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Now, it's time for Make the Call, the Civic Media Sports Production.
Indeed, another weekend is upon us, and it is time for Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Jimmy Cusco, Sports Director here at Civic Media, representing the DRIFTLESS here in Wisconsin.
We also have, of course, the co-conspirators of the program.
First, we go to the Northwoods in Greg Gunderson, a.k.a.
upper management.
What's up, Greg?
Feeling like lower management today, but hey, you have those days, right?
Oh, we are, we are getting prepped for a Packers football weekend.
So I completely understand the fields there.
Let's go now to the capital city and that is Parker vertical Olson Parker.
What's up, man?
Jimmy, I just hear that some YAC football games are going to be getting a little bit of local TV coverage.
And I think I might hear your voice on my TV soon.
Yes, indeed.
That is what I'm doing later today.
If you're listening to this, this Saturday.
So yeah, little TV for me on the side.
Um, we have a few minutes here before we welcome and we have two guests today.
So,
We have to get right into things.
Ken Kazuba of Kaza Sports Corner in southeastern Wisconsin.
We'll talk Rurus.
We'll preview the NLDS with the Padres.
And we'll talk to Jake Kokorowski of Badger Observer and get a separate homecoming week with Michigan State as the Badger's football team taking on the Spartans that game.
If you're listening to this on one of the replays, it's already happened, but it's original airtime.
It is still before kickoff in the pregame show on many of these civic media stations.
But while we have a few minutes to start guys,
We're going to talk a lot more about this on Monday in our Green and Gold recap.
But the Packers this weekend, going in, I think the expectations are pretty low for this.
This week, they called literally everybody, I think, that has any kind of offensive line experience.
And that, of course, includes
Uh, your guy here because the Packers also indeed, uh, gave me a phone call.
If you can see it, it's a little fuzzy, but he did get a call from the Packers this week.
Um, so they're looking for anybody with a big body to go and block for them.
They signed three offensive linemen going into the week here.
Um, I really feel like for the Packers, uh, uh, there's a lot of things that have gone wrong in the first three weeks.
But you know, there's a couple of spots in the schedule.
Maybe they find a way to get it right.
And I'll tell you straight up, I've moved from terror into more of a questioning territory.
You know, you could see my, my upside down Packers flag is now oriented in one of the slightly more correct ways, but we're not totally, uh, totally upright the way that I hope to be next week when we were visit whatever happens this Sunday.
Again, at the time of recording, we don't even
know for sure what the starting lineup is going to be and you can see various reporting right now according to the official team depth chart on the Packers website.
Kevin Zeitler is not even on that list right now but it does look like Lakin Tomlinson and maybe Mackay Bekton have a decent chance to start the question being who's going to be both guards and who's going to be right tackle which is where all the shuffling has been.
It does look like Sean Ryan will stay consistent at center and that Jordan Morgan will hold down that spot at left tackle at least for the time being but the guards were the
underperforming group by far and away the worst of the of the position groups available to talk about there.
And so I wouldn't be surprised if we do even see Kevin Zeitler.
That said, if I'm not mistaken, that's three guards, at least for most of their careers.
So putting one to tackle would be a little bit of an interesting move.
That said, if we see Zeitler start at all, I'm not going to be too surprised.
They talked about how he needs a ramp up period.
But if they say that he's ramped up quickly enough, as he pointed out himself earlier this week, this is the seventh
team he's played for.
And this kind of turnaround on a start would be really fast.
But according to Zeitler himself, he's seen a lot of offenses.
And so there's going to be some familiarity there.
I personally hope we get to see all three of these guys so that I can move from a question mark into a little bit of hope.
But at this point, what happens happens based on that running back is going to be determined off that whether Marshawn Lloyd can get more than three yards of carry is going to hinge largely, not only on how much they use him, but that too, how well that that lineup is doing.
Parker.
What is your feeling?
Just just give me a general temperature.
Is this I mean, I'm glad to see that they're willing to go this far.
I wish they did it sooner.
But what's your take on this?
I wish they did it sooner and I wish that these were guys that we could have been using already.
But I you know what?
I'm going to say this.
I'm thankful that they've got them for this game against the Tampa Bay Book in years coming on this Sunday.
Believe it or not, stop me if you've heard this before, the Packers are favorites in this game.
Easy guys, I know, it's concerning territory to be in, we might lose yet again with a predicted win, but I think this is a good opponent for them to kind of get their feet under them if they do get into this game.
There are some keys for the Packers and we'll talk a lot more of this on Monday.
You can see if this comes home to Rooster Packers are the worst team in the NFL and third down conversion rate.
They have made some absolutely baffling decisions on fourth downs this year.
