It's a must win, correct? In your eyes this Saturday night?

No, I think they all wake up Sunday either way.

Obviously, there's a lot on the line because Iowa has had Wisconsin's number.

Luke Fickle has yet to beat the Hawkeyes.

And so if they can't win at home against USC and you already lost on the road against UCLA, there is little faith they'll go on the road on Halloween and beat Iowa.

Having said that, they still have the entire month of November.

I guess the question is must-win for what purposes? They're not going to the playoff.

That being said, what the hell happened to the offense at UCLA, man? um it stunk

Did they do something with him, or is he just more comfortable now running the offense?

offense?I'm sure there's a greater level of comfort.

It's one thing to do this at Old Dominion and it's another thing to come into spring ball and be the man and have to develop these relationships, uh, without knowing a single soul.

But I think Jeff Grimes, the offensive coordinator, deserves some credit for how he designed that plan against Michigan State, get him on the run, get him comfortable early.

He really struggled, I think, in the first four games with being effective early in terms of his accuracy and decision-making.

And they go down in the first two series touchdown passes.

Having said that, he still can't put the ball in harm's way.

Tell me a little bit about their backup quarterback since you're not gonna see their best.

Is it just a, the big level of confidence, they believe in themselves again?

again?Proof of concept is something that I keep coming back to because it's not like Wisconsin tried any harder this off-season to be a good football program.

They always put in the work.

But as you said, they show up to these big games, and maybe they're in it for a little bit, and ultimately, a really good team pulls away.

Notre Dame was able to do that and win by four touchdowns in week one.

But I just think to go into Penn State and beat the thirteenth-ranked team in the country, uh, in an environment like that, even if Penn State now is not looking anywhere close to the thirteenth-ranked team since they got housed by Northwestern, that, that doesn't really change my opinion of what that win meant for the program.

And I think that these guys see, well, now we're seeing some success, and we wanna make sure that we maintain that.

Right

But ultimately, that's where the progress of the program started, isn't it?

Well, they've won three of the last five games against top 25 teams.

You mentioned the two in November.

They did lose to Indiana, but hey, everyone in the country lost to Indiana, even though the Hoosiers won the national championship.

And Notre Dame might very well run the table here and win a national title.

I mean, look, Wisconsin fell to a place where not only were they not beating the teams that most people didn't believe the Badgers should beat, but they weren't beating the teams that they had consistently hammered for years.

And so to me, that's where Wisconsin needs to get back to.

Give me your thoughts on Badger basketball as we get ready to start to kind of get into the practice and scrimmage and tip off this season.

That's true

...

he broke a nice run and then, and then went down, and he did not play the previous week.

He was medically cleared, but the staff determined he was a game-time decision, and they wanted to hold him out just to make sure he'd be healthy.

So that has a lot to do with it.

And you mentioned Darian Dupree.

He does deserve a ton of credit.

Right

Defensively speaking, are they better? Are they worse? Are they the same?

Jury's still out here.

I mean, I was a little, I think, disappointed with the ability for Western Illinois to get to the edges, and the quarterback, Kennedy McGill, had a lot of success at his previous stop last year, granted at a different school.

He had 34 total touchdowns, 17 rushing, 17 passing.

But he got 88 yards r- rushing, and it just at times felt like it was coming a little too easily.

And again, defense didn't give up a touchdown, and the last four drives, they were outstanding.

Tommy Heuberger broke up a pass on fourth down for a turnover on downs, and then Western Illinois went punt, punt, punt.

Uh, you know, granted, he wanted to get more physical, and he's trying to do that, and I understand it, but is it a little disconcerting that, uh, they're not quite sure with the Braelon Carrington stuff right now?

Give me your thoughts on the trenches.

Well, Wisconsin's in a tricky spot, or at least we're in a tricky spot in terms of trying to decipher the offensive line because right guard Emerson Mandel and right tackle Kevin Haywood, their availability right now is unknown, at least on the outside, and Luke Fickle didn't provide much clarity when he spoke to reporters on Monday.

But Mandel hadn't practiced with the team since the spring when he went down with a foot injury, and Haywood suffered a lower body injury in the first couple practices.

Now, he was jogging off to the side, wasn't wearing a brace at the end of the open fall camp practices.

