It is Make the Call here on the Civic Media network.
Jimmy Cusca here with you as we get set for a big show.
We're going to talk baseball.
We are going to talk
Football, we have a lot to get to on the program.
We're going to talk World Series to start, but before we dive into that, just want to mention our guest for the show today.
We will have on the program today, we will have Jake Kokorowski, Badger Observer.
He'll be joining us coming up.
at the bottom of the hour.
Mike Clemens will do a sports week in review with us.
That'll be coming your way near the end of the program.
We'll also recap the first week of high school football playoffs.
We'll do that coming up here in just a bit.
But we have to dive in, and I can't get the show started without myself, Jimmy Koska, the co-host of the program, Parker Olson.
Parker, what's going on, man?
Jimmy, I am very happy at the moment.
I don't know if you know why, but I'm pretty excited.
Pretty obvious, my world.
You're feeling pretty good right now.
And of course, we can't forget Gray Gunderson, who is in the Northwoods.
Gray, welcome aboard, man.
So happy to be here, guys.
How are we feeling?
Like I don't know, but how are we feeling?
I am sitting here the morning after and I have to say this.
Last night, I was telling people, I got to celebrate a Brewer's World Series win.
twice because the double play ball got overturned and then the game continued and ended on a strikeout so in the span of like 10 minutes you went from stress to yay to very stress to yay but I'm still stressed again guys what a finish to game one of the world series
yeah it really was interesting right I mean
Props to Trevor McGill.
I mean, it is really, really hard to go from, I think I just won a game, and it's gotta be even harder to go from, I think I just won a game in the World Series.
And then back to, okay, now I've gotta get this last out.
Credit to him for finding a way to lock in there after Cooper Pratt, unfortunately, didn't quite drag a spike.
I gotta think that Pratt is gonna keep that in his mind as he tries to kind of pay back.
for that make up for that rather.
But I mean, all around a really good game for the birds.
And again,
We keep on saying this.
This bullpen is so darn good, Gray.
Well, and that was going to be my point.
What was after that, that, uh, will they won't they did?
They didn't.
They kind of moment there to finish the game.
You know, there was a hundred people or a hundred thousand people, a hundred million people probably screaming to themselves internally.
They should have brought Ashby back in.
They should have brought Ashby back in.
And then no, wait, McGill has got it.
Oh my gosh.
The amount of swearing that's taking place over the state.
Also, I just want to take a moment before I forget to congratulate Italian winning the first world
series, Sausage Race in History.
We can't leave it unmentioned.
We just can't.
That is incredible stat.
Well, the biggest stat, obviously, they're one and all in the World Series.
First World Series win in 44 years, which, yes, that's older than me, and I'm pretty old.
But, you know, more importantly, they keep home field, they get to play, they turn around and play right away again tonight.
We got to see as we talked about, you know, leading into the series, talking about it really all playoffs guys, that the Brewers have a system that goes with this, their pitching rotation and their pitching staff, you know,
They have a, you know, they have their starter, get to a point, and then they have a certain order of guys they hand it off to in the bullpen.
And that strategy for them tonight, as stressful as it was at the end, it is the World Series after all, it did seem to pay off for them.
It did.
I think that the Brewers are in their prime when they are able to stay, I'll call it in system, when they can stay Ashby, Aribe, McGill, they are absolutely firing on all cylinders.
That is,
ideal circumstances for the brewers, right?
But the thing about that is though, even when they, we talked about this on, I think it was posted on social media yesterday or the day before, the brewers need to plug in a guy from the bullpen between the starter and Ashby sometimes, right?
And that's Bren Woodruff might be that guy come later on in this series.
But Jojo Romero, somebody like that, sends a tell another guy that is very good, that kind of fills that role.
Those guys are even as good.
And that I would consider that out of system for the brewers.
And when those guys are in, I still feel really good because not only they've got so much good within their bullpen from that first guy to come into that last guy being McGill.
There's so much good there.
But also,
I trust this offense so much.
Great.
This has got to be the most I've trusted a brewer offense in a long time.
Well, a lot of that, I agree with you, Parker, 100%.
A lot of that, though, has to do with the fact that it looked like both Contreras and Churrio, especially
seemed like they picked up right where they left off.
I believe I was looking at Contreras specifically.
He entered the series with an OPS of 1.157 over the first eight games, two hits in a walk today if I'm not mistaken, basically picked up right where he left off.
And if that can continue, and then the clear moves with pinch hitting and things like there was obviously an offensive game plan coming in.
And it kind of just looks like the dominoes sort of fell as people were, as Murph was pushing them down and really hoped to.