I am curious to see how the decision making changes because right now that seat is awfully warm for the head coach.
And I am just curious to see how they can turn around and correct all the things that have happened so far.
I imagine a stronger offensive line helps a little bit of that, but boy, it is it is rough right now.
But we have
some more positive things to talk about on the show today.
Coming up next, we're going to dive into the Brewers postseason, best record in baseball.
They're going to be hosting the Padres for the weekend before going on the road later in the week for the best of five series.
We're going to talk with Ken Kazuba of Kazasports Corner next right here on Make The Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Indeed, Make the Call here on a Saturday on the Civic Media Radio Network.
And it is time now to dive into the big topic of the week.
And that, of course, is the Milwaukee Brewers.
After the postseason, they display the San Diego Padres, who
Defeated the Chicago Cubs two games to none in the wild card round.
So it'll be Milwaukee versus San Diego for the weekend a couple of games at relatively normal times before some late night baseball coming up in the middle of the week next week with first pitch times are going to keep me up
way past my kids bedtime.
In fact, I think my kids go to sleep before first bitch next week, guys.
So, um, next week is going to be, uh, be a little fun, uh, trying to figure out how to watch baseball at nine o'clock to midnight at nine.
Regardless, we're here to talk about it.
And we bring up board Ken Kazuba from Kazasports corner to talk about the, all things brewers.
And Ken, I want to start with this, uh,
You know, we talked a month ago and we were talking about kind of the possibilities where the Brewers know what ended up.
They end up winning 103 games, which is pretty incredible.
You know, best season by wins ever.
You know, a lot of expectations not going into the postseason, but it sure seems like they found a way to set themselves up well going into the postseason by getting some rest for some of their most used starters and things like that.
Yeah.
I want to first start off by saying thank you again for having me on
It's a pleasure to be on with you gentlemen, especially now talking brewers like we're going to do.
I mean, these are exciting times down here in southeast from Wisconsin and for the whole state.
But in terms of their win record, it was funny because way back in March, I was on a very popular show that just does nothing but talk brewers after every brewer game.
My prediction was that they would win 99 plus and everybody kind of laughed.
And I said, I don't know what's so funny.
They won 97 last year.
And I predicted that they would win 97 plus and they have the audio tapes on it.
So it's funny because they do play those clips from time to time.
But this Brewer team, in terms of what they're doing all season long, they're just winning series.
And when you win series, you're going to win 100 plus games.
And that's exactly what this team has done.
They have positioned themselves quite well as the number one seed to go ahead and roll through these playoffs.
Although they have a formidable opponent in San Diego, which I was actually quite pleased that they did get San Diego.
I know a lot of people are not.
And there's a few reasons for that.
But even though that San Diego won the season series, the Brewers now had full strength.
are going to be incredibly difficult to beat.
And I don't believe anybody's going to beat them.
I think that they're going to show the baseball world a small market team, which they've won in the past.
But this particular small market team, the way that Murph has them suited and keeps these guys on their toes, they are poised and ready to go and well rested.
You know, Ken, I'm wondering, you mentioned, I agree that the Brewers are going to be tough to beat, but what would you say to those fans who point out that momentum seems to be on the Padre side with them heating up at the right time, as opposed to the steady burn of the Brewers?
Not that I don't believe, but I've had too many good teams of Wisconsin sports, football, baseball, that get taken out by that hot riser.
It seems like momentum isn't real until the other team has it.
What do you think about momentum going into this one?
Momentum's a big deal.
But from that,
standpoint the Brewers had an haven they have not had an opportunity to play just like the other three teams that were waiting on their opponents so their momentum is as I believe is going to carry over from that sweep of their last season series against St.
Louis um a couple with the rest I think that they can quickly and I do believe that the way that they operate it's the old get-ahead stay-ahead in the game and with Miz taking the mound for game one
It's going to be crucial to get those first three batters.
They're top three hitters right away on Saturday night to get that crowd, which is going to be a sellout.
They're going to be jacked up a 730 game.
Are you kidding me?
Tailgating all day in 60 degree weather and bright sunshine.
Holy Moses hang on folks.
It's going to be a wild one down in
Milwaukee.
I was thinking the other day about how the Brewers ended out that season there, getting the most wins that they've ever had.
And I was reflecting back on last year.
Last year was special, obviously, because it was the first year without Bob Uker.
And you could really feel that that was what was carrying the team in a lot of ways.
But this year, you haven't heard hardly anything about that kind of Uker magic like they were talking about the year before.
But there's still something in the air that makes me feel
Honestly, even better about this team.
What's the kind of vibe that you get?
Do you think that this team really believes that they're just going to win it this year because they're that darn good?