I don't know how many days it's going to take for those guys to feel like they're at full strength or whether the staff will look at this and say, we need to go with Stiles Blackman at right guard and Lucas Simmons at right tackle.

I think the problem or the concern that I would have is if, let's say, Kevin Haywood can't go, there's not a lot of tackle depth and the tackles that they are asking to play have not been in that spot before in their college careers.

So we're going to see how well they can hold up as an O-line.

Agreed?

Give me your thoughts on the trenches.

Well, Wisconsin's in a tricky spot, or at least we're in a tricky spot in terms of trying to decipher the offensive line because right guard Emerson Mandel and right tackle Kevin Haywood, their availability right now is unknown, at least on the outside, and Luke Fickle didn't provide much clarity when he spoke to reporters on Monday.

But Mandel hadn't practiced with the team since the spring when he went down with a foot injury, and Haywood suffered a lower body injury in the first couple practices.

Now, he was jogging off to the side, wasn't wearing a brace at the end of the open fall camp practices.

I don't know how many days it's going to take for those guys to feel like they're at full strength or whether the staff will look at this and say, we need to go with Stiles Blackman at right guard and Lucas Simmons at right tackle.

I think the problem or the concern that I would have is if, let's say, Kevin Haywood can't go, there's not a lot of tackle depth.

And the tackles that they are asking to play have not been in that spot before in their college careers.

Agreed?

How much better with a healthy quarterback, new system and everything in place do you think Wisconsin is as opposed to where they were last year?

I mean, my gut reaction is they can't have been much worse offensively than what we saw last year.

You had four quarterbacks play.

You had four running backs play.

Everyone and their mom, it seemed like, was hurt.

I think this defense is once again going to be one of the better defenses.

Now, does that mean top 10? Does that mean top 25? It's hard to say at this stage, but I think that they're gonna be able to help keep Wisconsin in some games.

They, they, they're gonna get it done by committee, correct?

Who's, who's that leader? Who's got that cachet?

Well, it's Colton Joseph because he's the guy they brought in and paid the most amount of money to and made him the starter.

He's handled all the first team reps since he got here.

Uh, I think it's a spot that he's had to grow into.

That's something quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton mentioned in the spring, learning to be a confident leader when all of a sudden you're tasked with being the man at a new school and you don't know anybody.

Uh, so maybe that's a by default type of thing.

When you are the quarterback, you've gotta be a natural leader, but if you're gonna take all the first team reps, then it means you're the guy.

But w- is there anything in particular you go into this and you say, "Okay, this is where I wanna put some of my focus"?

Okay

...

he seems to have a, a greater sense of confidence with the way that he speaks.

We know that we've spent a lot of off-season talking about the increased investment in the roster and a lot of the changes, bringing Brady Ewing in to help with alumni relations, bringing some of the alums back.

The staff has had people come in and talk about the 1998 Rose Bowl team.

They've recruited better inside the state.

All those things are important, and for the, the skeptic, and you're totally right to be a skeptic based on the results so far, you'd say, "Well, what took so long? Why are we in year four where this is all happening?" But, uh, Luke feels good, and all that matters is if you win.

Mm-hmm

So it was just a, a question that was posed to me, and I thought, you know what, I'm gonna ask you because is there that capability of some of these guys? Like, do they have anybody on the offensive front that you would say, "Okay, maybe this guy has an above average year for what we're expecting from him, that this guy could find himself..." Even if it's in a late round, uh, position, do you can see somebody like that finding their way into the, into the league?

Well, part of cha- the challenge in answering this question is a lot of these dudes have multiple years of eligibility remaining and are really starting their journey.

If you look at the projected starting five, the only one who's a senior is Austin Kawecki, who transferred in from Oklahoma State and started 11 games as a center a year ago.

I can look at it and say, well, there are young guys who might project as NFL players in a couple of years.

Kevin Haywood, a projected starting right tackle, looked really good to me this spring, but he's coming off an ACL injury and hasn't played a ton of snaps at Wisconsin.

Emerson Mandel started last year.

He was thrown into a difficult role, and he's gonna be the projected starting right guard, but again, a young guy.

But can Hilton or Brooks or Henry or Rigby or any of these guys, and even the tight end position in Jacob Harris and company, does he have good weapons to throw to if indeed they can get a, a little bit of a run game that takes pressure off the pass game and then suddenly the quarterback is what we expect him to be? Do they have the wide receivers to really kinda compete and get o- open things up downfield?