My question though is just touching on the pitching,
rotation again.
Do you guys expect McGill will look a little bit sharper going forward?
He did obviously get the job done.
He closed it out today, but he started out a little bit shakier with that.
I know I'm a little bit warmer curial than some fans will be, but do you think he'll was he a little rusty after the rest today?
Or was this just a couple of bad ending or two for him?
I think that this might have been just a little bit of World Series jitters.
It surprised me in his first at bat that McGill had.
He
I think his fastball was only at 98.
And I was expecting like 101 from him because he's got that heat, right?
But also, you've got so much adrenaline because you're in the World Series.
You've got so much adrenaline.
Usually guys overthrow on that first pitch or two.
And he didn't do that.
He was cruising at 98, which kind of made me think, okay, he's got to be fairly composed.
He's got to be feeling pretty in the comfort zone.
But you're right, great.
He didn't quite
have it.
He couldn't hit the strike zone.
And I'd have to go back and look at the sequence of that at bat, but we've talked about this a little bit off air.
The rays are best against the fastball.
If the brewers are throwing fastballs, the rays might just make them hurt, right?
And I think McGill might have been leaning into some more of that, I'll call it junk, the off-speed pitches.
And when you're doing that, you're more prone to missing your spots and not delivering as you need to, not hitting your locations.
So I'm not too worried about McGill.
However, I am a little worried about this matchup with the Rays because...
They do just do so well against the fastball.
Well, and thank you for catching me there.
I said innings.
I meant to say at bats, but no, I think we're on the same page there.
I look forward to seeing what do you guys expect any major adjustments to the game plan going forward in a game two or potentially game three?
Or do you think it's going to be just more of the same that we saw yesterday?
I think you're going to see a lot more of the same.
I one thing I will say is that after playing the entire LCS from behind, getting the two start in this game was absolutely huge.
I thought I think it just.
It kind of, you know, all that pressure of a World Series having a week off kind of melts away when you're sitting with a two-nothing lead after the first inning.
Yeah, I would certainly think so.
I mean, talk about a good way to make your starting pitcher feel more comfortable.
We haven't seen Jacob Mizegorowski.
We haven't seen him at his best in this postseason, right?
He is struggled.
I don't want to say a lot by any means.
He's not struggled by a lot.
However, he hasn't quite been him.
He hasn't quite been able to give you
A lengthy start.
I know that you should not by any means expect Miz to go a complete game like he did that one time during the regular season.
But he wasn't quite him in this postseason and maybe he was a little more amped up because it was the World Series here and that's why he was able to perform.
I think better than he has all postseason.
I can perform better last night.
But I've got to think that lead really, really helped him out.
I think you're probably correct there, Parker, but you know, I think that what will we see of the Miz in the remainder of the series here is a bit of a question because I don't think there's many people who expected Nick Martinez, at least in black and white, to outperform the Miz.
That said, Mizorowski is such a young player.
I like to hope that he can get his head.
You know, get his head back between his shoulders for lack of a better expression.
Well, the Brewers are going to play again.
If you're listening to the show on Saturday, they're going to be playing again tonight against the Rays for Game 2, then a day off, and then the series heads to Tampa Monday through Wednesday.
And the question about starting rotations while in the World Series, your game one starter might end up pitching three times in this series.
So the question is, you know, as far as Mizorowski goes, you know, he's had some short outings in the postseason.
We got to remember, you know, over the course of
of this career.
I don't think he's played this long season ever.
So you got to keep that context as well that this is kind of a first for everybody.
And I think that as far as the Brewers go, they've got so many arms and all the guys that the trades they made, the moves they've made to get to this point, that the pitching part of it isn't a worry for me.
It's going to be the offense against what's a pretty good raised pitching staff and rotation.
That's the part that worries me a bit.
They did get three today or Friday, but that's going to be the
apart from me that I would want to watch.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think this brewer offense is the first thing that would go cold, right?
I mean, the old, the old story is always that you can't play essentially how the brewers do.
You can't play the way they do offensively.
and win in the postseason.
Well, they proved last night that they can play like the Brewers play and win in the postseason.
I don't know necessarily that that's going to work for this whole series.
If you play this for the whole series, it might not turn out that well for you.
I think they're going to have to start hitting for power.
However, they made it work and you know what?
They didn't have any rust.
That's kind of the main thing about them.
Want to get to is the offense didn't have rust and it's easier for a rust to have for excuse me.
It's easier for an offense to have rust than it is for a pitching staff to have rust as far as I'm concerned.
