In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Badger Football has come to a fizzling end, as they fell to the Gophers Friday. By the end of the game, only Gopher fans were still in Camp Randall in another dreary performance by the Badgers. After 22 years, the Badgers won’t be going to a bowl game this year. So what comes next?

Luke Fickell isn’t going anywhere, and after two years, he still can’t figure out what makes Wisconsin work. He was a good hire and had an impressive resume, and certainly promised the heavens, but it just isn’t panning out two years later. Maybe it’s coming from the athletic director, or maybe it’s his own desire to shake things up, but it doesn’t matter because it just isn’t working. 

What is the Badgers offense? What is the Badgers defense? Like Lucas and Oates have been saying all season, the entire team has no identity. Fickell’s portal picks didn’t work out, and the defense can’t seem to manufacture any pass rush. Maybe they’ll have more of an identity next season, but that’s two years too late. But what will the Badgers look like next year? We’ll get the first inkling when Fickell hires an offensive coordinator, and we’ll learn even more when we see what quarterbacks are on the practice field this spring. Either way, they’ll need to spend a lot of money in the portal if they want to be competitive next year. Just look at the offensive line, which will have four brand new guys on it next season. 

Moving to the Packers, two big names are being named as finalists in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Mike Holmgren and Sterling Sharpe. Holmgren is a given, at least eventually, but Sharpe is more of a maybe. Oates thinks it’s a no brainer, a dog and a gamer who rarely missed a game. Lucas can’t disagree. 

The Packers will head to Detroit this Thursday to take on the Lions, and it’ll be closer than people might think. The Lions are beat up, and last time they played, Love was not yet healthy. Since the bye week though, Love has been playing at a higher level. They stand a good chance, as long as their defense can hold up. 

Finally, the Badger Men’s Basketball team is taking on Marquette this Saturday in what will be a great game. Oates thinks back to some of his favorite Badgers-Marquette memories, and Lucas has to say, Wisconsin should be thankful that it has two elite college basketball teams. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it’s Axe Week in Madison as the Badgers prepare to take on the Minnesota Gophers on Black Friday. But this week, Luke Fickell did not have to defend (or not defend) any axings after the Badger’s big loss against Nebraska this weekend. Maybe he should have had to defend an axing after that performance. Lucas and Oates are at a loss for words at just what happened against the Cornhuskers, in what might be a new low for the team this year. 

Oates has one word for what happened: Effort. How is it that the Badgers can hold Oregon one week and lose to Nebraska the next? A lack of effort. Yes, the defense fell apart and couldn’t stop missing tackles, but that wasn’t the only problem. The issues spanned across the entire team, which means that it all has to trickle up to one person: the head coach Luke Fickell. It’s not like he was making smart calls either, he made some terrible choices. One of which even caused a fumble with only a few seconds left in the half, leading to Nebraska to score a field goal going into halftime. 

While Lucas and Oates disagree on a few nitpicky choices, they don’t disagree on one thing: it was a terrible game. Not that all the players played terribly, Braedyn Locke played his best game all season, Vinny Anthony played great, and Christian Alliegro played with real effort. But when you have great players and a terrible loss, it’s hard to know how to move forward. Maybe a new player in Carter Smith, a gift from Michigan who decided to buy a new quarterback thanks to a billionaire backer, will help them out. 

Smith won’t be able to  help this Friday against the Gophers though, in what is a must win game for the Badgers. Yes, they might be able to get into a bowl game even with a loss, but it won’t feel good and is no way to send out the seniors. 

Moving to a good Badger team, the men’s basketball team is undefeated as of Tuesday night with a 7-0 record. Who expected them to play this well this early in the season? Yes, the schedule has helped them a bit, but it’s still an impressive achievement thanks to an impressive team. John Tonje is playing great, in a way that is hard to even compare to past great Badgers. But there are multiple guys on the team who can pose a real threat at any time. Max Klesmit, meanwhile, is showing himself as a real leader for the team, and if that is what’s driving their success, he can keep being such a leader.

Finally, the Packers take on the Dolphins on Thanksgiving for a night game in Green Bay. What do you call a frozen dolphin? Tua Tagovailoa. Oates says the strategy is easy: hit them hard and hit them early. That way, the Dolphins will want to just go home and get out of the cold. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates aren’t talking about the Badger Football Team’s formidable fight against Oregon, or the Badgers Men’s Basketball Team’s big upset win, or even the Packers questionable win against the Bears. Okay, maybe they talk about those big moments a little bit, but that’s not their focus. No, something more concerning is at hand, and his name is Luke Fickell. 

