2025 Badger Football Thread

In the middle of the mess last Saturday the Badgers got a commitment from 2026 3-star CB Donovan Dunmore. The 6'0" - 185# CB from California was previously comitted to Oregon State. Goes to show that kids commit for a variety of reasons other than success on the field in the moment. We'll see if he stays committed with everything swirling around the program right now and likely what's to come in the next 8-10 weeks.
 
57packer said:
In the middle of the mess last Saturday the Badgers got a commitment from 2026 3-star CB Donovan Dunmore. The 6'0" - 185# CB from California was previously comitted to Oregon State. Goes to show that kids commit for a variety of reasons other than success on the field in the moment. We'll see if he stays committed with everything swirling around the program right now and likely what's to come in the next 8-10 weeks.
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Oregon State in the new PAC is pretty much a mid major conference now. Playing at WI he can probably play right away get some attention on him from more schools to try to get paid more.
 
Wisconsin is the least funded football program in the Big Ten from an increase in football spend perspective from 2005 to 2024 reporting cycles. The lack of care to have a well funded football program has come back to haunt the university. You can go all the way back to when Bret Bielema was the head coach at Wisconsin and there were problems of under funding - coaches would leave because they would get paid more elsewhere, and Bret left because he couldn't keep coaches. Fast forward to today and you have Wisconsin as a bottom tier football program in the Big Ten. If that hurts your feelings reading it and want to lash out in a comment about it, feel free to do so but the anger should be towards the leadership at the university for allowing this to happen. In today's world of college football, a football program that is not well funded is not going to win many games.

 
SMH just wonder does UW not have big pocket donors or do they have big pocket donors but just don't give a crap about the schools sports system. Either way UW needs to find a way to improve donations to NIL and other sports programs. But do donors figure we never will contend so why donate? Which if that's the case we need to ask them is it because admissions is to tough to get players or do they feel that no matter how much money comes into UW that top players will never see WI as a desirable location to play at.
 
Sorry Barry fans have a right to be pissed off. This is not your world of football were you sit guys for 2-3 years let them develop. In the world of the NIL were the players can leave after each year they preform now because there is not time to let them develop.

www.cbssports.com

Barry Alvarez slams 'spoiled rotten' Wisconsin fans after 'Fire Fickell' chants: 'That really upsets me'

The legendary coach came to the defense of Luke Fickell and the Badgers following fan unrest in Saturday's loss
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
Mark87 said:
Wisconsin is the least funded football program in the Big Ten from an increase in football spend perspective from 2005 to 2024 reporting cycles. The lack of care to have a well funded football program has come back to haunt the university. You can go all the way back to when Bret Bielema was the head coach at Wisconsin and there were problems of under funding - coaches would leave because they would get paid more elsewhere, and Bret left because he couldn't keep coaches. Fast forward to today and you have Wisconsin as a bottom tier football program in the Big Ten. If that hurts your feelings reading it and want to lash out in a comment about it, feel free to do so but the anger should be towards the leadership at the university for allowing this to happen. In today's world of college football, a football program that is not well funded is not going to win many games.

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I understand the concept. And, it might be true and an evaluator. However, I don't think it's a valid evaluator. How much is WI spending? And, there's a high probability that WI is on the lower end of football funding in the Big Ten.

But, what's included? WI just added on to Camp Randall. I believe WI just built or remodeled the football player's facility. That cost Millions.

But what are the teams spending annually?

$10.00 2005 Dollars with a 498.2% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

$24.23 2005 Dollars with a 205.65% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

$39.59 2005 Dollars with a 125.89% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

It's widely known that WI would not pay assistant coaches - I think until Leonhard - and that's at least one reason Bilemna left. But I believe that situation has changed.

I think the problem goes more to Paul Chryst letting his recruiting guy go to Michigan State or not fighting to keep him and generally not giving a rats ass about recruiting for several years. And, even with Coach Fickell's team that situation does not appear to have improved. WI doesn't seem to be able to land Big Talent. As Mark's pointed out we're often getting D2, D3, or lower players hoping they were underprospected and that they can step up. It doesn't seem to be working.