Yeah, I actually do.
The Euker Magic thing was very, from that standpoint, unique because he's been the broadcast staple for this organization since way back when, almost its entire time as the Milwaukee Brewers.
He definitely has a big part in what's going on.
I don't know if you've seen where Murph comes in and he goes, I got a letter from Bob Uker to read.
He's done that again this year, which is really quite funny because people actually think that he left these letters when he really didn't.
So this is just Murph ad-living and keeping Bob Uker's memory alive.
But the Confidences team has.
They have a quiet, not cocky, very quiet confidence about them.
And you see it on the field in their play.
The difference from last year to this year, runners in scoring position.
They've been able to move those runners at key times of the game, and they're never out no matter how much they're down.
When they have been down, in fact, their success rate of coming from behind is one of the best in baseball.
So they know that no matter what the starting lineup is, and Murph knows that he's sitting on several players on the bench that can come in and get that hit that they need late in the game,
when the chips are down for the team and that they need to get the lead and in order to win the game.
So they have a confidence about them that is just incredible and you can just see it in the way they walk around in all the games I've been to and been around the team.
It's pretty incredible.
You have to...
Actually get down there and see it and you can see it in the players just the way they talk to each other and how they interact even with the media
talking to Ken Kazuba of Ken's like as a sports corner The Brewers face the Padres and watching the series with the Cubs.
This is a team that has been an absolute tear at the end of the year I know that they're attributing it to Manny Machado dying its hair blonde, but I don't know Big payroll and a lot of star talent on this
team
and they're something like 15 and 3 in their last 18 they are
Absolutely red hot going into the postseason.
What are some challenges for the Brewers in this series?
Well, you know, the Brewers have the exact same record coming into the playoffs.
They were 15 and three as well.
So when you look at that, challenges for the Brewers are going to be very simple.
You stay within yourself.
Okay.
You do what got you 103 wins.
And I truly believe that.
And I always refer back to Murph because he controls that clubhouse and that team respects him like there's no tomorrow as well as that coaching staff.
You stay within yourself.
You don't let the moment get too big, and you continue to move through your daily paces on the field, and they're going to be just fine.
Defense-wise, this team is outstanding.
Pitching-wise, bullpen-wise, they're outstanding.
So in terms of the team and the challenges that they're going to face, it's not letting the Padres get a big lead.
And I think with the pitching staff as a whole,
We're going to minimize that and we're going to keep their chances to a minimum in terms of them scoring and scoring often.
In fact, I looked for the Brewers to be quite honest.
I was on a show not too long ago, earlier this week, I should say, and they were asking, what do you think for this series?
And I said, well, most people wouldn't agree with this, but I truly believe when you said about late night games, you're only going to see one because the Brewers are going to sweep them.
I don't think they're going to mess around.
They're going for the jugular on these guys and they're going for
very rapidly in these games.
You're going to see this team put runs up quickly, and then they're going to let the pitching staff handle it.
And if they need to put a runner two up for insurance late in the game, they're going to get it done.
There is a certain relentlessness to this team that has really been driving the Brewers.
And then it runs through the offense and also runs through that pitching staff, like we kind of talked about.
I think the first two starters are probably
pretty set in stone of Miz and then probably Henderson.
That third spot, though, has been a little bit up in the air with guys like May and Harrison really going through some struggles.
Ken, who are you expecting to take the mound to start off game three?
Well, there's a lot of controversy about even the number two starter, right?
Because of Hall and Murph and it is about how he ended his presser, right?
Where he said, Miz is locked in as the number one.
Henderson is the number two
probably.
This is more the mind game that Murph plays with other teams too.
So, will he be or will he not be?
Well, there's a lot of speculation going on down here with Brewer broadcasting and the powers to be, so to speak.
If I had to guess, is he going to stay with Henderson?
I do believe that.
However, it could be something where he goes with Dustin May in game two.
You want to know why?
Because Dustin May has an outstanding record this year against the Padres.
He had two one hitters, and he's only given up a few runs.
He's got a 3.14 ERA.
So San Diego does not want to see him.
They could not handle him when he pitched against him the three times, once when he was with St.
Louis and twice with Milwaukee.
He is gonna be a formidable pitcher for this pitching staff.
And I don't believe that it is gonna be, to answer your question, I do believe it's gonna be Dustin May.
It'll be Henderson and Dustin May.
But you know, Murph, he's a wildcard guy.
He could throw out Harrison, knowing that he's got May and Gasser.
And look at the guys behind them.
You got D.L.
Hall, you know, you got Ashby.
There's so many guys that are going to get opportunity
to shine in these three series.
