tmwiese55

I've said the same thing, that's been my main point in the last week that the O has to be improved/tweaked somehow. Yes, of course upsets can happen and you can still win. which we have done vs them, and have gotten close several times. In recent years we pulled off our upsets vs LSU, USC, MIA, etc but just not vs OSU. But the fact that they're upsets to begin with is the main point. Because you can win here and there does not negate the absolute fact that they're massively more talented than us and almost any other team besides Bama. You can put your head in the sand regarding the 4/5 star recruit ranks and NFL results but it's just facts that OSU is massively more talented and it's completely supported by the eye test watching these games up close and in person. Also, Clemson's NFL players are probably going to start piling up in the next few years. I'm surprised their total isn't higher but I guess their 'boom' kinda just started the last 4ish years.

I'd like if the media would sometime soon latch on to KAT leaving instead of Giannis. He's on his rookie extension just like Giannis but is a couple years behind. Difference is MN has no chance whereas MKE has put a title contender together here. How long until KAT demands a trade? Why isn't Skip and SAS asking this question every day?

Jeez people. I had no idea so many folks in WI didn't realize until yesterday that OSU is better than UW at football. For anyone trying to argue the talent gap isn't massive, you're just flat out wrong. There's no way to sugarcoat it. OSU, Bama, Clemson are at a different level than everyone else. I saw something this week too that their % of 4/5 star talent is actually higher than Bama's. Then you see it translate to the NFL year after year. You can point to our NFL numbers too (which still pale compared to OSU) but you have to remember all we put in the NFL are O Line, LBs, and TEs. Well I guess we have two RBs. We put no WRs and CBs in the NFL, their speed advantage is massive in those areas and their DL. That said, it's not like we couldn't scheme or play call better, if you've read what I said all week that's exactly what I've been saying on using the play action. I was at the game so didn't have the privilege of TV like all, but I noticed their DBs play right up in our WRs faces on every play with no safety help, and we didn't even try to beat it. Cephus is good, he should have a chance. Really we don't have much of a shot vs them until we get back to a ridiculous OL again that can at least give us an area we're better than them at. For the whole "these other teams beat them more". Quite simply those teams play them more than we do and it's small sample stuff. We got crushed this week and in the 59-0. we've played them close every other time we've played. We just haven't squeaked out the Ws a time or two like we'd prefer. Say the OT game at home two years ago we led the whole time or the title game where we had the ball twice at the end to win but didn't score. For the attitudes about, well this team can't win it all or hang with the big boys etc so what's the point? Ya'll realize we're on a Brewers message board right? We're hear following underdogs going in knowing full well they're long shots to win big or win it all. Following the Brewers is no different than UW in that sense. Otherwise might as well be Red Sox and Bama fans. For QB play, Coan is perfectly fine. Blaming everything on the QB when he's running for his life the second he drops back and there is no running game just isn't right. That said, I'm in agreeance on scheming and play calling. Coan has proven to be fine/good, let's let him rip a bit and see what happens. Take your swings at least and give yourself a chance. Some more creativity and aggressiveness could make them back off the line a bit, reduce their pass rush etc. But as someone else pointed out I'm sure a legit fear is the pass protection just couldn't hold up to let him throw a bit more aggressively. Standing by my take from like 4 weeks ago that OSU is gonna win it all or at least go toe to toe with Bama for the title. As long as Fields doesn't get hurt. In the meantime I'm enjoying all the money OSU is making me.

In Urban Meyer's breakdown this week he basically got into exactly what I've been saying on passing out of the power formations, and what someone else brought up about lack of going deep. He showed examples of the normal 22 I formation sets where Cephus has 1 on 1 without the safety help so a deep play is wide open. Yet we run vs a stacked box. His point being that we have to make them pay for stacking the box and selling out to stop JT.

I'm not worried about him resigning and I'm not lying. I would acknowledge that if the team falls apart a couple years from now that he could pull the superstar trade move. But as of now I have no fear of him not taking the 250 mil a few months from now.

The dumbest part to me about the Houston thing is that Osuna blew that game and almost cost them that appearance. Obviously dumb regardless, but how even more moronic to be doing that after the guy blew the game. I mean, not that I'd condone at all, but at least I'd "get it" if Osuna came in the 8th with based loaded 0 outs, got out of it then went 123 in the 9th.

Other non partying and sports related things that are cheap options and a good chance a wife would enjoy would be the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Basically a big indoor aquarium including small sharks. Possibly the Titanic museum at Luxor as well if your or her are into that history type stuff at all.