It'll be brewers and raise game two coming up and it'll be.
The game Saturday night, if you're listening to this on Sunday, obviously, you know the outcome.
We don't see the future.
The show airs normally the earliest time is on Saturday morning.
So we do not have a game to recap coming for you, but we will be talking about it all throughout the week on the Civic Media Network when we get to that next week.
All right.
Well, we are going to take a break.
Come back.
We're going to talk a little Packers.
They take on the Lions coming up tomorrow.
And we'll talk about that a bit coming up later in the program.
Badgers football chat with Jake Kokorowski of Badger
and Mike Clemens of the Sports Week in review.
This is Make the Call on the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back to Make the Call on the Civic Media Network.
It is...
It is obviously baseball is on all of our minds and we could spend the whole show just talking about this World Series.
We're going to have plenty of opportunities to talk about it.
But we do want to talk some football this weekend.
Coming up later in the program, we're going to hear from Jake Kokorowski, who's going to cover the Badgers football game and also the volleyball matches this weekend.
Going to hear from Mike Clemens, who's out covering all of these things with a sports week in review.
And it's the first weekend of 11 player high school football playoffs and the second weekend for eight players.
So we're going to run that down as well.
Coming up later in the program.
Right now though, let's preview the Packers.
They take on Detroit that is coming up on Sunday on many of the Civic Media stations, including Lion's Affiliate in the UP.
So we've got both ends of it covered.
Actually, one funny note about the company and the recent acquisitions is that now with some recent additions in Illinois and Iowa, we now have completed the NFC North Infinity Gauntlet.
We now have
Packers lions vikings and bears affiliates in civic media.
So we've got it all covered guys.
We have the whole conference the whole division I mean covered But let's talk about this this division will show down I think the biggest thing is that we found out on Friday The Packers are already are kind of hurting up the middle on defense and then you find out there Franklin's gonna be out I I feel like for the Packers the defense has actually been pretty decent, but
Just seeing guys get banged up, seeing Cece lead the game last week with an injury, seeing now with Franklin out with the leg injury.
Like I want to guys that got left back there.
The one thing I'm thankful for at this point, Jimmy, is that they've clarified pretty immediately that it's not an IR situation, a long-term absence for somebody like your team's leading tackler, for example.
And I think he's in the top 10 or top 15 in the NFL right now.
The man is just involved in all kinds of plays.
That would be a major blow, but right now, honestly, I've developed a lot of confidence that Jonathan Gannon can make up for this.
And I think, especially given how strong the Packers past defense has been this year, they'll be able to lean on whoever's up
next on that list.
Honestly, I can't necessarily even call to mind because McDuffie has already been seeing
playing time to Ron Hopper's already been seeing extra playing time.
I'm not 100% certain off the drop who the next linebacker up on the list is.
It might even be somebody like Christian Welch, who comes to mind a Wisconsin boy playing for his hometown team.
But regardless, I won't worry until I see reason to worry.
The one thing that is heartening to me right now is that the Packers are leading in interceptions right now, but they're absolutely going up against a more capable offense than they've seen since Atlanta, at least with Jameer Gibbs being one of those problematic running backs that the
We definitely do this is I
would probably wager the biggest test that the Packers have had this year knowingly leading into the game.
They ended up getting absolutely smacked by the Falcons, but I don't think that we really expected that to happen as much this one.
I don't I'm not predicting the Packers a good smacked here, but it's very
possible that that it's more possible that that happens than maybe any of the other games this year.
And yeah, you're absolutely right.
I mean, Jared Goff has been pretty much phenomenal this year.
The three and two record kind of surprises me a little bit.
I have not been paying that close of attention to the Lions really this year, but seeing them at three and two kind of just makes me scratch my head a little and wonder what's going on in Detroit because I've gotten so used to
Weird to say.
I've gotten used to the Lions actually being pretty solid in this Dan Campbell era.
Obviously, now Ben Johnson gone to the Bears.
changes things a little bit over there in Detroit.
But, Gray, do you have any expectations for the Packer offense?
We've talked a little bit about the defense already and some of the injuries and some of the challenges that are presented by that Lions offense.
Let's turn the table over to Jordan Love, who's been dealing with a sore back after getting hit a bunch.
That's probably the best way to put it.
What are you kind of anticipating for Jordan Love this week and that Packer offense, Gray?
Well, the answer to that question, we've got to confront the elephant in the room eventually.
The answer to that question is going to flow through how much of the offense ends up in the hands of Josh Jacobs.
Word is that he's, we're expecting to see him get some level of playing time, but that's absolutely...