And right now, I think Murph says it's one series at a time.
We got to win three of the B2World champs, boys.
And all we got to do is stay within ourselves.
We stay within ourselves.
We're going to beat any team that's out there, and we're going to continue to win series.
Ken, with the management style that Murph has on display these last few years as he's looking at a potential repeat performance again on National League Manager of the Year, is there any scenario where he makes a choice that loses the locker room or is it just no matter what he does, we're behind him, follow him to wherever it goes?
No, I don't think he'll lose the locker room.
In fact, if that was going to happen,
That could have been the couple of times when he pulled starters in games, especially our young shortstop, Cooper Pratt, when he was mad at Pratt when Pratt didn't want to play out.
And he took them right out of the game immediately.
So he sent messages and he did it with Brandon Sprote as well when he pitched early on.
He did the same thing.
He didn't like something that Sprote was doing.
And in fact, it became an issue in terms of pitches that he wanted to throw in.
He didn't want to do
stick to the game plan.
So there were a number of those scenarios this season from a disciplined standpoint that Murph put forth on the team.
And with that being said, this team, if you've seen those post-game interviews, especially the Pratt one, that kid was the most impressive.
He said, hey, I would have pulled me.
He said, it was a mistake.
It'll never happen again.
He said, I let the team down.
He said, and it's just not going to happen.
He said, I wasn't given 100% effort.
And under no uncertain terms that I deserve to be pulled.
If you remember, he did it with Sal Freelick as well.
So he didn't care what you're, what you're, you know, if you're a veteran or a rookie, if there's something that he's seeing that he doesn't like, you're coming out of the game and you're coming out immediately.
So Murph has control of that clubhouse and those boys respect them.
Well, it's not just rookies.
I mean, he did it to contraris too, just like.
like a week ago.
So it's happened to a lot of different people.
Last quick thought before we'll let you go here.
We will reconvene, you know, hopefully after the Brewers have advanced to the next round of the postseason, but
I guess
that's probably a good chance to just kind of get thoughts in the series.
You've already expressed, you think this is going to be a quick one for the Brewers.
So just, you know, looking ahead at this.
As far as the Brewers, you're formal, you're official on record predictions that the Brewers are doing this in three.
Yep, Brewers in three.
If I had any type of apprehension in terms of the team, it's going to be from the captain, Yelich.
And people will say, whoa, what are you talking about?
Well, Yelich needs to really step up his game.
in this playoffs and it's in this whole in this whole run here on their way to the Super Bowl or Super Bowl.
The winning I'm not thinking Packers in terms of winning the World Series only because he's batting 0-91 in the last several years in the playoffs.
So we're going to need if yellow shines and I don't think that you know by yellow it's not necessarily shiny because the bench is so deep that it's going to harm the team.
But I think that was one of the reasons why you saw Murph give him the captain the big C.
He's going to be a key component here in this series and just forgetting his confidence in the playoffs with his bat because he has one job.
He doesn't play defense anymore.
He just has to hit.
So he had a whole season here to hone his skills.
And you could see he was coming out.
He was hitting better and better as the season went along.
He got better and better in August and September.
So his role as a DH is going to be really huge.
But yeah, I do believe that the Brewers are going to sweep them.
I really like the way this team plays on the field, how they carry themselves off the field.
They don't have issues off the field.
They are united.
This is the phenomenal team from the Ivory Tower all the way down.
They are all in lockstep.
Ken Kazuba of Kazusports Corner.
We appreciate your insights on the Brewers and look forward to looking forward to this LLDS series of Brewers Padres, which gets underway for listening to this, when the show originally airs.
It begins today.
On Saturday, they have two games this weekend, then the best of five goes into next week.
Thanks for your time, and we look forward to talking to you again here later in the playoffs.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Go Brewers.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
That again, Ken Kazuba of Kazusports Corner.
We'll be back right after this with more Make the Call on the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Halfway through on Make the Call here on the Civic Media radio network, we are going to jump back into football talk now, and it is the Badger shaking on Michigan State, a game that will be heard not only on our Badger affiliated stations, but
on our Michigan State-affiliated station in the UP on WUPY.
So you have many ways to listen to this game, and you also have many ways to hear both sides of the broadcast via Civic Media and our free Civic Media app at civicmedia.us slash app.
Right now, though, we're going to talk on the Badger side of things and Jake Kokorowski of Badger Observer, badgerobserver.com joining us.
So Wisconsin got
An incredible victory last week, and I think it really changes how we talk about this team, Jake.
This was a huge, absolutely huge win for the Badgers, you know, after losing at Notre Dame to start the year, picking up a couple of wins over directional schools.
Now they get this big signature win this year.
