It's time for Make the Call, a weekly discussion on the top Wisconsin sports stories of the week.
You can listen to the show anytime on the free Civic Media app.
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Now, it's time for Make the Call, a Civic Media sports production.
While committed to the weekend, it is make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.
I'm Jimmy Koska, sports director here at Civic Media as the radio empire keeps expanding.
The Odd Wisconsin, now in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and the UP, I think we're taking over the entire Midwest at this point.
But this show airs in Wisconsin, and we focus on Wisconsin sports.
And with some help this week, I have Parker Olson in the capital city, the seat of the empire.
What's up, Parker?
Doing pretty well, Jimmy.
I don't know about you, but I feel good.
Yeah, I feel great considering that I had about two hours of sleep last night because I walked around at 11 o'clock at night calling everybody I knew.
I woke up my wife.
I woke up the dogs.
I found my kids.
They went to bed two hours prior and I woke them up, got everybody nice and riled up last night just to celebrate the brewers getting a sweep.
And I got to tell you, I don't know what else there is to talk about today.
We do have a lot to talk about today.
We have plenty of guests today.
Um, jake kokorowski will help us preview the badgers big matchup with the ucla That's coming up later tonight.
Um, if you're listening to this on saturday badgers ucla big matchup there We'll talk about that coming up my clements has been covering everything in the state.
Uh, with regards to sports.
He's been in green bay.
He's been in bolaki We're gonna get a sports week in review with my clements coming up later in the show and
It's the final week of high school football regular season.
Playoffs began beginning eight player football here on this Saturday.
And then next week is the start of the 11 player football playoffs in Wisconsin.
I will give a preview slash recap of everything going on in high school football later in the show as well.
But we can't start the show without talking about the.
biggest deal in sports, the first time in our lifetimes for Parker and I anyway, that the Brewers are in the World Series.
They get the sweep of the Dodgers.
And once you know it last week,
When we were previewing the series, we had Ken Kazuba on from Kansas Sports Corner there in southeastern Wisconsin.
And I gotta say, Ken, uh, as we welcome you onto the program, Ken, uh, you really undersold this brewery.
I don't know why you underestimated this team so much.
Uh, you said five games here.
They get it done in four.
They're just making you look at at this point.
Well, I appreciate you having me in, um, Jimmy and Parker.
This is just outstanding.
I mean, to be a brewer fan, I, I've been a lifelong brewer fan as far as underselling them.
I actually kind of goofed up the two.
series because I had him sweeping the Padres and winning in five against the Dodgers as your listeners heard.
So it's one of those deals where, you know, it's good to be wrong sometimes.
And in this particular case, sweeping the Dodgers, this was nothing more than what I deemed unfinished business after the way that they got their exit out of the playoff last year by the Dodgers was incredible.
So to pay them back in the manner that they did and to come back last night in game four with six unanswered runs after going down four zip.
My gosh, you could hear the air come out of that stadium, not only in game three on the Bowers home run, but last night when they got the lead, it was phenomenal.
My text chats were blowing up.
We must have had 40 guys on this text chat.
It was just crazy.
So it was, it's just, they're just unbelievable times.
This is the second time in my life.
Uh, in my lifetime that the brewers have won the pennant.
I was a sophomore in high school back in 82 Unfortunately, they didn't finish the job in the world series, but you know what boys?
They're going to get it done this time.
Well, there we go.
And as it was going to be, we wrapped the segment was our prediction for the world series, regardless of who they faced.
Um, and by the way, I'm joking a five game prediction against a Dodgers pretty bold.
I think a lot of people were expecting, you know, the series to go longer, but boy, the brewers getting a sweep.
I don't think would have been on anybody's, you know, without, you know, maybe the most ardent.
fans, most die hard fans would have said, yeah, they'll sweep the Dodgers.
No problem.
But I don't think it was really expected that he do it.
And the way they did it with dominant bullpen with guys stepping up at key moments.
And the fact that every time the Brewers found themselves in a spot, they found a way to rally this team is relentless,
relentless, you know, to say the least.
I mean, there's a guy, kind of an unsung hero on this team.
Yeah, Jake Bowers got the MVP deservingly, but you got to give it to David Hamilton.
I call him Hanbone.
What that guy does when he gets in a ball game and he plays third base, I mean, his intensity is incredible.
Not only does he play good defense, but when he gets that bat in his hand, he's just looking to put the ball on the grass.
He'll get on any way he can.
The Brewer offense as a whole,
the one reason why they are so successful is patients.
They will absolutely beat down a pitcher with patients.