Well, I don't want to say absolutely astounding.
He's obviously been keeping in shape.
He's been training, but to throw somebody right into hot water like that is an interesting scenario for the offense in general.
If he shows well, honestly, I wonder how flexible the game plan is going to be.
And if we end up rushing, we end up rushing.
One thing that has been standing out Parker, speaking to your point of the Lions and their three and two start, they haven't given up any fewer than 21 points.
That's the best they've managed to hold somebody to.
And that was the Arizona Cardinals who scored
who scored three touchdowns on them.
So yeah, no, I'm sitting here thinking what version of the lines do we get, especially because they're getting Brian Branch back, one of the major missing pieces on that defense.
So as far as what I expect to see, I think it really depends on how the scripted plays that the Packers will open with, how the water tests out when they dip their toe into it, basically.
Does Jacob see some success in their old school running scheme, which they haven't even been really trying with Marshawn Lloyd, Caleb Johnson, and the rest of the law firm that's been back there behind Jordan Love, or do they just
air it out like they did against the Bears and saw massive success with.
I don't necessarily think so, but I kind of expect them to try a little bit of both and then just go with the flow from there.
I'm hoping that Matt LaFleur has a good day of play calling because that's the one thing that I'm 100% sure of.
He'll have to adapt to whatever he sees early in the game.
It's going to be interesting next week too because I play twice in this van for five days and then in the month of November they play three games.
Like they get
kind of like three bio weeks in November with the weird schedule.
There's a really interesting part of the schedule right here where, yeah, a lot can happen in the span of five days, but with all the injuries that they've had early, I mean,
Just kind of surviving this week of I'm just getting through this week I know that Carolina will talk about it more next week But you know getting through Detroit getting through the Panthers this week if Packers come out of this and they're still over 500 Whatever it is.
I feel like that sets up a
pretty interesting back half of the season where they find themselves in a position for some success, especially with all the rest that they're going to get for all these injuries.
I completely agree.
I think that's 100% accurate, Jimmy.
One thing that stands out to me against Carolina and this isn't a thumb war.
So it's not like, hey, they beat us, we beat them.
So we're going to get a win.
You know, it's not that simple black and white paper math kind of thing.
But Carolina is on the list of teams who beat the Lions this year.
So I'm hoping that there's something that's shown up on tape that that coaching can key in on a little bit here.
Honestly...
Jonathan Gannon is going to be shouldering a huge load here, especially with all the players missing, like you mentioned.
And to that point, by the way, I saw an interesting stat this week, a slightly tangential, but really interesting.
The Packers are leading right now in money paid to IR players by a long shot.
They're paying $112 million to players currently on IR, leading the next closest team by over 30 million.
And even if Micah Parsons were back, the Packers would still be the top three in most money poured into a pit.
right now.
That is not a stat you want to leave the NFL in at all.
Packers and Lions play on Sunday.
You'll hear it on all of our Packers radio affiliates as well as our Detroit Lions affiliate in the U.P.
So you can find it on any of about a half dozen civic media stations here this weekend.
We're going to keep the football thing going.
We're going to talk about your football next with Jake Kokorowski of Badger Observer and BadgerObserver.com.
You're listening to Make the Call in the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
We are halfway through Make the Call on this weekend, a big weekend in sports.
We've talked a lot about football already in the show.
We were just talking about the pack.
There's a bit of a way that we're all kind of in our mind about baseball right now with the World Series going on.
But we still have other things happening and going right up against Game 2 of the World Series tonight.
is going to be Wisconsin football taking on USC.
That again, if you're listening to the show Saturday, it's really hard for those of you listening on Sunday, you just get to pretend to go back in time.
and offer this as a preview of the show normally airs Saturday.
So for the replay people, this part will matter a whole lot to you because you'll know what happened.
But we look ahead to Wisconsin and USC.
Jake Kokorowski, Badger Observer and BadgerObserver.com joins us.
And Jake, I want to start with this.
Last week against UCLA, it was a
Pretty low scoring game, but I have to, I have to feel like I don't think that, um, a way in a loss, whatever, I don't think it really changed people's minds about where the program is kind of heading or what this team is supposed to be this year.
Maybe a bit of a missed opportunity, but here at the midway point, uh, what are we feeling about the badgers?
Yeah.
I mean, four and two is kind of what we maybe thought it would be.
You know, I don't know if like we didn't think UCLA would be this good and Penn State wouldn't be as bad.
So I kind of had them at around four and two at this.
point though I mean I do feel they missed and they definitely missed an opportunity against UCLA.