I think the expectations might have gone up a bit for Wisconsin.
It absolutely has.
I mean, it goes back to the Notre Dame, the first half of that Notre Dame game where they're down what 13-10 at the half, and you think, oh, this team
They're competing and we saw even last year against Indiana where they had it close up until halftime and then you know You see it and then the second half was a completely different story against the fight in irish, which who by the way I mean you're looking at you know, we'll see what they do against North Carolina coming up But this is this is a complete it's a complete team and they have something to prove so I think for Wisconsin To take those lessons from a game like Notre Dame and then you go to Penn State in your down 17 nothing come you know different circumstances where you have terrible
you know, terrible throws from Colton Joseph that lead to, you know, 14 points, a 17-nothing deficit, and you see them claw back more and more, and they get over, I mean, you know, they overcame their own adversity, the adversities where the penalties and whatnot, and it comes out with a win like that.
Yeah, it is a program changer.
It is a, in my eyes, yeah, it resets the expectations.
of what Wisconsin football could do this season.
And I think that's going to be, they have to take care of business against a very injured Michigan State program.
I think that's, you know, and you have to take care of them.
I would say take care of them early.
You don't want a team like Michigan State to linger around.
It's coached by Pat Fitzgerald, who had a remarkable career at Northwestern, you know, coaching there and was a pain in Wisconsin side.
I will say, yeah, I mean, this is a team that I felt
would compete more obviously compared to last year's team or even the year before, they'd be able to compete against some of the, you know, like any team that they faced.
And, you know, Penn State felt that way.
I didn't, you know, Penn State looked really good at the beginning of the year, you know, with their first three wins, but that also shows maybe they played a little bit too many cupcakes.
And so now, you know, yeah, they have a chance to win every game the rest of this year.
It's going to be tough against Iowa at Kinnick on Halloween, especially if it's that night.
It's going to be tough going to UCLA, a ranked UCLA team.
It's going to be tough, you know, playing against Minnesota and against USC, but Wisconsin should be in every game.
They should be competitive.
Jake, I really, I really appreciate how you put that when it comes to last week's game, how they had to basically stop beating themselves in order to beat the opponent.
Would you say that going into this game, it's going to be somewhat the same with the slightly defensive edge?
You basically need the offense to execute to a reasonable degree and lean on the defense a little bit, or are they going to be playing their opponent a little bit more this week?
I think, you know, when you never want to beat yourself.
And so, and like I said, time for them overcoming their stuff, they were still beating themselves up up until that.
Game winning or that game winning catch right where you had the you had Wisconsin, you know Josh Jacob Harris, right go Jacob Harris goes in two full start penalties on that game-winning touchdown drive and then he catches it and then You can call it.
I think he said post game if I might remember remembering correctly from the clips I've seen where he said it is a little bit more than a nudge but
it gets open and makes a play.
And that was a drive too.
I mean, those touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, they beat themselves up.
They were holding calls.
They were, you know, procedural penalties.
And so, yeah, I mean, I think for Wisconsin, it's, hey, you want to clean up those, especially against a team like Michigan State.
And like I said, I know they're injured.
The offense for Michigan State ain't great.
at the moment, and they're down there best running back, who I believe is out for the year, Pat Fitzgerald announced.
So yeah, you should take care of business against this type of opponent.
It's going to be tough.
It's going to grind it out.
That's what the big 10 is.
But yeah, play clean, play, you know, turnover wise, hold them to the minimum.
I think Sebastian Cheeks and the Wisconsin defense can get home on, you know, to Michigan State and whatnot in terms of the past rush.
But yeah, and also this goes back to, I mean, you always have to focus on yourself first and then take care of it there.
But they are over to, I mean, to me it was remarkable how much they shot themselves in the foot and then still came out with a win last
week.
Jake, something that I've kind of found to be a theme in my opinion for the Badgers this year and last year, honestly, as well, because we've seen the Badgers, I think they're three and one against their last top four, top 25 opponents.
They're getting the job done, which is really weird because they've not got the job done against some other teams that they really should have beaten.
Does it seem to you that they play to the level of their opponent?
And the defense is just so good sometimes that that's enough to get him over the edge with a little bit of luck on the offensive side of
the ball.
I think against Eastern Michigan that changed because, yeah, the first quarter was one thing and, you know, bad turnover.
The defense allows that game opening, you know, touchdown for the Eastern Michigan offense.
And then they turn it on.
They still haven't compli-
played, I would argue, obviously, and I think everyone would agree, they haven't played a fully complete game where they've won, you know, they've complimented each other, like that used to be a mission game.
You saw the three turnovers, it turned into major points for Wisconsin, and both sides of the ball and special teams all complimented each other.