I do believe it might be harder at WI. But, I believe it can be done.

I think a problem Coach Fickell is having is that he brought in the Dairy Raid, but then - and only through rumors, innuendos, and my interpretation of between the lines interviews and articles - never let it Raid. The players Coach Fickell inherited were not Air Raid, Dairy Raid, or any Raid players. Then WI started recruiting players to play that style, but abruptly switched last year. Now WI is again in a situation with players better suited for a different system than what it is trying to play - at least on offense. So, this is on him.

I do believe you can win while coping with higher academic standards. Our guys don't appear that smart on the field anyway. Smart people do play sports at a high level. You have to work harder to recruit them. I'm not impressed with our recruiting.

NIL? Does the increase include NIL? I doubt it. I think NIL funding is huge. The schools that find a way to create NIL opportunities will get better players. We all gripe about WI, but are guys outside of MI, OSU, PSU, USC, OR really getting that much more. I think this is more to talent evaluation, and I don't think WI is doing a good job at that.

There's going to be a lot coming out about how WI got in this football situation.

The percent increase in football spending could be an accurate data point. I personally would be more concerned with how much was actually spent on the program.

I believe NIL funding which I don't even know if it's team or school wise reported is more important.

I think talent evaluation and recruiting is a huge deficit.

And, I think switching philosophies AGAIN will take another year or two to adjust.

But, still how come we can't find 5 guys that at least get in the way on the offensive line?
 
Keg Man said:
I understand the concept. And, it might be true and an evaluator. However, I don't think it's a valid evaluator. How much is WI spending? And, there's a high probability that WI is on the lower end of football funding in the Big Ten.

But, what's included? WI just added on to Camp Randall. I believe WI just built or remodeled the football player's facility. That cost Millions.

But what are the teams spending annually?

$10.00 2005 Dollars with a 498.2% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

$24.23 2005 Dollars with a 205.65% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

$39.59 2005 Dollars with a 125.89% increase = $49.84 2024 Dollars

It's widely known that WI would not pay assistant coaches - I think until Leonhard - and that's at least one reason Bilemna left. But I believe that situation has changed.

I think the problem goes more to Paul Chryst letting his recruiting guy go to Michigan State or not fighting to keep him and generally not giving a rats ass about recruiting for several years. And, even with Coach Fickell's team that situation does not appear to have improved. WI doesn't seem to be able to land Big Talent. As Mark's pointed out we're often getting D2, D3, or lower players hoping they were underprospected and that they can step up. It doesn't seem to be working.

I do believe it might be harder at WI. But, I believe it can be done.

I think a problem Coach Fickell is having is that he brought in the Dairy Raid, but then - and only through rumors, innuendos, and my interpretation of between the lines interviews and articles - never let it Raid. The players Coach Fickell inherited were not Air Raid, Dairy Raid, or any Raid players. Then WI started recruiting players to play that style, but abruptly switched last year. Now WI is again in a situation with players better suited for a different system than what it is trying to play - at least on offense. So, this is on him.

I do believe you can win while coping with higher academic standards. Our guys don't appear that smart on the field anyway. Smart people do play sports at a high level. You have to work harder to recruit them. I'm not impressed with our recruiting.

NIL? Does the increase include NIL? I doubt it. I think NIL funding is huge. The schools that find a way to create NIL opportunities will get better players. We all gripe about WI, but are guys outside of MI, OSU, PSU, USC, OR really getting that much more. I think this is more to talent evaluation, and I don't think WI is doing a good job at that.

There's going to be a lot coming out about how WI got in this football situation.

The percent increase in football spending could be an accurate data point. I personally would be more concerned with how much was actually spent on the program.

I believe NIL funding which I don't even know if it's team or school wise reported is more important.