Uh, what did you take away from all of that?

[chuckles] Well, I think there were three main talking points that reporters wanted to know.

Uh, Shawn did a Zoom on Wednesday afternoon, and certainly this is a hire that makes a lot of sense for Wisconsin, given his ties to the state, the fact that he grew up 44 miles west of Camp Randall, and played at UW-Whitewater for the football program, and has served in the athletics department at both Whitewater and Wisconsin.

But there were, there were questions.

I think what happened during his tenure as the athletic director at Nebraska came up.

Certainly what he feels about the state of the football program and what he's gonna do in terms of NIL and other fundraising efforts, but I thought he handled himself well.

And I know that this isn't necessarily a hire that wows the Badgers fan base, but ultimately I look at it like if you get somebody in who has experience, understands what's at stake here, and can go and get the job done, uh, that's what's gonna matter, and we can judge the hire a few years down the road.

Right

I'm going off to the pros." How big of a statement was that?

It's a heck of a mic drop moment.

Um, and look, if anyone can do it, it's the guy who just won a national title.

And, uh, you know, Grant and I have talked about this on his show, that, uh, he sort of laments the idea that all five guys could be transfer portal players, and you just insert them into the starting lineup.

But it clearly worked for Michigan, and, uh, that's the methodology that I think a lot of teams are looking at, 'cause if every team could do it, they would.

Um, yeah, I guess you could say it's not sustainable, but They-- you also get paid a lot of money in college athletics too as a head coach.

So, uh, not every head coach is gonna get an opportunity to coach an NBA team, but that's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity, and certainly don't begrudge him for taking it.

I mean, is there anything new, anything to grab onto, or are we just sitting back going, "Okay, let's hope and pray"?

So tell me about the edge rusher from Texas Tech they flipped over.

Yeah, Brody Fannin.

I thought Wisconsin might be done with its 2027 recruiting class unless they got five commits the previous weekend.

We're up to 22.

But he had taken an official visit to Wisconsin and If you're committed to another program and still taking the people to the self-court, you're definitely not committed.

Wisconsin liked his ability.

And now they've got four guys that they can put in different linebacker spots when they recruit.

What do you think takes pressure off of Luke Fickle as far as, we'll say, win totals?

Let, let's start with, uh, the new commits because I see that you got, uh, you know, you got the post up, uh, about it, and I was kinda reading a little bit where you've got, uh, what is it, five new football commits that help fill out that, uh, 2027 recruiting class?

Yeah.

I have to say, I know that the program hasn't won as many games as it should, and there are a lot of things that aren't in the place they need to be.

But if you're looking for positives, the thing that this staff has done exceptionally well is be able to bring in high school recruiting talent, and that's a separate discussion from going and winning this season.

Uh, I'm a little surprised they've had as much success as they've had in 2027 when you consider they're coming off consecutive losing seasons.

But there's still a lot to sell here, and Wisconsin now has filled out its 2027 class, as you said, Bill.

They have 22 high school commits.

What changed here that has then drawn his attention back to the State of Wisconsin?

What's the outlook for this upcoming season for Luke Fickle and these Badgers?

It's so interesting in the transfer portal era that we're in, because for as much as I'm talking about last year, it's there's 50 new dudes on a roster.

You can cross the college football landscape and see similar stories.

I'm sure, uh, Illinois under Brett Bielema is dealing with a lot of this as well, but Wisconsin increased its budget through NIL to try and be more competitive.

They feel like they have a more competitive roster.

you combine these transfers and these freshmen that it is almost 50 new players so the outlook is I suppose cautious optimism because that's as good as you can be right now the good news schedule wise Wisconsin has what would be considered to be the easiest schedule among Big Ten teams they avoid all the teams that were in the college football playoff only a handful of them had a winning record and so at least on paper you look at these and say Wisconsin ought to be able to get to a place where it Is six and six, seven and five, eight and four.

We'll see.

What kind of style will they bring to great guards offense and defense?

And I've just kind of been thrown into this thing.

Ah, there's no right way.

There's no wrong way.

But it's been incredibly fun at Badger Connect.

We launched a year ago.

And the elevator pitch that I gave to people who wanted to know what Badger Connect was, was this.

We are going to kick butt at two things.

Like, there's, there's a little bit of maneuver that's gonna have to happen, but it is a little bit crazy.