You can't give up 65% on third downs to a backup quarterback.
They did a great job up until the fourth quarter stopping the run.
And offensively, it just, you know, discombobulated is probably the best way to put it where they didn't couldn't string together things.
And yeah, there were definitely penalties, but everyone's talked about it.
You can't put the game in the hands of officials.
That may be just some coach speak there based off of what Luke Fickle said on Monday.
But, you know, it is a, I think, you know, we thought going into the season that tonight's game against USC next week's game against Iowa and Halloween,
those would be the toughest stretch of the season.
And I'm not backing down from that because I do think it is.
So yeah, really the one thing that was, you know,
I think everyone's looking as like, okay, you're in a USET and that's looking good.
They've been good on the road this year, not in years past underneath Lincoln Riley, but and dependent upon what happens when the passing attack and you see the Trojans are coming off a bye week, it's going to be a very interesting test for Wisconsin.
And can they get the offense to be more consistent too?
And yeah, it's a very much, this is a big game.
Not just for Lincoln Riley to continue with the USC's hopes of making the college ball playoff, but also ensuring that.
Yeah, just seeing what Luke Fickle and like if they can win this primetime game and continue the good vibes going into what will be a very rough environment next week in Iowa City.
Jim.
Jimmy, you're not Jimmy.
Jake, Jake, can you give me a little bit of a rundown of USC and what the badges are really facing, what some of the keys are for the Badgers to try to expose against this USC team?
Right.
I mean, it all starts with the offense and just what this.
what the offense can do for USC.
It's one of the best in the Big 10, one of the best in the nation, I'd say, and throw in a ball.
That shouldn't be surprising considering Lincoln Raleigh and his lineage there, you know, Jada Maivia.
You know, 18 touchdown passes, only three interceptions through seven games, completing almost 68% of his passes.
They have a lot of young talent when it comes to, you know, catching the ball, you know, Trent Mosley, Caden Dixon Wyatt, very, you know, this young talented group, you know, even at tight end, I know that he was on the injury list, but Mark Bowman, who was actually teammates with someone like Ryan Hopkins, the Wisconsin's backup quarterback at Santa Ana, modern day, down in court, California, one of the national powerhouses.
So,
There is a lot there for fans to be like, all right, this is their average in 36 and a half points a game.
They're actually running the ball pretty decently at 152 yards per game, and then they're chucking it for 310 per contest.
So that's going to be something to watch.
Also the legs of the quarterback, you have to watch out there.
You know, they've only lost two fumbles.
They've only thrown three interceptions.
So they're, you know, it's going to be the one, four technically interceptions they've thrown.
So Wisconsin's going to have to make sure they contain and not allow plays to be extended.
They're going to have to cover better than they did against UCLA.
You can't give up, you know, I mean, 262 yards to a backup quarterback for UCLA was not optimal.
I mean, you did everything right, except for allowing the Bruins to throw on them.
So they're gonna have to be improvement.
They're gonna have to get on the quarterback.
They're gonna have to, like, they're gonna have to pressure it, but yet contain as much easier said than done against a really good offense.
And we'll just see how Wisconsin fairs under the lights at Camp Randall Stadium.
Jake, it sounded like you've got some optimism about the team, but we can put it as a simple question.
Do the Badgers have to win out after taking that loss last week?
Yeah, definitely for the playoff in my eyes.
You're looking at the fact with this team, it is a, you have...
You beat a ranked usc team and then i was ranked go i mean i will face the minnesota we'll see how they do there if you can beat if you can beat those two teams and then win out yeah you have definitely have an argument right i would say uh it's a and just with how the parody within college football right now if you only have two losses and they're two top 10 teams with Notre Dame and UCLA that's a pretty good resume and then if you beat
someone like I know Penn State that is not a signature victory right now, but y'all but if you can beat USC can beat Iowa and then Maryland Rutgers, you know, obviously they play the game, but they're down Maryland's now down a coach and then Purdue's been good, but I thought they could be in the middle of the big 10, but then they laid an egg against Washington last week and then he had Minnesota which Minnesota was up and down to
This is a place where right now, if they could win out, for sure, I would consider them to be in discussion of that.
I've been going into Iowa City and defeating the Hawkeyes, and in terms of Luke Fickle's job, I would say really with Wisconsin, if they can go eight and four and grab one of the trophy games, I think for sure, I'm speculating here.
I don't have any insider info, but that has to make you feel good about where this program's going.
you know, re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re
I don't think that's a I would say a hard standard and so we'll see what goes from there but yeah and like I said it's going to be I think for some reason the UCLA loss to me is kind of stagger a little bit of optimism just on my uncovering the team just because of what happened against the pass defense which came into the game against the Bruins like one of the best in the nation defending against pass.