Fickell fired Offensive Coordinator Phil Longo after the Badgers loss to the Ducks. Not the most surprising moves after the season they’ve been having. But the problem comes from how Fickell has decided to handle the situation. When asked at a media conference about why Fickell fired his prized hire, the one who was supposed to turn the team around, he seemed surprised and annoyed that someone would dare ask for an explanation. This isn’t Ohio State, Oates says, you need to explain yourself at least a little bit when you make a big mid-season move like this. 

Longo is a good coach, though maybe not a good coach for the Badgers. But Fickell is the one who hired the guy, and gave him big bucks to run his air raid offense. So why hire him, or why fire him! We can’t answer these questions, because all Fickell would do when asked about this, or maybe about who will be calling the plays the rest of the season. Instead, Fickell called play calling a bit overrated. But even if playcalling is overrated, we’ve been asking all season what the offense's identity is. Without an offensive coordinator they won’t have any identity and a lot of the players they’ve brought on have got to be questioning what direction they’re going to take going forward. 

Firing Longo is one thing, but what rubs both Lucas and Oates the wrong way is the arrogance that Fickell had when someone dared question that move. Lucas postures that he has to be feeling the heat. If things don’t turn around soon, the Badgers won’t get a bowl game this year for the first time in decades. If that happens after the hype that he raised last year, he has to be sweating. We would be. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, there’s a big, exciting weekend ahead for fans of Badgers sports. Starting on Friday night, the men’s basketball team will be taking on Arizona at the Kohl’s Center in what will likely be a great game for fans. Not only will it be Bo Ryan night, with the raising of a banner in his name with a few of his final four players in attendance (well, those not in Europe). Arizona is the first big non conference team the Badgers are facing this season, and will prove to be an exciting game for the team to test their real talent. The Badgers are looking good so far this season, but Oates wants to see a little aggression Friday night to see them really compete with Arizona. 

Then on Saturday night, the Badger football team takes on the number 1 Oregon Ducks. After a bye week and a terrible loss to Iowa the week before, the Badgers are going to need to really show their stuff if they want to even come close to competing with the Ducks. They are number 1 for a reason, with one of the best offensive lines in the nation, and a quarterback who can move, and thus dominate, to boot. They’ll have to stay physical, like Lucas and Oates have been calling on them to all season. But they’ll be playing without advisor Jack Del Rio, who resigned Monday after an OWI last weekend. The correct call, Lucas and Oates agree.

Then on Sunday, the Packers take on the Bears in Chicago after having a bye week. But that isn’t the story we’re focusing on, we’re focusing on how much longer Matt Eberflus has a job as the Bears head coach. They fired Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron on Tuesday, after continuing the Bears tradition of not knowing what to do about their quarterback. Caleb Williams made waves when he was drafted, but since then what has he done? It’s been nearly 75 years since the Bears have had a truly great quarterback, and with Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Patriots, Eberflus has to be counting his days. As for the Packers, hopefully the bye week was productive for the team, and especially Love. Hopefully Love was not only able to heal up physically, but able to take a look at all of the interceptions he’s thrown this season, and figure out how to avoid them going forward with the season. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Jordan Love is beginning to show a pattern for the season so far: big game making mistakes. This time while taking on the Lions in Green Bay, a pick 6 at the end of the first half, putting a dour mood over the rest of the game. Yes, Detroit played very well, and yes the weather was terrible, but that’s not an excuse. The Packers outdrove the Lions significantly, and on paper should have at least been competitive. Love needs to start learning from his mistakes, Oates says, and the fact that he keeps making these same mistakes over and over again is concerning. 

The blame can’t just lay on Love though, the game was filled with mistakes all over, with dropped passes and missed field goals. That’s not to mention the lack of discipline the team is showing, with 30 pre-snap penalties so far this season. Discipline needs to be the focus and emphasis going forward, Oates says, because these penalties cannot keep happening. 

The Lions, meanwhile, continued to show that they’re a, if not the, top team in the whole NFL. They have one of the best offensive lines around, and this was a weak game for Goff! That is to say, this shouldn’t be seen as a bad loss by the Packers, just a frustrating one. 

Speaking of frustration and disappointment, the Badgers fell hard to Iowa last weekend. It’s one thing to lose to Penn State, Oates thinks, but it’s another to lose to Iowa. In theory, they should be on par with the Badgers, not a team to blow them out. But the Badgers have forfeited any identity they have. It looked for a while like they might have some physicality, but they showed this weekend that they don’t. They can’t stop a run, and Brayden Locke keeps making mistakes, a pattern in Wisconsin quarterbacks these days. Lucas has to ask, what are the Badgers good at these days? 