I think talent evaluation and recruiting is a huge deficit.

And, I think switching philosophies AGAIN will take another year or two to adjust.

But, still how come we can't find 5 guys that at least get in the way on the offensive line?
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A lot of good points but Nick Saben just tackled it..... College FB is a business now. You push funds to staff it correctly to succeed. I think those numbers are a huge factor in our lack of success.

The "Dairy raid" stuff you're reading, Keg, is pure bullcrap... If that's true, how is Indiana running an offense even harder to switch than the 'RAID' and kicking people's ass? It doesn't pass the sniff test. What IS true is PC left the cupboards bare and was burned out...

I still contend we go hire Jeff Monken with his Army style game and staff ... roll with less is more. We might not win a national championship but you's have 6-8 win seasons and bowl all the time.
 
Mark87 said:
A lot of good points but Nick Saben just tackled it..... College FB is a business now. You push funds to staff it correctly to succeed. I think those numbers are a huge factor in our lack of success.

The "Dairy raid" stuff you're reading, Keg, is pure bullcrap... If that's true, how is Indiana running an offense even harder to switch than the 'RAID' and kicking people's ass? It doesn't pass the sniff test. What IS true is PC left the cupboards bare and was burned out...

I still contend we go hire Jeff Monken with his Army style game and staff ... roll with less is more. We might not win a national championship but you's have 6-8 win seasons and bowl all the time.
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So, I don't think we're really that far apart.

College Football always has been a business. It was more secretive, now it's out in the open. I'm just not ready to agree with the guy that says spending increases is the key. I'd like to know how much we're spending.

I still think I'm right about the Dairy Raid. We completely changed who we recruit to try and run that offense. UNLIKE, IN, we evaluated talent poorly, never got the horses in, tried to run it with our pre-Dairy Raid guys, and it failed. I also think a reason it failed is that we didn't commit to it. We needed to commit to it. From reading articles and listening to interviews, I infer that we never really just let it go - especially after a starting quarterback went down, which has been every year. I don't know that it would have worked. I do believe we started recruiting players for it and tried to implement it, to not run it seems odd. Now, when we have more Dairy Raid style players than traditional WI style players, to switch back seems more odd. We're starting over. Maybe, there were discussions that we're not privy to that forced / allowed Coach Fickell to go back to a more traditional WI offense but required giving him time and maybe that's why he got the extension. Right now that seems to be the only logical reason he got an extension.

IN? Currently, IN is spending its money wiser than WI. They seem to be hitting on all their recruits while we don't seem to be hitting on any of ours. Although what little I've seen of Edwards, I think he would be doing much better and maybe so would WI. Can he medically redshirt and comeback? Do we want him to? Will him coming back cause us to lose our young guns Carter Smith Ryan Hopkins?

I agree that Paul Chryst left the cubbards bare. Either, he couldn't afford to keep the recruiting guy we had that went to MSU or he just didn't recognize the importance. Eitherway, it emptied WI's football talent wallet, and WI is almost starting from scratch.

I'm not ready to scrap it and completely submit with a Army or Recent Past Georgia Tech offense. Right or wrong, I don't know how we move on from Coach Fick at this time. I think we have to hope that he has a plan, is implementing it, and can bring us back. I see hope in the Defense Front 7. This year may be over, but if he can somehow get us to a Bowl Game next year??!

But, beyond talent. How are these guys not just coming out of the gates on fire. Never. They start slower than molasses. I don't get it. It would be so much fun to play major college football. I remember playing rugby and the higher level I played the more I got excited, enjoyed it, and took it out on opponents. I just don't get how they come out so damn flat.
 
Keg Man said:
Right or wrong, I don't know how we move on from Coach Fick at this time.
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our best bet is if he does something really heinous and we can terminate his contract for cause so we don't have to pay him. that's not going to happen. besides, knowing how badly this contract was written, he could probably murder a cheerleader in the middle of a game and we'd still have to pay him.
 
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