pitiful total of 47 points in 7 Big 10 games. Grimes got stuck in a bad spot and definitely does not deserve all the blame for that, but it's hard seeing him surviving. Kotelnicki is definitely a guy who should get an interview if Grimes is out.

It won't stop ESPN talking about him continuously over the next week.

Aaron Banks = NIR - Vet Rest Since they don't say "back" or "knee" and instead use "vet rest," does that mean the play has been so atrocious that they can't figure out if they want to put him on the field or not (and that included the practice field)? Gutekunst's batting averages in free agency- 2024 = 1.000 2025 = .000

Can't really say it's a great day for the defense when the opposing QB goes 22-24 for 299 yard with 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Nice that they had 5 sacks, but for the most part it sure looks like Indiana did pretty much whatever it wanted to do in the passing game. Illinois with a solid home lead of 24-6 versus Maryland with only 3+ minutes left. Normally one would look at Illinois, and if they can run the rest of the schedule they would finish 9-3 with a 6-3 record in the Big 10...really giving them something to play for in the Wisconsin game. But with 5 Big 10 teams already having 6 wins, chances look pretty decent that the best Illinois can do is 6th place, so maybe the Badgers get lucky and Illinois comes in undermotivated. Penn State finally wins a Big 10 game. Michigan State likely gets stomped by Iowa next, but they have Maryland at home in the final game, so maybe they can win that one.

There goes 3 of Wisconsin's 5 points. New predication = Indiana 43, Wisconsin 2.

LOL, I think you missed a digit on the IU side. Putting a 4 in front of IU's 3 seems like a pretty good prediction to me.