Finally, the Bucks continue to lose, though by tighter margins against the undefeated Cavs. The team is just too old, Lucas thinks. When Giannes and Damian Lillard are throwing up 75 points in one game and still lose, there’s a big issue. While there has been media chatter about Giannes leaving, just looking at their record, it’s just too early to make any big statements about the team this year, though the playoffs already look like a far reach this season. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, laryngitis can’t keep Lucas down as he and Oates take a look at the highly anticipated matchup between the Packers and the Lions this Sunday. It’s a shame that both teams are facing some big injuries, but even with the Lions’ dominant victory this weekend, Oates says the Packers still have a chance. The Packers are a good team, even if they still need to pull everything together. But the Lions are a major threat, with one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Add in Jarod Goff, who has had a real career turn around since joining the Lions, and their record starts to make sense. Still, Oates thinks the Packers have a chance this weekend even if Malik Willis is on the field.

Why could Willis be on the field? Jordan Love saw a groin injury on Sunday, but thankfully it doesn’t seem to be too serious and he’s still a hard maybe for Sunday. But while nobody is saying Love is injury-prone, his MLC sprain may be coming back to haunt him throughout the season. If he does sit out this weekend, it may be for the best as the Packers have a bye week after taking on the Lions. 

Meanwhile in Camp Randall, the Badgers fell to Penn State on Saturday, and are set to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend. The Badgers need to up their passing attack, says Oates. Braedyn Locke is good when he’s protected, but he needs work when he is under pressure. Locke needs to start learning from his mistakes and upping his passing game if the Badgers want to be competitive against these bigger teams. 

Finishing things off, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team makes their season opener on Wednesday night against River Falls. They’ll take on some smaller teams before taking on Arizona on November 15. That night, they’ll be raising the Bo Ryan banner, an honor he 100% deserves. But looking at the team this year, while nobody’s seen them play a game quite yet, Oates has seen a few practices and says not to count them out this season. The Big 10 doesn’t have a ton of great players this season, and the Badgers have a few guys who could turn out to be real breakout players.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Tony Bennett has announced that he is retiring as head coach of the University of Virginia basketball team. His reasons? The same complaints that Lucas and Oates have been making: NIL is changing the game, and not in a good way. Or as he put it in a press conference last week, he’s become a square peg for a circle hole. Most college coaches, in both football and basketball, are getting frustrated by the entire system, and Bennett seems to be no exception. The frustration is especially clear when you look at the millions of guaranteed money he is walking away from. 

NIL is hurting all of college sports, says Lucas and Oates. The system is squeezing out the developmental programs, like in Virginia and in Wisconsin, because it’s hard to build up players over four years if another school can throw millions at them at any time. And with schools putting their focus on NIL, that leaves the sports that aren’t football and basketball fending for themselves. Don’t believe Lucas and Oates? Where are the Badgers Track and Field Team practicing this winter? Those sports are also important, if maybe not as popular, but they are going to be left to the wayside to prop up an industry that’s getting as much money as both the NFL and the NBA.

The show isn’t just doom and gloom. The Badgers football team has a big game this weekend as they take on the big Penn State. The Badgers are on a three game winning streak at the moment. Are those wins against objectively terrible teams? Yes. But, they’ve dominated each of those three teams, as they should do if they want to be taken seriously. But this weekend will be the real test for the Badgers, and they will need to truly turn a corner if they want to continue to be taken seriously. Either way, Oates thinks it’ll be a great game as the Nittany Lions play under the Camp Randall lights.

The Packers had another good showing this weekend as well, taking down the Texans thanks to a fieldgoal from the team’s newest kicker: Brandon McManus. But while everyone’s eyes were on one kicker this weekend, another took home the game ball, as punter Daniel Whelan consistently flipped the field. It was a game ball well deserved. The final question as they go against the disappointing Jaguars this weekend is: will Jaire Alexander ever shut up?? 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Bo Ryan is added to another hall of fame in the Naismith Hall of Fame, to a very warm audience. He even gave a great speech, says Lucas! At least for Bo Ryan it was a great speech. He was gracious, he was humble, he was even emotional at times. But that makes Lucas ask the question: who was Bo Ryan the coach?

Oates says that Bo Ryan, to him, means consistency. When he had the star players, his teams were great. But even when he didn’t have the stars? He still had a really good team on his hands. Bo’s players play to his vision of basketball, and that’s what makes him such a great coach. Even when he was coaching in Platteville, he was great at developing players and could win a conference title in just a few years. Even just sticking with the Badgers, taking a team to the Final Four twice in a row is unbelievable, says Oates, and his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame is well deserved. 