They have great plate presence.
They just do not seem to be fooled at all, or very rarely.
They have just an incredible game plan going in, and with that being said, you know, they execute it so well, and they are never down and out in any of these games.
I think they have the, in fact, I'm almost positive.
I'd have to look up the exact stats.
Sorry, I don't have it.
But the most comeback wins in the MLB this year, and certainly in these playoffs, I mean, they've come from behind numerous times.
And I think we've seen that so much throughout this.
Obviously, if you have the most, we've seen it throughout the year, right?
But it was interesting to me because at the start of the year.
Aaron Ashby I think we called him the vulture at a couple of points because he just kept stealing wins away from guys coming out of that bullpen is the offense would ramp things up as soon as he got into the game and we've seen that a ton now in the postseason I think he threw nine and two-thirds this series and he didn't allow a run I mean this bullpen has been absolutely ridiculous Ken is what is your
expectation for this bullpen as they face a new team, whether that be Cleveland or Tampa.
Are you gonna, are we gonna keep seeing Ashby's be so incredible?
Are we gonna see somebody else step up?
I don't even know if anyone can step up though, right?
Because it's just been so darn good.
No, actually, they can.
In fact, there's a guy that you didn't mention that I equate to Ashby and you're gonna see this combination after our starters get, you know, their five innings.
They might let a guy like Miz go as many as six, but for the most part, they just need five innings.
And then this guy, DL Hall.
Oh, is that kid a pit bull?
I mean, his performance in game three, outstanding.
But Ashby, yes, in terms of coming out of the bullpen, lights out.
Jojo Romero.
you know, that mid season trade or mid to late season trade.
I mean, you see a guy high energy like that.
The bullpen as a whole is just loaded.
We still haven't even pitched all of our guys yet.
Do you understand?
Do people, do fans even understand that there are guys, we still don't, we haven't seen Chad Patrick.
You know, I mean, so this bullpen is crazy.
I was surprised last time.
I don't know if you guys were, and I briefly talked to Parker about this before you came on or before we started this segment.
Um, that McGill didn't get to close it out last night.
That, that Murph was so headstrong that he said, nope, Ashby, it's yours, kid.
You've done so well.
You stay in there and finish it off.
And he's definitely earned that right.
I mean, you've just pitched so well.
There's so many guys there and you're, we have not seen Chad Patrick.
We have heard talk.
of a certain someone that we have not seen in a while coming back into the roster.
Brandon Woodruff, after seemingly his season was going to be over yet again, somehow has had a chance to come back.
possibly, Ken, do you want him on the roster?
Do you think that he would, that Murphy would make that decision?
And if you do make that decision, who would he replace?
Because they've all been so good, right?
Yeah, in fact, this will probably be a, oh, it's going to be a difficult, what do I want?
No, I don't want to see Woody on the roster.
I'll tell you why, not because I dislike him.
Woody is a, oh my God, just a phenomenal man.
And when he was healthy.
He was outstanding.
He was light solid.
I mean, the way he pitches, but not having him pitch all year long, he pitched a limited amount last year before he got hurt again.
It would be a little unfair to anybody that has got this team to this point to not be on this World Series roster because they've earned it.
And Woody had his opportunities with other teams and I go back to 18 when they had a chance to close off the Dodgers and unfortunately they didn't do it.
But he's had numerous opportunities in the playoffs and so on and so forth.
I believe that his role...
for the World Series.
I think what Murphy's going to do with them, he's obviously been, as you can see, he's been in a dugout.
But he'll be helping Chad Green out quite a bit there in the bullpen and Chris Hook.
He has been instrumental in the way that he has worked with each one of these pitchers and our bullpen and our starters look up to him like there's no tomorrow.
Would I be shocked if Murphy put him on the World Series roster?
No, but I don't
believe Murph is going to do that because the guides that he has right now, when he needs them in certain situations, depending upon who we play, he's got it in his mind who he wants to come in at that particular time of the game and an injured Murph and an injured Woodruff.
I don't believe and we don't even know his status, right?
We don't know.
We don't know.
We know that he's thrown some bullpen.
We know that he's thrown a little more than that, but we really don't know his status.
So the whole feel good aspect of bringing Brandon in.
I don't think that's gonna happen.
I really don't.
Talking to Ken Kazuba of Kazusports Corner, the Brewers whip the Dodgers in the NLCS getting ready for the World Series.
They'll take on either Tampa or Cleveland.
That series is still ongoing.
Boy, that is gonna be quite the advantage for the Brewers.