Dr. Jay Kokorowski of BadgerObserver and BadgerObserver.com.
Badger is taking on USC in a game that will be played at Camp Randall Stadium.
I'm sure there will be a lot of people streaming a certain other game on devices as they are following along with the Badgers.
But just in terms of this matchup, the injury report just gets a little bit cleaner every week out, it seems like, for the football program.
There are a couple of defensive backs, so you were just talking about past defense that are dinged a bit.
What can we expect of this matchup?
Wisconsin and USC.
Yeah, I mean, for me, you know, you talked about it, you know, I think the Javon Robinson is the big one, I think, questionable.
He's arguably been the best defensive back, you know, for sure the best cornerback for the team came over former Washington state and Arizona state transfer, a really good, you know, like, and he's become a leader within that group too.
So, I mean, his, we'll see just what the availability reports are between, you know, coming up,
Gosh, about what, 430 or so?
We should be getting that today.
And then, you know, like I said, it's going to be, you know, Lincoln Rally is that air raid disciple from Mike Leach tree.
And that's going to be a big matchup.
I don't think they're going to be able to like squash the passing game of USC.
And it goes back to the point we were talking about earlier, just with this matchup, it's with this offense.
I mean, Wisconsin's got to, you know, basically, yeah, basically throw the passing game off rhythm pressure.
Can you contain and stop the plays from being extended?
That's gonna be a huge mark and you know, you didn't really see it with Wisconsin You need to make sure that someone outside of Sebastian cheeks can get sacks and you saw Nick Clayton have a big one Last week at UCLA.
Can they get others involved there?
Defensively, you know USC is not
the best in there.
You know, they have Gary Patterson, the former TCU coach that's there as the defensive coordinator.
And it's, you know, it's a defense that right now, I mean, they're allowing, I mean, they're 13th in the big 10, 25 points allowed per game.
They're allowing about 370 per contest.
And then, yeah, I'm just taking a look at some of their sets.
You only have about 110 yards rushing.
The other part, though, is they give up, I mean,
239 yards passing that's that's 16th in the Big 10.
Here's the thing though Wisconsin for their offense
They're 16th as well against throwing the ball.
They're just about 200 yards passing per contest.
So, can Colton Joseph, who has not looked great passing the ball, you know, in terms of just the completion percentage, can he, what will Wisconsin do to get him in a rhythm?
What can they do to exploit whatever deficiencies the Trojans have within the secondary or their past defense?
That's going to be big.
And so, I think
Wisconsin has an opportunity to pass the ball pretty well and we're gonna Yeah, I think they have an opportunity to kind of get back You know on the horse again if you will in terms of the passing game because you've seen what he can what Colton Joseph can do when he can air it out He has time but you know can the receivers get the separation can he get the tight ends back involved in the game because you know Jacob Harris was pretty quiet against the UCLA and credit to UCLA's defense for that matter but I think those are gonna be the keys of just
Making you know getting you USC's offense out of rhythm and then on top of that like hey You need to play complementary football and offense with the run and can't you and I think it's the other thing too with Wisconsin You're seeing Colton Joseph take a lot of the burden in the run game and right now he's on path to be the leading rusher But can the run game with the running backs get going too?
Can you get up a busamba the third and Darion do pre-rolling?
So yeah, there's
There are a lot of question marks, you know, and so it could be a coin flip of a game, but obviously I think those are just some of the big things that we'll have to watch
for.
Jake another program that is unfortunately not going to be in the spotlight as much because they are conflicting with the Brewers again is Badger Volleyball their plan against Washington on Friday night.
Can you kind of give us an update on Badger Volleyball right now?
They had another not a sweep actually in Iowa was a 3-1 victory in Iowa last week coming off of a sweep of Maryland the night or two nights before that.
there's not a whole ton left on this schedule, frankly, right?
What is, what's kind of the goal for Kelly Sheffield and his team here as they kind of go uncontested for a little while here now?
Right.
And so, yeah, I mean, you know, Sunday comes Michigan.
And, you know, then they go out West for a couple of matches against USC and USC, UCLA next weekend.
And, you know, the really the big name to watch, you know, is going to be the November 8th matchup, which is going to be looks like on FS one.
on that couple Sundays from now, again, you know, it's at home against Penn State, which is, you know, top 20 matchups.
So I think for me, you know, I think with this team, you're seeing it's still a work in progress.
And honestly, I don't know if there's
I don't know what else to really expect.