Meanwhile in the NFL, the Packers beat the Cardinals in Green Bay on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean that Lucas was super impressed. Still, the Packers and Jordan Love are starting to find their rhythm. Their defense is getting better and better, especially when it comes to takeaways. Oates thinks that Sunday was Love’s best game this season, and he’s hitting ten targets in a game. It’s great that Doubs is getting back in the mix, and Watson is proving to be a bit of a difference maker, but the receiving threats are everywhere and the Packers are starting to look like they did at the end of last season. Next up, the Packers take on Houston in what should be a fun game. They’re two young teams with young quarterbacks, and it should be a good game down in Texas. 

Finishing things off for the day, the Badgers stomped once again, easily taking down Rutgers. Did they take down another crappy team? Sure, but the team is continuing to improve. Most importantly, they looked physical against Rutgers, which is what we’ve been wanting to see out of them all season. Next weekend they take on Northwestern on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. The problem? The field is a converted la crosse and soccer field, thanks to Northwestern tearing down their old Ryan Field. While that’s ultimately a good thing to see that dinosaur go away, it will present an interesting challenge for the Badgers. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Brewers deliver their yearly postseason gut punch with a last minute loss to the Mets. There was a lot of chatter about Devin Williams and Pat Murphy’s choice to use Williams as a closer, but what was he supposed to do? Williams might not have had it in him in game 3 against the Mets, but if you’ll forgive the cliche, that’s baseball. He’s still a fantastic closer, and putting him in was really the only call. Is it devastating that he couldn’t pull through? Yes, but sometimes, that’s what happens. Williams doesn’t seem long for the Brewers, not because of the loss but because he’s only a year away from free agency and looks likely to go to the Dodgers sometime soon. For now, we can only look ahead to next season, where Lucas has two questions: will Yelich be ready to go next spring and what is Chourio’s ceiling (high, says Oates). 

Turning to the NFL, the big news on Tuesday is the firing of Robert Saleh as head coach of the Jets. Did Rodgers have anything to do with it? We in Wisconsin certainly know that he isn’t exactly easy to work with, and he does have pull. But who knows, Rodgers likely didn’t have too much to do with it, though he probably didn’t help Saleh at all. 

Turning to the Packers, they defeated the Rams on Sunday without the help of Romeo Doubs. He was sitting at home after facing suspension by the team last week for an unmentioned reason, though the rumors are he walked off practice after causing a fracas over a lack of targets. If that is the reason, then Oates says he acted selfishly, putting himself over the team. That said, he seems to have come around and is expected to play the Cardinals this weekend.

Back to the Rams though, there was some good and some bad. The good came from Tucker Kraft, who is checking all the boxes for a great tight end. The bad came from Love’s horrible pick 6 for a touchdown in the endzone. It was a meathead play that gave the Rams a free 7 points, but it might not be all bad. It might have been what Love needed to wake up and get back into the game and learn from his mistake.

Finally, the Badgers finally looked like a great team crushing Purdue on Saturday. It’s about time! The Badgers have played a few teams they should have crushed, and this is the first time they’ve actually done that. They are starting to find some real playmakers, and several players showed the explosive power the Badgers offense needs. Now, this was still Purdue, so don’t get too excited, but still, it shows improvement. Maybe Coldplay can cheer on the team and give them the encouragement they need to keep this power going.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Love had his big comeback on Sunday in a tight loss to the Vikings, and he played about as Lucas and Oates expected. Well, other than the picks at least. He did limp a little bit here and there, but overall he looked like a guy who’s played one game this season and has been out for weeks. Should he have waited another week to come back, and have his big return be against the Rams instead of taking on the red hot Vikings? Should they have had Love play one half of the game and Willis play the other? No, says Oates, at least on the second question. It would only feed into the extremists who say Willis should be our new starter.

The real blow to the Packers on Sunday came from kicker Brayden Narveson. When Narveson misses two field goals and the Pack ends up losing by two, it’s hard not to think that they might have won if he had made even one of those two kicks. The Packers are working two kickers this week, but we won’t know for sure what our kicking is going to look like until Sunday when they take on the Rams in what should be an ego boost. But Oates says that the loss to the Vikings was not just on Narveson or on Love, it was a systematic failure on the part of the entire team. At least Aaron Jones had a good game.  

Turning to the Badgers, the team played one of the best first halves they’ve played this season. Unfortunately, they then played one dreadful second half, leading to a loss against USC. They continue to play as a team with no real identity, causing USA Today to call them one of the biggest losers of the season so far. While Lucas isn’t ready to throw in the towel on the entire season yet, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t flailing. This weekend they take on Purdue, who they have a 17 game winning streak against, so hopefully they can really show who they’re going to be this weekend.  

Finally, Lucas and Oates end the show this week with two obituaries: Joe Wolf, one of the best athletes to come out of a Wisconsin high school, and Pete Rose, a great if problematic, for lack of a better term, ball player.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.