Yea as much UW fans want to rip on Anderson he brought in that D system and Aranda. Without that who knows where they'd be now. That was huge for the future of the program. I think what you're saying is really my point. All the guys Bostad got to the NFL were not special recruits either, heck probably less regarded than the guys you're saying just aren't good. You're trying to just say the players are bad, which of course could be the case we don't know. I'm saying how much of that could be chalked up to lesser OL coaching to not get them to the level we're accustomed. You're basically saying the OL is bad (relative to UW standards) but that the coach shouldn't be looked at as to why they're bad? I mean Rudolph has never coached OL before now so I don't think it's crazy to say a guy who was regarded the best OL coach in CFB would be better. He did play line though of course. All the guys playing the last few years were their guys they brought in and they never got them up to what we were accustomed. I gave breaks early on as they were forced to play so young, but by the end for them and the guys now not much has improved. Also, Gordon wasn't here in 09. But if you go back to that 09-14ish time frame no matter who put back there was getting ridiculous YPC due to the line. Sure, Gordon did better as he was a freak but no matter who they put back would run easily. Even when that ridiculous line all got drafted the replacements (who didn't even make NFL) along with Gordon and a blah QB in Stave was able to run roughshod over 9 man boxes. Now, if you take out Taylor it cuts in half. Also, Bostad is currently our MLB coach. We have him on our roster and we're not using him at what he's best at. Though he of course seems to be doing good with LBs too. But we're sitting here saying "man our OL just isn't quite up to what we're used to". The guy who got us used to that standard is sitting right there and we're not letting him do it. For all I know maybe he is sick of OL and wanted to do something new, I don't know. But I've also read that he does help after practice with OL and other times, so that's probably what he'd prefer to be doing. When he came available though they didn't have any spots available on offense. I've been assuming they've been waiting for Rudolph to get a HC job and then they'd move Bostad back to O and bring in an LB coach. But he didn't get any he interviewed for last year. Seems to me maybe they should try to force that to happen. But a 10-2 year would probably help him get a HC job.

A writer did a breakdown of personnel in the game last week. I don't think I can link to it but 51/75 plays were shotgun/pistol. 21 one of them were runs. From my quick math that means they only ran 5 passes not out of shotgun. They're diversified when in shotgun but it's easy to load up on the box when they're in normal formation if you very rarely pass out of that set. An interesting part is they ran better out of shotgun 21 for 106 over 5 ypc than they did under center. One would think the fact that the D knows it's a run when not in shotgun is a problem. But going to back to some of our comments on OL, in year's past it didn't matter how many were up there (when not playing top level OSU teams), they could just maul them anyway. But in general I think most would agree our Power Running Game strategy doesn't really line up with shotgun 66% of the time. And that you're not taking advantage of the attention our running game commands by countering off it with play action and other misdirection. I recall in the 1H when they had 3rd and 8 on roughly the 32 yd line. This is 4 down territory. They brought JT back out and had Dunn in at wideout, this is dead giveaway that you're running. I'm just an idiot sitting at home and I called it that they're running. They got stuffed. Still made the correct choice to go for it on 4th, but was incomplete. Like 3 plays later Illinois had their first TD on that slant pass they housed. Now, I do like the shotgun run in that situation to set up a manageable 4th. But you can't just tell them what you're doing by not having your real WRs in the game.

The interview was from last spring. So prior to them not underperforming in the playoffs. I don't put too much weight in it, to me its just saying "yea if the team isn't good I have to consider my option". which he should. Sure looks like the team is good to me. Also, I don't see what good teams could have cap space to sign him. Basically, his best spot to win will be in MKE unless he wants to somehow finagle a trade like AD did. Something like, saying he's decided he's out and I want to go to GSW. Which forces MKE's hand to trading him for Draymond's contract and 3 Firsts

I've actually thought of Vogt for the other side of the platoon if we lose Grandal. The R/L combo makes sense. Sure seems they love their vets and it was known Vogt was well liked in the clubhouse. How bad was Vogt on D this year? I see a 17% CS%, league avg is 26%. Get this, he started 5 games in LF this year. Agree that they won't have 3 Cs on the roster. No matter how dominant Freitas is

Those are the only 2 players they lose on D. LB is also the strongest area we recruit with guys ready to step in. Chenal is sitting there ready to step in and kill it. But yea I could see an argument for LB being slightly down, but overall D should be better. Only lose two other seniors in the 2 deep.