And that's not a bad thing.
I think it's because you have nine freshmen that are still at this point, you wonder, are they really freshmen anymore?
Just, I know it's the old coach saying, right?
Because they've been through two thirds of the regular season.
And for a lot of these freshmen too, many of them came during the spring.
So there is that added experience that has paid dividends for an Audrey Flanagan for
I would say even like, you know, obviously a Lenny Tarnow, but also an Isabel Hoppe with her as a subserv in her role.
So, but you do, I mean, I have, you know, I had an article up on Friday on Badger, we're talking about just the way Charlie Furbringer continues to set up her teammates for success and that, and just the amount of knowledge she, about a month ago, she's less than a month ago, but she taught, you know, I asked her just what she has to take.
into account, you know, and how the preferences that these, that the players want, you know, want the sets.
And she just within 56 seconds, nine players.
And that everyone kind of like, I know at least one other reporter and I sat and we're just kind of like, holy crap, that was, you know, it's impressive.
And so in my eyes with Wisconsin, you know,
So they're led by her.
You're starting to see Jaila August start to heat up, but she had like, you know, 20 kills at Iowa.
And so you're seeing, you know, you're seeing the progress.
And I think, you know, this is over this time, I think you want them to, the biggest thing is going to be clean volleyball and ensuring that, you know, you don't drop sets that you need to, that you take cleaner, you know, that they continue to, they've been one of the better passing teams in the big 10.
Can they continue to do that?
And I think that's what you really need to look at with this team because, you know, as of earlier this week, they were what?
Number four in the RPR, RPI rankings.
So that plays a big role.
We also translated that segment into dog.
So, uh,
I
love it.
Um, Jake, uh, on a more serious note, uh, find Jake's work at your observer at badgerobserver.com.
Uh, great to, uh, great to have your insight on everything and, uh, appreciate you buddy.
Thank you for joining us and I look forward to talking to you again real soon.
Awesome.
Y'all take care.
Have a great weekend and enjoy a fantastic Wisconsin sports weekend.
Yeah, this is going to be a big week.
A big stretch of games coming up in all sports, whether it's Brewers, Block, Badgers, Packers, whatever it is that you're following high school football, there's so much happening right now.
All right, we got a second break.
Come back.
We are going to talk high school football.
We're going to recap the first round of the 11 player football playoffs and get a weekend review from Mike Plummins.
What a week it is.
These weekend review segments get more and more packed in the more that these sports seasons overlap.
We have more coming up right here.
I'll make the call on the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back to make the call here on the Civic Media Network.
It's time now to take a look at playoff results from week one of 11 player and week two of eight player football playoffs.
In division one, it was very chalky.
The higher seated team, the home team won in virtually every match except for fifth ranked Franklin over fourth ranked Kenosha Bradford and Appleton North scoring a 21-7 victory over Stevens Point.
That's a six over a three.
Division two featured a number of upsets, especially in bracket A where the
5th, 6th, and 7th seeded teams.
Waukesha West, River Falls and Brookfield Central all claimed victories.
Also, Marshfield, a 5C, got a win over Wausau East.
Grafton, the defending state champions in D3, took down Greenfield 24-17.
Division 3 saw just one road team get a victory.
That was Catholic Memorial taking down Greendale 42-7.
One game to be played on Saturday, Baldwin Woodville at Mount Horribarneville.
Division four saw the home team win in just about every single matchup except for Evansville going on the road to knock off Plattville to get a victory there 49 to 20.
The division five bracket similarly full of chalk Darlington the top seed in this one 35-14 winners over Dodgeville.
Mayville, the defending D5 champ, also getting a win in the opening round 27-24 over Amory.
Just a couple of upsets by seeding in Division 6.
It was 7th Seated Fall Creek taking down St.
Mary Catholic 34-7.
They'll rematch with Regis in Level 2.
Also, it was 5th Seated Potosi-Casville scoring a touchdown with 28 seconds to go to take down Mineral Point.
26-24, they'll take on undefeated Mondovi in Level 2.
And in D7, just a couple of upsets.
Melrose Mandora over Webster, 27-8.
Osio Fairchild knocking off Shayokton, 28-20.
That's a 7-over-2 upset victory.
Also, fifth-seeded Blackhawk Warren defeated Kashton, 36-32.
Six of the eight games in eight-player football were played.
Winners include Gilman, Belmont, Oakfield, Athens, Valley Christian, and Syring.
Two games to be played today.
Civic Media will continue to provide coverage of high school football playoffs throughout the state on select stations.