So you tell me right now on the campus out there at UW.

Yeah, I think so.

Um, you know, this is actually an interesting and intriguing weekend because this is the first weekend of official visit season, which I get is not until 2027 in terms of recruiting classes, so you won't see them this year.

Uh, but yeah, the, the group has come back.

They're gonna be working out.

They've already started this week.

And I certainly think there is a measure of optimism just because, as you said, of the way the schedule lays out.

What else is going on? Uh, uh, now I know you've got some stuff with the hockey coaches, right, that you did for badgerconnect.com.

Where are they, if anywhere, in the search for a new athletic director?

Well, Wisconsin put out a release, uh, about a week or so ago, uh, talking about what the next steps would be.

So they've got a, an eight-person committee.

They've also got an interim chancellor who's gonna be in charge of finding the next AD.

But I thought the most important note is that the plan is to hire an AD this summer, which made the most sense when Chris McIntosh was on his way out, and obviously have Marcus Teddury moving over to the interim role, is make sure you get someone in time for the next school year and those sports programs starting.

So, I'll be interested to see who ultimately Wisconsin gets, but that's the timeline.

So I imagine it's gonna happen here in the next two months or so.

Right.

Do you get the sense that this is that bubble year, like it is a microscope on this thing?

Absolutely.

I think Luke has acknowledged that at various stages, even dating back to last season.

And I know that there was a lot of conversation about Chris McIntosh leaving.

Well, Chris was the guy who backed Luke, certainly from day one, but he's the one last November at that six-game losing streak who said that, luke's going to be back for year four and so it's like oh the safety net is gone well you know what i don't care who's in charge this year if you go five and seven uh you're not going to be back for year five and that to me would have happened even if chris mcintosh has been the ad so i know that luke's used this year as a critical season i still do wonder what record it's going to take for people to feel like this is the right path moving forward eight and four absolutely gets you there seven and five is probably enough because you're coming off two losing seasons, though I still don't think that would be good enough given the financial resources they put in and the schedule.

But anything below that, and I think there's going to be problems.

I should say, by the way, we've been talking about this AD search.

Would you agree?

Do you get the sense that this is that bubble year, like it is a microscope on this thing?

Absolutely.

I think Luke has acknowledged that at various stages, even dating back to last season.

And I know that there was a lot of conversation about Chris McIntosh leaving.

Well, Chris was the guy who backed Luke, certainly from day one, but he's the one last November, mid that six-game losing streak, who said that Luke's gonna be back for year four.

And so it's like, oh, the safety net is gone.

Well, you know what? I don't care who's in charge this year.

What did you take away from spring practice?

Did you take it as some kind of a backhanded slight toward the Wisconsin program?

I think I looked at more of his comments about wanting to have the ball in his hands more.

Right.

That stood out more because two years ago he was the point guard, he was the primary ball handler, and maybe he felt some type of way about Nick Boyd coming in here and handling the ball more and getting a lot of attention.

Ultimately, this comes down to a couple things.

Money, certainly.

I mean, there's no doubt he's commanding a premium on the open market, though Wisconsin certainly would have paid him handsomely as well.

Speaking of that, Nolan Winter coming back and getting that nod, that's not a bad way to go.

Colton Joseph, I would assume, would be a lot better quarterback, and also the run game would be a lot more complementary to all of that if they win up front, because last year they weren't winning up front.

Yeah, I see a picture starting to emerge of who some of these top guys are.

I'm going to start with Kevin Haywood, who is to the right side.

He's the right tackle.

He tore his ACL in spring ball a year ago, so he didn't play last season, even though he was in position to start as a really young guy.

He's, to me, been the most consistent, most dominant player.

offensive lineman that they have.

Tell me about how this team's going to look, or at least what you see so far.

But give me the good and the bad and the ugly when it comes to wide receivers and running backs.

Well, let's start with the running back.

Jay Nevers, who's the new running back, made it pretty clear that there were going to be four guys that competed for time.

And depending on what happened in a given game, could all play.

He was taking the approach of what he considered to be an NFL model, where there would be kind of a one-two combo in a given game.

You have Abu Sama from Iowa State.

You've got Nate Palmer, who transferred in from TCU.

They've got some hefty ones coming in next year, but they don't have anybody that I could say from Wisconsin right now for this year.