Towards the end of the game, that fourth quarter against Penn State, you saw the defense holding up for the vast majority of the game, they only gave up six, was it like 13 points?
We're on there or something like that.
Yeah, we have about 13 points for defense and against, you know, Matt Campbell offense.
I don't care who, you know, I don't care, you know, where he's at.
I mean, back Campbell's had good offenses and the Wisconsin defense really clamped down and it's not for, you know, a pick of, you know, instant pick six.
You know, honestly, in those three turnovers Wisconsin, they should have won by double digits.
If not, you know, it may be 20 points.
And so for me, you know, I think
Yeah, I think just with Wisconsin, this team, it has a chance to be, you see in the improvement, this defense is going to be, I think, I said it at the beginning of the year, they're going to mesh the elite, as Mike Trestle said, in terms of doing what they did against Jim Leonard as defensive coordinator and what they did at Cincinnati.
And so I think you're starting to see that.
really come to fruition and um yeah I think you know like I said it you're getting to the point now where now they have to start stirring it together and they have to not play down like I said they play down to their opponents hey you know you have to now kind of step on the throats per se to to really show yourself I mean and I I mean right now we could be talking on you know later this week or next week during the biweek arranged Wisconsin which I don't know if I saw this early in the year.
Dr. Jake Kokorowski of BadgerObserver, BadgerObserver.com.
You can get all of his thoughts on the Badgers and volleyball and other sports.
Just sign up with BadgerObserver.com.
A lot of great insight and as I like to do, seeing all the stories come in, you know, well, well after dark, the time that I'm usually away.
I think Jake and I have the same sleeping hours here.
I do want to talk real quickly.
Badger's had a big recruitment signing this week and it made it to the point that even new stations were reporting on it.
So I got to ask you about it.
They have an upcoming signing of a guy who's ranked five stars by some services, top 25 kind of guy, an entrusher.
I know we've talked a lot about how the recruiting under Luke Fickle has been a lot different than what we're used to in Wisconsin, where you're used to seeing a bunch of dudes come in from the in-state, and that's what they build.
That's the bread and butter.
Get the big guys, get them running back, and just go to town, right?
Now, though, they're finding, in the last few years, they're finding some of these prospects, some of these guys that are getting a lot of love in the recruiting services.
What does this mean for Wisconsin when they pull in a guy who's ranked by some services, again, top 25 in the country?
Right.
And that's Jelani George.
He's from Goodyear Desert Edge High School.
It's a pretty predominant high school down in Arizona.
It is also, I mean, two of his high school teammates are currently Wisconsin commits.
And George is currently a junior, so he can't sign until next, you know, December during the early signing period.
But it's, I mean, a kid that's a top 20, top 25 prospect in the nation for the 2028 class.
You have to give Luke Fittical and his staff the credit.
You gotta give athletic department, the football staff, the general manager, Morocco Brown.
Obviously, I'm guessing, I don't know if it's safely to assume where you have that high of a player, relationships are big, but Chris McIntosh, the former AD, essentially, talked about adding investments.
You wonder about just what that plays a role with too.
And so,
Recruiting for all the transfer portal is and you know, and how you know, especially with Wisconsin this year They brought in 35 transfers this offseason, you know recruiting and go developing through high school still it's yeah My eyes it's easier to retain than try to go into the transfer portal and pluck guys and fit try to figure out those evaluations and how they would fit in With you know with the program not just on the field but off the field and so that's why you recruit the high school guys so that you can mold them within the culture and so
You see what Wisconsin's done with this recruiting class for 2027, for that matter, you know, top 30 type of class, according to which outlet you prefer.
But, you know, this is, you know, Jelani George is a talk to his coach earlier this week, you know, kid that looked like a power four, not just power four kid, but one of the best, you know, could be one of the best in the country first class, you know, early on as a freshman.
And so you've seen him grow, you know, six, four and a half, 250 pounds-ish, has long arms.
He's ideal for what Wisconsin wants on the edge in terms of outside linebackers.
And yeah, you have to credit Luke Fickel, Matt Mitchell, the outside linebacker's coach is key too, in terms of building relationships.
Pat Lambert, the director of recruiting.
There's a lot of good things, and that's the thing.
It's one thing that really, with Wisconsin, underneath Luke Fickel, you know, they've been able to recruit higher rated
Now, the next part is developing them and you've seen that too with Cooper Catalano, Mason Posa, others as well.