Agree with your overall view of the program and its level and expectations. Pretty much exactly my view. I wouldn't agree that since PC has gotten here that the offense has been good enough though. You use 2017 as an example, again that was all D. The O was nothing special that year. You're right that it comes down to QB play, but again after 5 years that should be fixed. But yes that's also why the O has improved this year vs the last few, the QB is just clearly better. So trendign better and of course Coan and Mertz are great recruits. But if you rewind to what PC was doing here as OC (and what his Os did as HC in Pitt) vs what the O has been since he's been back and it's not back to that area. Besides the QB play as you said being poor with Horni I just don't see the dominating O-Line of the 09-Gordon type era. The running lanes and just overpowering teams no matter how many in the box was different then. This is where I keep coming back to Bostad going back to O line. Prior to ILL I was starting to think the pass blocking had gone way up this year vs the last few years, but they struggled bad that game so we'll see how they do vs OSU. I agree the O has gone up a tick this year vs the last few but I think there's clearly another level or two to go. Trending right direction, but I think some OLine improvement to our old standards is still easily attainable. My other O nitpick is that almost all passing comes from spread shotgun now so you're not taking advantage of the huge advantage our run game provides. For the line, I think 14 is the right number. OSU has slaughtered everyone this year, you set that at 9.5 and 90% of the money is coming on OSU. I'd guess above 50% still comes on OSU even at 14. Put it up to 17 and I think vast majority go UW. I'm trying to pay for my trip by betting on OSU. That classic 'buy a win' type thing where if UW wins, great I'm happy. If OSU covers the 14 well at least I got my money. Not lookingn forward to the 10 pt loss that kills both ways though, haha. One thing is that since OSU has basically covered every game and half all year is that they're kind of due to not.

Not pumped about going to 3 years on Grandal and I think I put a line at no way to 4. Go into trying for 2 years and probably cave and give the 3rd if needed to close it. Logic being that one would think at least next year you can trust him to be good(barring injury). So you don't have toooo much risk after that with only two more years to go. Can't imagine the way FA has been lately that anyone is lining up to hand him a 4-5 year deal.

Bledsoe is gonna start opening game on Thursday. That's nice and all, hope they're not rushing anything though. Regular season should just be a formality this year.

Sans JT23? Every other aspect of the team should be better next year though. And as good as JT is I think we've all learned how replaceable RBs are. That said, it's not like Watson is massively impressive or anything yet and of course whoever it is will not be as good as JT. The other RB who's true fresh this year is redshirting due to injury, he's the one I thought would be the next 'star' but he got hurt senior year and still is, so who knows there.

For the $8, Just normal domestic beers are less than that. Probably averages around $6, I mean beers are 4-5$ in WI now too so it's not bad. For a game like that you can probably by a bucket of beer to chop it down too. Basic mixed drinks like vodka/soda/lemonade too probably come in under that. But tack on some Bloody's, specialty cocktails or good hard liquor and it's going to go up. That's why I threw out the give or take a few. If you're interested in some cost savings though you can have your cab stop at liquor store and pick up your favorite things, there's fridge in your room. So at least you can pregame a bit in the room and/or take one or two with you when you leave the room to put a dent in the cost. There's also a Walgreens right there by the Linq you can buy and keep in your room. Since you're staying right there I'd say there's no reason not to do the Ferris Wheel at night. It's not expensive at all. I'm not saying it's some amazing experience or anything, but you're right there and the views are cool. Everyone might as well do it once. Probably getting a bit too cold to bother with the pools now. Almost any steakhouse or fine dining place you go is going to be great.

OK, Flamingo is right next to Linq and basically connected. You could easily pop over there and ask them the deal for Saturday morning, it's called the The Book and it's tough to miss it. You'd get your own couches, waitress, control of the TVs. I'm not sure what they do for breakfast though. You're also not a far walk from Venetian either, 10 maybe 15 mins. I'd guess a normal sports bar type place for breakfast for that game would be about $15 per person for food. Then add on how much you drink, figure about $8/drink give or take depending on what you get. If Lagasses has a minimum spend that early it'll probably be $50/per person, that's a nice place so items are more expensive so as long as you eat you'll hit that easily, since remember you have over 3 hours. Off the top of my head right by you in the Linq Ferris Wheel area there is a Tilted Kilt sports bar. There's lots of options for places like that though, all should be good. but I'd be surprised if a big chain like them isn't open and doing breakfast and likely would put the game volume on. I was there for a Packers/Lions night game a few years ago and they had the volume on. O is the Cirque that's all in the water. I'd guess most people like that best due to the water spectacle. I just liked KA better as it has a story. Zumanity is fine too and likely a cheaper alternative to the others, but be aware it's basically all sexual stuff. For your location, O and Absinthe are the most convenient as you can just pop over the bridge and be to Caesars and Bellagio. Zumanity and KA are way down on the end.

It's just impossible for me to forget that BB is the best defensive coach in the history of football. Losing him running the D will be a massive loss no matter what. There's just no way to replace that mind.

Exactly. THe biggest knock on PC coming in was being worried about recruiting due to his personality, but he's actually done much better at it than we thought coming in. This is the best recruiting run we've ever had. Everything is set up very well in that sense, they just have figure why the O isn't going yet. The D is playing all underclassmen from that good recruiting.