The fact that they get
An entire week off and tampa and cleveland currently still has it's two one cleveland in that series They still have to play at least two more games of that series The rest factor should help the brewers after some pretty intense moments here uh in this nlcs I I don't know if it's rest or rust I know there's going to be that argument in sport stock radio all week But I got to say baseball it's such a long season to get that little bit of a break before playing in the biggest games of your lives like I feel like that
can only help things, especially if guys have been dealing with any kind of negging injuries to this point.
Yeah, I would agree.
It's a major advantage.
I mean, the other teams, yes, if a Cleveland can stay hot, right?
And they can win these next two games and knock out Tampa.
And I do hope it will be Cleveland.
I want to see Cleveland and Milwaukee in the worst way, two great baseball towns here in the Midwest.
It goes against everything everybody in Major League Baseball wanted to see in terms of the World Series.
And that's just another reason why I like it.
But yeah, I think that having this week plus off is a huge advantage for our team because our guys can get ready not only physically, mentally.
You can game plan.
You've got those extra days in there to game plan.
You can get more reps in at the cage.
There's so many things that they can do to prepare.
for their opponent coming up here in the World Series.
It's just a massive advantage in my opinion.
And the birds have done so well throughout the season.
They've ended with the best record in MLB.
That means that they're going to be home to start the World Series.
Can talk, tell me a little bit about how important that home field advantage is.
I'll be perfectly honest.
I did not think that the Brewers would go.
Obviously, I didn't think they were going to sweep, but I didn't think that they were going to finish off the series in LA by a long shot.
That really surprised me because they've been so good at home, but they've seemed to kind of break that bad juju about road games in the postseason.
But Ken, how important is it to be able to do it in Milwaukee in front of these fans that have been waiting 44 years to see a World Series
again?
I think it's really important, but in this format, you have to take advantage of the format.
And that's where Murph is the maestro.
He takes advantage of the format and taking advantage of the format means you fans, you're going to get your two games in a game one and game two next Saturday and Sunday or was it Friday, 23rd and 24th?
So that's next Saturday and Sunday.
Am I correct on that?
I believe I
am.
I
believe it's
Friday.
It starts
Friday, Friday and Saturday.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
23rd and 24th.
But with that being the case,
Like my friends at all were calling yesterday and other colleagues and they were like, I'd like to get game six and seven.
I said, don't, because this is going to be over.
I said, it's not coming back to Milwaukee.
This team has been winning on the road.
They get their two quick wins at home.
They go on the road and they close out their opponents.
This team is about winning series.
We're four wins away, which also equals 108 hours.
So get your chart ready and just keep like, you know, you do your picket fence and just keep knocking down the outs because the winds are going to come.
Uh, the way that this team has been able to play on the road later in the season, they are phenomenal.
And there's a comfort level to that, right?
When you're not at home and you're on the road, you can just relax and play the game and Murph knows that.
And those guys, when they're.
outside of Milwaukee, they're not worrying about getting tickets for people.
They're not worrying about hospitality, things that are going on.
You just get out there and play and you keep your eye on the prize and that's the World Series.
To get Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Brewers, their first World Series is going to be an incredible thing here for the state, not only for Milwaukee, but for the state of Wisconsin, for the fans.
So as a fan, games one and game two, be there, be loud, look it.
I mean, they're selling it out.
Standing room only tickets, 1,300 bucks.
I mean, it's going to be crazy.
In fact, I hope they set up big screen TVs in the parking lots for games three and four so that the fans in Milwaukee can just go and tailgate in the parking lot because the weather is going to be phenomenal.
and watch the Brewers win the World Series on the road wherever that may be.
Ken Kazuba of CASA Sports Corner in Southeastern Wisconsin.
We appreciate your enthusiasm, your energy as we get ready for a World Series for the Brewers.
We look forward to talking to you again here real soon and hopefully it'll be to celebrate a World Series title for the Brewers.
Well, I appreciate you guys having me on and I'm looking forward to this team taking care of business like they have all year and winning this World Series for these players.
for the organization.
I mean, these are great times, guys.
And to have something like this happen here in Milwaukee, here in the state of Wisconsin for all the Brewer fans listening, I mean, the dedication is incredible.
We've struggled through a lot to get to this point as fans.
And so with that being the case, the culmination is going to be winning the World Series.
And don't kid yourself, folks, this team is poised ready.
We are going to win the World Series and bring it home.
All right, I'm ready to go now.
Let's play the series like right now.
We got a week to wait.
All right, Ted Kazuba right there from Gazel Sports Corner.
Brewers World Series starts next week on many of these Civic Media Stations Friday and Saturday games one and two.
