But, you know, if you have a mobile quarterback

who's going to fearlessly extend plays with his feet, you have this real risk of being dinged up.

And is that an excuse for the things that haven't necessarily gone right for Colton Joseph? I don't think so.

You look at it, and I was looking earlier in the week at his numbers, his pro football focus numbers.

And the concerning part to me was, you know, the passes that should be the highest percentage passes for him to make, whether it's, you know, to a target behind the line of scrimmage, whether it's somebody within 10 yards, within 20 yards, those numbers, particularly the 10 to 19 yard, you know, stretch are really not good for him.

And if he's not, you know, making those makeable plays, um, Life gets a lot harder for him in terms of, for really this whole offense.

You know, defenses can key up more on the running game, which obviously showed since birth.

So explain what's going on with them.

Uh, obviously this will come down to how effective it is, but is it just, you know, do- is it gonna be more of a running game? Do we, do we overestimate how much Colton Joseph will be involved? Is it really just about getting, you know, getting the run blocking going and getting some of these running backs, namely Sama and, and Darian Dupree some opportunities?

I think it really is crucial.

You think about how Jeff Grimes wants to run an offense, and it's a lot easier if you have an effective ground game, you know, ground game with your running backs.

Obviously, Colton Joseph has the ability, um, to extend plays with his feet, to run himself, but, you know, you look at it and I think it, you know, you probably can't understate the importance of that.

And you look at, you know, I think Jeff Grimes mentioning back at beginning of fall camp about how important it is to, you know, that the team that usually has more rushing yards, you know, he was mentioning the numbers just off the top of his head, if I'm remembering correctly, but, you know, those teams generally have the advantage in the Big 10.

Um, and yes, this is a non-conference game, but, you know, if this running attack can get going, if they can be a legitimate threat, that's really gonna set up Colton Joseph for success, and it's not gonna put quite so much pressure on Colton Joseph.

If you're expecting Colton Joseph to be able to do everything, that, it gets tougher.

[laughs]

Like, like give me a sense of the running back situation.

Yeah, you know, injuries notwithstanding, I think there's probably a lot of guys who could be potential actors at that position.

Now, the key variable there is the, the offensive line health.

Obviously, the offensive line has not been at full strength the last couple weeks in fall camp, but, you know, I think there's a lot of potential.

Um, you look at a guy like Abu Sama and he was somebody that kind of caught my eye when Wisconsin got him, you know, back in the winter transfer portal.

Um, somebody that obviously has shown a lot of potential throughout his Iowa State career, and we saw, you know, in the spring and in the fall, kind of what he can do.

Um, so I think he's an exciting running back in terms of, you know, I think when you look at, you know, Wisconsin wants to have their bell cow running back and, and he's somebody that can do all the different things to be, to be a bell cow running back.

But John, what are, what are, do you have any lingering thoughts here on the offensive line and what you've seen and, and how prepared you think they're gonna be? This was definitely one of the weak points for the Badgers last year.