That guys is the voice for Archer and Bob's Burgers. He definitely has a distinct voice, but yea I guess if you don't know those shows to be predispositioned to like him... Sidenote: Archer is an absolutely great show. Last few years a bit out there but the first like 6-7 years

Pretty much agree with HT here. Yea it's possible that Belichick is grooming McDaniels so well that he can take it over and keep it humming. But no way would I be banking on that considering every coach that's left him has flopped. If Brady retires this year (or had a few years ago) and BB stays, yea I think he can keep it going without Brady. Seems he'd have been able to do it with Cassell, Garapolo, and even Brissett. Take away Bill though and who knows what happens.

People calling it the worst loss in Wisconsin history clearly aren't old enough to remember the loss to Minnesota in 1993 that probably prevented them from ACTUALLY winning a National Championship, or a horrendous loss to Cincy in 1999 that may have done the same. I doubt anyone at that time thought Alvarez 'might not be the right guy for the job', though. Again, I think the fan base for Wisconsin sports has become spoiled and fairly intolerant of normal losses that happen on occasion to most programs. We only think it happens to Wisconsin, though, for some reason. I fully acknowledge this is a massively embarrassing loss, no reason to sugar coat it imo. But, I think the bolded sentence is spot on in general. Just like when every fan expects the UW QB to never miss a throw because they're used to watching Rodgers. While forgetting even Rodgers misses throws. It's like folks don't watch other college games and see blown throws happen all day. Upsets happen, it's not always some grand signal or indictment on a coach or program. The other team is trying to win as well. Can point to probably six different plays late in that game that if they go our way, we escape and move on. Pretty much everyone but Bama has been stung by a crappy team they shouldn't lose to. These Clemson super teams of the last few years lost to Pitt in Clemson as 28 pt faves. They also lost at Syracuse as 24 pt faves. Someone else listed the OSU ones. It happens. I remember the USC dynasty lost to Oregon ST as huge favorites a few times, I think once as a 35 pt fave on a Thursday night. Also lost to Washington who was awful back then. Ceiling/expectations: Prior to season I was skeptical due to last year. Going into this ILL game and with how the D had looked. I expected a loss to OSU and to win the rest. Leading to a rematch vs OSU or PSU in the title game. Likely a loss to OSU but who knows, if you pull out the 33% chance upset you're in the Playoff. If you lose, you're likely in the RB. Then win the RB vs a likely beatable Oregon or Was team.

I go 3-4 times a year so here would be my recommendations. Could be a help to know where you're staying as well. 1) I'd say if you want to hang out and have a good time I'd make your bets then go to sportsbar not in the sportsbook to watch the game, get food/drinks mix it up with people, etc. But, there is now places incorporating the two together. My personal favorite is Lagasses Stadium in the Venetian/Palazzo lower level. Keep in mind it'll probably have a minimum spend for your seat, but it won't be a hard minimum to hit as long as you're eating and drinking. They opened a similar place at the Linq as well but I've yet to do it, I'd guess the Linq one is much cheaper. Beer Park at Paris as well is like this with a betting area in it, and I've never seen a minimum spend there. If you just sit in a chair at normal sportsbook frankly it's kinda boring imo. I prefer a bit more atmosphere. Also, I'm assuming you're talking about this weekend's UW game. That will be at 9AM Vegas time. So the minimums probably won't be as bad at Lagesses, and I know they do breakfast there. But you might want to make sure they're going to be open by the 9AM games. I know they have for Bowl games and had breakfast, regular season I'd double check. There might not even be minimums that early in the morning since very few people will be there. 2) As long as you're ok with it being dirty I'd say Absinthe at Caesars is the prime show. I've been to most Cirque shows and my favorite was Ka at MGM.

I think this is very incorrect. Franklin is a better recruiter and PR guy than Chryst, but I don’t believe for a second that he’s a better coach. Chryst struggles to communicate, he doesn’t struggle to coach football at a high level. While I don't think it's a huge gap if I was an AD hiring a new football head coach and I had my pick of the two it would be Franklin. Circumstances matter though. Are you hiring Franklin to coach in our location with our recruiting limitations? A guy like him who is a tremendous recruiter loses his biggest advantage if he gets put in WI, Iowa or NW type spot. If I'm say Florida or an SEC team, yea Franklin all day down there. Heck, I guess most teams yea I'd go Franklin, so I generally agree. But in WI situation where you have to develop and do what they're doing here, PC is probably the better coach and fit. Or say you could dump PC today and bring Franklin in, I wouldn't do it because 4-5 years from now he's going to leave for a bigger job with more money and we're left with the turmoil that comes after. Franklin is also from Penn, he's the perfect fit there much like Chryst is here. All that said, I fully agree PC needs to figure out how after 5 years the O isn't humming yet.