Luke Thickel was playing host to the Indiana volleyball team the other day I noticed on Twitter he put out a tweet about that Obviously because his daughter is on that Indiana volleyball team and Badger volleyball took them down at just the other night and the Badgers have got I think they've got three wins against ranked big 10 opponents to open up the Play here Jake what have we learned about this team so far is they've
Taking care of business against really good big 10 opponents already
right and you refer to it I mean they beat now a top 20 ranked Oregon started they will go into Purdue and they sweep number 10 Purdue and They go and defeat, you know, it took five sets Thursday But a five-set win and you mean it's the top 15 Indiana program and so it to me it shows one of this the Wisconsin staff obviously knows how to recruit talent especially young talent and develop them because
You have, yeah, you know, you brought, here's the thing.
You have your All-American Center, Charlie Ferbringer Jr.
Could be an Olympian down the road.
I don't want to put too much pressure, obviously, but she has the skill sets and, you know, she trained with the U.S.
Women's National Team back, and I wrote about that at Badger Observer.
Quick plug, you know, earlier than, you know, back in September.
But you also have the, you know, yeah, you have J.L.
August, who had a great match against Indiana, you know,
season high, 11 kills, you know, as a badger against the Hoosiers.
And you bring in Ava Travis from UC Santa Barbara, but it's these freshmen.
It's Audrey Flanagan who had, you know, a team I-17 kills.
And she's, well, I think the most impressive thing with this freshman, you know, she's an outside hitter.
She's long.
She can, she has a great swing and gets a lot of speed on her kills, attempts, but she's cut down her attacking errors.
She's only had two per game for the last
And for the to start off big 10 play, which is huge for her because she was having a lot of errors to begin the year.
And so you're seeing her come along.
You're seeing, you know, Linny Tarnell as a middle blocker emerge alongside Auguste, you know, to help with blocks.
You're starting to see also, you know, the one big one, obviously is Desley's champion, who, you know, 17 years old now.
comes in two, you know, two time reigning, big 10 freshman of the week for volleyball.
She, you know, and she went with there and she continued to, you know, she'd have the best match to start off against per against Indiana.
Kelly Sheffield takes her out, brings her back in fourth, fifth set.
She brings in energy and she might be one, you know, there's, I don't know how you can't cap the potential that Desalys Champion has for Wisconsin volleyball in the coming year.
So there's depth.
there's talent and there's talent and I mean they should contend right now to you know
for the incidentally tournament, not just, you know, and
go far in that, not just in the big 10 standings.
listening to Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back here to Make the Call.
It was a wild night in high school football across Wisconsin.
On the Civic Media family of stations, it was Nakusa over Adams Friendship 50 to 6 on WFHR.
On WRCO, Richland Center defeated Broadhead Judah 34 to 16.
WCQM had Phillips taking down Surring 34 to 18.
On WPFP in Park Falls, it was Wabina Leona 58, Shawamagin 8.
On WRPN, Mauston getting by the host team ripping 21
12 and on WRPQ it was Holman defeating Baraboo 49 to 7 defending state champion report defending eight player champ now playing in D7 McDonald defeated Cameron 38 14 the three and four on the year Kenosha St.
Joseph over Pius 11 48 eight there's six and one Darlington stays undefeated at seven and oh they beat Benton Scales Mount Schultzburg 42 to 16 Mayville over Omro 52 to 14 Mayville now five and two on the year staying unbeaten when a
over Seymour 39-3.
Grafton lost to Port Washington 35-28, dropping Grafton 2-4 and 3 on the year.
Still unbeaten is West Depeer in a big time matchup with Bayport, 33-27 winners.
They're 7-0.
Arrowhead fell from the ranks of the undefeated.
They lost to Muskego in overtime 22-20.
Arrowhead now 6-1 on the year.
Some other top 10 upsets on the night.
Spring Valley defeating Glenwood City 28-14.
Staying West in the state, Prairie Farm Clayton took down 4th ranked Clear Lake 30-29.
Cambridge defeated Partyville on their homecoming 35 to 26.
Coleman blank shocked and 42 to nothing.
Lodi got past Dullivendarian 35-31.
Wisconsin Lutheran on their homecoming.
One-point winners over Homestead 36-35.
It was West Bend West over Plymouth 20-14.
And in some other top 10 matchups on the evening, it was Aquinas over Arcadia 34-26.
Staying in the La Crosse area, La Crosse Logan 28-21.
over Reedsburg.
Edgar shot out Pacelli 37 to nothing.
Mondovi blanked Regis 38 to nothing.
And it was New Berlin West defeating New Berlin Eisenhower 35 to 14.
We are through seven weeks of the high school football season.
Once you know what the playoffs are just a couple weeks away and we'll have all the coverage for you right here on the Civic Media
radio network.
Coming up next, Mike Clemens offers his sports week in review, taking a look back on the Brewers as they now begin their playoff journey.