So looking forward to that.
We've got more show to get to.
Jake Kokorowski of Badger Observers and help us preview the Badgers matchup with UCLA.
We're going to do that next right here on Make the Call part of the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back to Make the Call, part of the Civic Media Network.
I'm Jimmy Cusco, alongside Parker Olson, and we move right along from Brewers to Badgers as Wisconsin has a big game today taking on UCLA.
And we've got Jake Kokorowski, a Badger Observer joining us from the road.
And Jake, first of all, before we talk Badgers, I just got to say,
Um, you know, the state of Wisconsin is pretty fired up after the Brewers make the World Series.
How are you feeling right now?
Oh, I have a static, especially peeing down here in, you know, the Southwest and California.
And so now we just, uh, it's been good.
It's been,
you
know, I am excited.
I mean, I know I tweeted about it, but I'm blue sky.
Just, I mean, I grew up, my formative years were around the days of, you know, uh, 92 was the closest year I think it was to Bruce into the playoffs.
You know the logo redesigned the tier ratio of county stadium The really bad years of you know your talent going away and now you have with Scott, you know like say to Scott and you've seen how you know mark up to Osio the owners revitalize this you know this franchise over the last 20 plus years You've seen what's on like Pat Murphy after Craig Council last for Chicago.
I mean, you know, and then you see how they're winning games
Especially this is the LDS where you're trailing and they don't just roll over for a team with a budget that's Exorbitant and whatnot.
So for me Yeah encapsulates how the underdog mentality of Wisconsin and the state and just you know being here in California During the day and they clinch.
Hey man.
I look I don't cheer for a lot of teams but
You can bet I was wearing my brewer gear on Thursday.
Well, it's great.
We're going to talk about brewers.
Obviously, we've already spent most of the show talking about it.
But we do want to talk about the Badgers football program because, well, Badgers, they've got a big matchup coming up here with UCLA and then USC next week.
But I just want to focus on this matchup for a second because I think to this point in the season, you look at what the Badgers have done in football.
Yeah, they've had the big game against Michigan State.
I think that might have changed some people's views on it.
The Penn State win at the time was a big win, although right away after that, they had a big clunker after that.
Now they get to take on UCLA, a team that is in the polls again as well.
But they are dealing, UCLA is, with a pretty significant injury.
And that is, I think, the biggest storyline going into this match up, Jay.
Right now, having people at Gimeli Alva is a huge loss for...
UCLA, and good, you know, it's down to UCLA.
I mean, what's helping them is not just to keep me out of it, but the run game is, you know, like, top is a big 10.
It was about 250 a game.
They're averaging about 40 points per game.
So, you know, but having someone with the talent like Miko had, if, you know, you saw just what happened when she went out of the game and
UCLA had a turn to the bench against Oregon.
And that was with the, mind you, UCLA forced down in the real and, you know, uh, Oregon into five or six turnovers, six, seven turnovers.
But UCLA still couldn't convert those points.
So, uh, into those points all the way.
So it's still a close win, but still a significant win for, for UCLA, but for Wisconsin, yeah, it's, I'm sure UCLA will see, you know, the offense.
to the quarterback's strength.
I'll let you guess who will rely on the run game and along with running back late night and a good stable of backs, but it'll be a significant injury for the Bruins.
And there's something to see if staff with defense
can capitalize.
Oh, Wisconsin, obviously with a pretty quality defense that we've seen so far, maybe minus the Notre Dame game really, but not really only in the second half.
Wisconsin defense, I think.
You'd have to be pretty excited if you're those guys facing a backup quarterback and being the stronger part of a Badger team.
Over on the offensive side of the ball, though, for the Badgers, Jake, what's it looking like with Abu Sama?
Is he looking like he'll be back and how big of an impact can he have on this game if he is indeed healthy?
Yeah, I mean, it looks seems like based off of what Luke Vickle has said that things are, you know, trend of direction.
You know, based off of Monday's Availability and you look at some of the availability for the reports for the big 10 Yeah, I think you know that possibility of having someone that could be huge for the run game now UCLA also does a good job against the run So, you know, I think it really goes back to having someone whether or not he's available.
There's
that home
run speed I think he has to really go and in my eyes
get better at running between the tackles.
I feel like Gary on the free has shown that he's a better back at this point to run between the tackles.
But what that means, though, is you've got to put the onus on the offensive line.
So Fama could be back, but that whole line, which shuffled its groupings a couple of Saturdays ago against Michigan State, I think it's up to what Kevin Haywood, Colin Coverley, if it's Austin Cuecky or if it's
Ryan Corey or somebody else at the center.
If you're looking at, you know, for guard, you know, Stiles Blackburn or, you know, what happens with, you know, P.J.
Wilkins, Emerson Mandel at tackle spots, I think it's more on Wisconsin's offensive line to figure out in a gelboard.
But she, it's not
great
that they haven't found the starting five.
You know, part of it's with Kweke and his hand will be interesting.
So it's not completely on Wisconsin, but, you know, you're five games in against Michigan State and you're shuffling the line.
You know, you hope that Wisconsin now has found the starting line that then they can gel it, create more of those opportunities.
You know, they're averaging over 150 yards per game, and they're averaging 4.7 yards per carry, which are much better than last year.
But I think there's a lot, I think there's still hope for Wisconsin to be still like a top six, top five team in the Big Ten and rushing.
And that all starts with a line.
Talking to Jake Kokorowski, a Badger Observer, you can find his work.
BadgerObserver.com, subscribe and get all the updates sent right to you.
You don't have to go looking for it.
Make sure you sign up.
BadgerObserver.com.
Jake, the buy we came at, I think, a great point for the Badgers because it's right in the middle of the season.
It's one of those cases where sometimes you get that buy and it's like two games in.
What's the point?
And now you get it five games in.
You get a little break.
What do you think was
maybe the most important thing for them to work on during the bi-week.
I mean, it's just self-stounding.
You know, you'll be able to, like, watch UCLA against Oregon, and they're able to see just what some of, you know, UCLA, you know, what was behind NICO in that case.
So I think the big thing with the bi-weeks there, if there are guys that need some rest, you can do that.
You know, you're not going to get all
the way healthy after a week unless it's a very minor injury, but it does give players a mental break for a weekend and allows staff to do other things.
So I think
The biggest thing right now is that's a yawn because separation is very interesting when you're going time zones and then also trying to drive everywhere in the past couple days.
So apologies if you say it, but I will say with, I think it's making sure, like I said, the offensive line, making sure that work on the things that you need to work on there, try to gel better, especially with arguably the toughest schedule, especially the schedule coming up where
to rank UCLA team number 12.
It's then USC, who's on a bi-week this week.
So Wisconsin will get a fresher USC than they come to Camp Randall Stadium for next Saturday night.
And then you go to, yeah, you have to go
to Iowa.
I see
you're always kidding.
So I think it's things where you work on yourself during that bi-week, you get, you kind of rest yourself as much as possible.
And so I think those are the things, and I think the biggest thing with the self, it's self scouting.
Is that often divine?
and just even ways to, you know, show up to defense.
I would argue run defense, especially against UCLA, being one of the best, and not just the big 10, but the nation.
You saw Michigan State get a little bit of, you know, push early on in that homecoming game a couple of weeks back, and that's something that, you know, being very extremely nitpicky.
I mean, Wisconsin held Michigan State to, what, 260-ish yards, and obviously single digits of scoring.
Well,
You know, I think one thing you can do to pick them as the Michigan State line got some push.
So Wisconsin's front is going to have to be strong on both sides against, you know, obviously it overachieving, but a good UCLA team.
And the Badgers football obviously will be playing.
UCLA this weekend you can hear them on the civic media network on various local stations Moving over to volleyball though Jake.
We've had our eyes on them and they've played a lot of a lot of ranked teams already Unfortunately in their most recent game.
They ran into the buzz saw that is Nebraska volleyball and ranked number one in the country I believe in a sweep in that one they lost to Nebraska Jake, what did we learn about that?
match against Nebraska number one team in the country and how's that prepared them going forward because Honestly, they don't have a lot of really tough matchups for the remainder of the year until you get to the conference tournament, right?
Right, yeah, this Penn State, Washington that I've been ranked.
Penn State's always going to be good with Kennedy Martin there, but in my eyes, it's really, you know, we've learned that this team, even being young, can compete with
You know some of the best teams in the nation that goes back to the on-conference play where you know that you sweep our brain Google team and you see them what they've done is answer the very national champions in Texas A&M and I will say they played Nebraska stuff.
It's a sweep.
It's gonna look like a sweep Well, it is a sweep, but they played tough the first and third sets that second set really got away from them So then with this team where you have so many players that are young it's a team that
you have so many new pieces.
You have not just Jaila Augusta as a middle blocker, Ava Travis as the outside hitter, which who are two key contributors for this team, but you had nine freshmen come in and the good five to six are contributing heavily in different ways.