They'll be ticking on the Padres this weekend.
You can hear that matchup on many of these civic media stations.
I'm Jimmy Koska.
Thank you for listening to make the call part of the civic media radio network.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
What a busy week.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with our Wisconsin Sports Week in Review, the Brewers in the Playoffs.
That story coming up, we begin in Madison, where the Wisconsin Badgers women's volleyball team.
And a win Thursday night over number 15th ranked Indiana.
in five sets a long night before a capacity crowd inside the fieldhouse on the UW campus head coach Kelly Sheffield after the victory.
You know, we're getting close to 11 o'clock on a on a school night.
Indiana continue to get stronger as the match was going on through those first four sets.
Our fans stayed energized and given us everything.
It's just every one of us is very, very grateful.
The Badgers volleyball team ranked sixth in the nation.
NBA, the Bucks held their media day.
Co-owner Wes Edens, on the direction of the franchise, now that Yana Santeta-Cupo has
been traded to the Miami Heat.
You look around here, there's no Yana's, there's no Chris Middleton, there's no, you know, Brooke Lopez, Drew Holiday, all these amazing players that came through here.
We have the next crop of these young folks here that I think have every right to believe that they can be the next group that kind of builds towards that.
So
what's it like not having Yana surround?
Bucks guard AJ Green.
I mean, he was great guy, great teammate, great player, did so much for the city and organization.
It was sad to see him go.
I'm going to miss him, but it's also something that's out of my control, you know?
And so it's just how it is now.
And all we can do is look forward to who we have here, what we can do, what we can build.
But I'm excited to get to play him this year and go against him a couple of times.
College football, Wisconsin Badgers with a huge win last weekend, 24 to 20 on the road at number 13th ranked Penn State.
Badgers improved to three and one this weekend.
Another Big 10 opponent, the Michigan State Spartans, followed by a road trip to LA to play number 23 ranked UCLA head coach Luke Fickle was asked what he'd like to see quarterback Colton Joseph to focus on.
We know we've got to make better decisions with the football.
That's what it comes down to.
And so we've got to do a better job of putting guys into positions in particular Colton that he can make better decisions as well.
Ultimately, like we know it.
It reflects back on the quarterback and the coach.
NFL, the Packers one and two for the season so far after that 35 to 14 loss at home to the Falcons on Thursday night football.
It was cleared during the game.
The Packers offensive line is not up to pass protection for quarterback Jordan Love due to injuries and inexperience.
So the team signed three veteran offensive linemen, including 36 year old Kevin Zitler, a native of Waukesha, Wisconsin, who played for the Badgers before being a first round pick in the NFL.
I asked center Sean Ryan was about 10 years younger.
What he thought
of the team signing three players in their thirties in just one week.
I don't know, you know, injuries obviously didn't help us.
Like I said, we probably had, you know, to get some runs going on to kind of help, you know, the past game a little bit.
But, you know, that's water under the bridge now.
We're going to keep rolling.
We got those three old guys, three vets, real vets and just going to keep on rolling.
The Packers also learned that their wide receiver, Jaden Reed, required neck surgery after his helmet to help
against the New York Jets head coach Matt LaFleur.
It will be a season ending.
He'll be out.
Unfortunately, he let me know yesterday that he's going to have to have surgery as well.
Is it a career ending injury?
From my understanding, no.
but he will be out a significant amount of time.
Baseball, after a franchise record 103 win season, Milwaukee Brewers are underway against the San Diego Padres in the NLDS playoffs.
Now the Brewers have reached the postseason for consecutive years.
What's different about this season for Spaceman Jake Bowers?
When I think back to last year, I think there was an element of maybe a little bit of lack of belief.
Going into this postseason, there's a different feeling.
I think there's been a concern.
effort to make sure everybody in the room knows what we're capable of.
I think we've built a really good team, a really good culture, and I think we believe in each other.
I asked Pat Murphy about how last year's season ended against the Dodgers.
Murphy, you've said in a few interviews that a couple of games last year towards the end of last year were emotional losses.
Yeah, no, I think that's kind of like what everybody, if you're in this business, you gotta move on.
You can't let a bad call, you can't let a line drive double play, you can't let a line drive that goes foul with the bases loaded by that much, you can't let that get in the way of the next couple pitches.
That ability to kind of relentlessly respond immediately is kind of a mindset that's kind of boring probably, but it's necessary, I think, to be
to be good because the game comes down.
The pitching is so good.
The stuff is so good at the plate.
For instance, the ball strike becomes crucial.
I think we've excelled at it.
That's Brewers manager Pat Murphy with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
I'm Mike Clemens.