So, you know, there's a point where those freshmen are no longer freshmen, especially those that enrolled early, you know, toward the end of the season.
And so I think you're seeing them continue to grow.
I think there's still a lot of growth left.
Last year at this point, you know, after Wisconsin lost to Nebraska at home, then you start to see Wisconsin start to piece of things together and go on a huge streak.
But that was with B.D.
Collier, Carter Booth, Alicia, Ali Andrews, you know, and a lot of Charlie Ferbringer was a sophomore, but he saw the team, you know, gel further, but they also had
you know, or experienced players.
You don't really have that with this.
You know, I think this team is still getting better, and it's still got, I mean, I think Kelly Sheffield put it perfectly, I mean, in the last couple weeks, work in progress.
And so, we'll see how pressure like Audrey Flanagan, Vesely's champion, Linny Tarnow, you know, improve.
And we'll see how J.Lo just continues, because she had a great streak going in, and then both her and Tarnow
were neutralized as middle blockers against a really good experienced Nebraska team.
So I think you see that they can compete even with the youth in an experience with some of the best teams in the nation.
But now it's like, OK, what's the next step to take a set at Nebraska?
And also, you know, when you go up against potentially Kentucky later this year or some of the other teams, you know, can they rank teams?
in that tournament, can you finally get over that hump if you will, being able to defeat them, even being so young that they are?
When we talk about just the fact that, you know, the rough schedule that they've had, like five straight ranked opponents is incredible to me, Jake.
I just can't help but feel like they get this burst of great teams in the middle of the year, right?
They always challenge themselves in non-conference.
And with all the new faces this year and the way that they've had to, you know, kind of grow up fast in a way, I can't help but feel like that's a big advantage for them as they now, not that anything's easy, but it's relative to what they've faced so far.
And yeah, there's a couple more ranked teams sprinkled in there, but I have to feel like the next month and a half or so is going to be a period where we see some
Some pretty big strides and statistically, probably some high-popping stuff coming out with the Badgers as we progress through this back half of the conference season.
Yeah, and I think that's what you want to see Wisconsin do.
I mean, if you look, I mean, no, they're not going to take any opponent lightly.
Yeah.
Do you have Penn State Washington that have been ranked?
I know
Illinois
where they, you know, be
Illinois on
the road before the loss at Nebraska.
You
know, they're ranked
too.
So there's both.
Yeah, they should win.
right?
And there are some teams that they're facing that are towards the bottom half of the Big Ten.
But, you know, we see how Big Ten volleyball is.
And I think also the staff knows, too, if they're not playing sharp, you know, they're going to make, they're going to make adjustments as needed.
And then also talk to the players and make them understand that you can't slouch against any, particularly in the conference.
So I think it sets up well.
I mean, I think it allows them that they can get on some
But I also feel too like, hey, this is going to be, you know, they have to stay sharp and the staff will stay on this program and stay on its players to ensure they can see the standard that's been held up for so many years since Shelf Field took over the program.
Jake Hukarowski, a Badger Observer, BadgerObserver.com, where you can find his work, make sure you sign up, get that subscription because you get the news sent to you every day, right to your inbox, sometimes many times a day, because Jake is covering it all.
We appreciate you, man.
Thank you for joining us for the road.
We have Mike Clemens coming up with a sports week in review.
Also, getting you sent for high school football playoffs this weekend.
Nice week.
This is Make The Call on the City Media Network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media.
Welcome back to make the call in the civic media network.
We've got a few minutes to like comment slides in to do his sports week and review in what a week it was Brewers going to the World Series Packers getting ready for big matchup next week.
There's all kinds of other things that the bucks are back in action.
High school football is wrapping up.
We'll talk about that in a little bit as well.
But before we get to all of that, Jake, we have to
preview the Packers here for just a couple of minutes I know we talked a lot about it in our greeting gold review Which we do on Mondays here on on the civic media network But it just feels like with the Packers after the game against the Bears I feel like there's a little more optimism that the offense might actually begin to figure things out and keep keep Jordan love upright I don't know that this week presents a great challenge for them, but you know for them
Consistency is the word, Dallas does bring a dynamic that they throw the ball a lot this week, which I think for the Packers, I think it plays pretty well in their advantage.
Yeah, I would think so too, the Packers.
We've seen them get run over by Bijan Robinson and company throughout the season.
So the run defense is maybe something that you want to avoid just a little.
However, I have not been scared about it at all.
They did pretty well against the Bears against the run.
However, yeah, I mean, if that part of your game isn't going to get tested, then you got to be pretty excited that you're going to have an opportunity to have your corners shine and your secondary shine after what was already a really good game against the Bears last week.
But yeah, looking over on the offensive side of the ball for the Packers.
Jordan Love last week played so well and I attribute this to A, the fact that he was physically playing well, but B also that the Packers were taking that mentality of just letting him loose, let it rip.
I have said for a long time now in Jordan Love's career, he is more of a Brett Favre than he is in Aaron Rodgers, right?
He's not going to be absolutely
Perfect.
You're not going to go almost an entire season without an interception, but he's got to sling it.
He's a little bit of a gun slinger.
And I really like that.
Um, cause he does still have enough of Rogers in him to not make totally careless throws, but he's got a little bit of that fire in him that Britt Farve kind of started for the Packers.
Um, so I think letting him loose is an absolutely best case scenario for a Packer offense.
Um, and Jimmy, I think that.
if they can do that against Dallas again, we might start talking about how well the Packers are playing instead of, huh, okay, the Packers are doing better, right?
We might actually be excited about this for once.
Yeah, I think that, you know, the fact that they're playing Sunday night, there's no Brewer's Conflict, so everybody's gonna be watching.
You know, the Brewer's have swapped their onto the World Series.
At least for this week, there's not any conflict to worry about.
It actually works out really well.
I looked ahead on the calendar where it's either a Brewer's World Series game or a Packers football game.
every day during the World Series where it's Brewers, Brewers, Packers, Brewers, Brewers, Packers, Brewers, Brewers.
The Packers play Sunday and Thursday, the two off days of the World Series.
It's like the NFL schedule makers knew that the Brewers would be in the World Series.
This is tinfoil hat time.
I'm putting the tinfoil hat right in my head that they had this set up, the Brewers that had the World Series and every other day that the Brewers were not in at the Packers.
It's nine straight days potentially where it's either Brewers World Series or Packers football.
Parker, this stretch is.
is gonna be absolutely incredible.
I can't wait.
Magnifique.
Excellent.
I love it.
Packers.
We are out of time on the show because we have a sports week review coming out of my club.
And also we've got high school football talk last week of the regular season.
We will tell you which teams have ranked where the playoff brackets are revealed later today.
They're listening on Saturday.
So you'll get the full shake down of that coming up.
But this has been make the call.
And when we return my comments sports week review here on the civic media network.
Welcome
back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
We'll wrap up the show today by going through high school football scores from around the state.
Now remember today, we've been listening on Saturday is the start of the eight player football playoffs.
And we'll talk about that in a second.
We're airing a couple of the playoff games on Civic Media radio stations around the state.
But Friday night was the last night of 11 player football regular season.
And here are some of the scores on Civic Media stations.
It was Dodgeville taking down Richland Center 32 to 19 on WRCO on WRPN.
It was ripping over what
We take a spin through defending champions McDonnell the defending eight player champion now playing in seven division seven and 11 player football.
They took down Colfax 18 to nothing.
They finished the year four and five heading into the playoffs.
Kenosha St.
Joseph all over University School of Milwaukee 62 to nothing finishing the regular season seven and two undefeated champions from last year in DC.
It was Darlington defeating Platteville 49 to 20.
It was Mayville losing to LeMaira in the final week of the regular season, the defending D5 champs at 6-3 heading into the postseason.
Winniconny needed overtime to beat New London 20-19.
Winniconny finishing the year 9-0.
Grafton lost to Plymouth 28-21.
The defending D3 champs are 5-4 going into the playoffs.
In Division 2, West Appear defeated Green Bay Preble 45-0.
9-0 on the year for West Appear.
And Arrowhead took down Franklin 20-17.
8-1 finish for Arrowhead this season.
Just a handful of upsets and 11 player football in the top 10, Cuba City defeating Mineral Point 27-20 and a game kicking off in the afternoon.
Partyville over Belleville 26-20, St.
Mary Catholic over Brilliant 31-6.
It was Germantown getting by Catholic Memorial 27-23 in Western Wisconsin, Osceola over Baldwin Woodville 20-14, and Unity blanking Webster 41-0.
And only a handful of matchups involving two top 10 teams, all of them
pretty much in Western Wisconsin.
Holman needed overtime but defeated La Crosse Logan 37-31.
Mandovi over Durand, Arkansas 35-7 and in southeastern Wisconsin.
Piwaki over New Berlin West 31-27.
It is the eight player playoffs beginning Saturday if you're hearing the show on Saturday and we've got two games for you to take in.
WFHR will have assumption taking on Thorpe that is at one o'clock.
Thorpe, a team that went to state just a couple of years ago.
And on WJMS, it is Bruce at Hurley.
That game kicks off.
It's the nightcap at seven o'clock in the evening.
There are a full slate of eight player playoff football games, in fact, around the stage here, taking in 16 of these.
And you can find all the scores you needed more on the WIAA website or at boundwisconsin.com.
I'm Jimmy Cuska, and now we turn it over to Mike Clements for a Wisconsin Sports Week in review.
The Brewers win the pennant.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
The Brewers are headed to the World Series.
That story coming up.
We begin with women's college volleyball and another victory for the Wisconsin Badgers who beat a tough Maryland team in three straight sets in Madison Friday night head coach Kelly Sheffield.
I was a team that's pretty high percentage against opponents this year and took us a little bit too long to kind of get into our game plan defensively.
I thought we were awfully good and
that area in the third set and you know fast turn around we leave.
pretty early tomorrow morning for Iowa.
Men's College basketball, the UW Green Bay Phoenix, played host to the Wisconsin Badgers Thursday night.
And although the Badgers won 96 to 77, Phoenix head coach Doug Gottlieb was grateful for the opportunity.
I couldn't be more appreciative of Coach Guard for coming and playing us.
It's not just the economic boost that it gives us.
That's a real basketball team, big 10 team.
And I think you can tell by what we're putting out there that we're growing and we're onto something.
So how does the Badgers basketball team
team look for this year.
It's
the Packers in the Dallas on sunday night fo field.
The Packers coming of 31 to seven win over t
three and two.
Meanwhile the Cowboys were run over at home losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after the
loss.
Extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed.
You really do need to get it done when
it's there to take.
Now the Cowboys defense has two former Packers first round picks, Kenny Clark and linebacker, Rashawn Gary.
Matt Loeffler was asked, what does he expect to see from those two former Packers?
I expect them to be playing with their hair on fire.
Kenny's
Both those guys have played really good football.
You know, I think Kenny's a force on the inside.
Rashan does his deal on the outside.
So, but I would expect to get their best shot this week.
And, you know, I still got a lot of love for those guys.
They did a lot of great things here for our organization.
And so it'd be great to see him.
Rashan, Gary was on the Rich Eisen show and asked, did he know that Green Bay was planning to trade him away to Dallas?
No, not at all.
How
did
you find out?
Got called from my GM.
late night and um you know just ended up talking had a great conversation and uh he ended up telling me uh where i was going to this is good occurrence to go here and he personally called you out yeah okay gave me a call expressed uh how he felt about me you know what i meant told me uh this would be a great opportunity for me and uh
You know, when I first heard the news, I was kind of still didn't know how to, you know, really take it out of the field because, you know, I've been in Green Bay my whole NFL career.
The last time these two teams played, it was a shootout in Texas that ended in a 40 to 40 tie.
I asked Jordan Love if it could be that kind of a night against Deck Prescott and that Cowboys potent offense.
A couple of weeks ago, Troy Aikman during the broadcast said, unless you're up by 17 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, you'd better not take your foot off the gas with the way these quarterbacks and these offenses play.
And with you and Dak on the field,
that's going to hold true Sunday night, right?
Oh, definitely.
Like you mentioned, our lead is never safe in the NFL.
We've all learned that.
You can come back from any deficit, and things always find a way.
I feel like to come down to the fourth quarter, the last couple of minutes, where you've got to be locked in, doubt in, especially in these tight games.
But yeah, I think everybody in this locker room has learned that no lead is ever safe in the NFL.
You've got to keep your fill in the gas until the game's over, until that clock is zero.
And the Packers got word that running back Josh Jacobs can now return to
practice in time for next week's game against the Lions in Detroit.
However, an investigation into what led to his arrest last May continues.
Baseball, the Brewers took the sports world by storm after sweeping the Dodgers in four straight games to win the National League pennant team captain Christian Yelich.
We talked about it before the postseason started.
It's going to take resilience.
It's going to take responding.
It's going to take sticking together, playing our brand of baseball.
And it's a really close group that relies on each other.
And I'm just so proud of them.
did such a great job tonight.
So the Brewers will either face Cleveland or Tampa from the American League on Friday night in Milwaukee for game one of the World Series.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy told his players just before they open up the champagne.
I can't tell you in my lifetime I couldn't be more proud of a group of players.
I'm thankful to the ownership.
I'm thankful to the front office, to everybody that works with us.
Right now, they got a bunch of Hall of Famers.
We got a bunch of gamers.
That's the Brewer's Manager, Pat Murphy.
With the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review, I'm Mike Clemens.