Check your local stations listings for games that could be coming up on your local station.
We also stream for free worldwide on the free Civic Media app.
Download it at civicmedia.us slash app.
But
Things are set for a fantastic level 2 of high school football in 11 player and for 8 player down to the quarter finals already.
State just a couple of weeks away in 8 player football.
11 player football wraps up the week before Thanksgiving at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
Couple of defending champions go down.
Couple others are shuffled into new brackets.
Going to be an exciting postseason.
for sure.
This has been Make the Call on the Civic Media Network.
Here's Mike Clemens with a sports week in review.
Have a great weekend everybody and go Brewers!
The World Series in Wisconsin.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens from American Family Field with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
The Brewers and Rays battling it out in the Best of Seven World Series.
More of that coming up, we begin with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Before they kicked off their regular season, made the decision to wave Kevin Porter Jr.
to get their roster to the required limit.
New Head Coach Taylor Jenkins on that decision.
I mean, he's a talented player.
He's gonna, you know, get an opportunity somewhere else and be able to contribute for them.
But as we thought through the lens of what we're building here and going.
forward and the young core of guards that we have, the excitement we have for them, creating pathways for them.
It was a very difficult decision, but one that we're, you know, we believe is going to be in the best interest of the team moving forward.
But he did a great job for us.
I know he's going to contribute and make an impact somewhere else too.
The Bucks opened the season Wednesday with a loss to the Wizards.
On Friday afternoon, it was their home opener and a loss to the Chicago Bulls.
132 to 125.
Milwaukee blowing a 15-point lead in the first half.
Tyler Hero led with 34 points Friday for Milwaukee.
It says the team will be a work in progress this fall.
There's a lot of components here.
Brand new group, new coaching staff, new system.
A lot of young guys.
Be a completely different team as the months go on and as we get towards the end of the season.
But we have to continue to just work at it every single day and try to transfer it and translate it to the games.
College football, the Badgers began the week with a record of four and two after losing to UCLA 17 to seven.
In a game played in the historic Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, head coach Luke
after the loss.
Well, we didn't play real well tonight.
That's for sure, and I'll take the heat on that.
Like there's no way you're going to go on the road and have as many penalties and play as undisciplined as we did and think you're going to be able to beat a really good football team.
Penalties really set the Badgers back in this one.
It's evident in the first half, and it didn't change a whole lot in the second half.
There's an aggressive nature to things.
The Badgers host number 16th ranked USC NFL.
The Packers with a prime time win over the Cowboys 23 to 13.
improved to four and two.
Dallas fell to two and four.
The Packers defense kept being flagged for roughing the passer calls against quarterback deck press cut.
I asked a frustrated Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney if he knew what the definition of a roughing penalty was these days.
Man, I don't know man.
Honestly, I really don't know.
It's been a lot.
it's been a lot of penalties that I'm kind of scratching my head on the penalties and what they're calling.
We just got to go out there and play.
Matt LaFleur was asked if the pass protection on offense had been improving or was quarterback Jordan Love simply getting rid of the ball sooner.
Yeah, I think there's a combination of all that.
I think Jordan has always done a really good job of getting the ball out of his hands.
I think our, you know, the speed element definitely helps.
Now, Jordan Love took several shots from the Cowboys Sunday night and had to be treated by a chiropractor for a back injury.
after the game.
Did he know how it happened?
Yeah, no, I mean, obviously, you know, just with the back, I don't know exactly what play happened on what happened.
Obviously limit, you know, me taking hits in the pocket and something we've talked about.
We harp on and there's there's been some better efforts to, you know, do better and protect better.
And, you know, I think guys have responded to that.
After essentially a six week league suspension, the NFL let running back Josh Jacobs back on the field.
The Packers playing the Lions this weekend at Ford Field.
I asked Jake
if he thought he was ready and in
shape to play a whole game.
We're going to see how I go, man.
I don't know where we're going to be at this week.
If I'm actually going to play or not, all I'm trying to do is get prepared to play if they let me.
Baseball, the World Series underway.
The Brewers got off to an early lead in game one, kept chipping away.
Jackson Churio at bat in the bottom of the seventh.
Kelly for Churio.
Pokes one down the line.
It's 3-1 Milwaukee.
Jackson Churio delivers
again.
The Brewers went on to win three to two in game one Friday night.
Manager Pat Murphy said the team could have been a little bit
first time in 44 years, it brought up memories of the 1982 Brewers.
Pat Murphy has been named the Baseball Manager of the Year the past two seasons because of
his work with a young Brewers roster.
The 1982 Brewers had more veterans.
I asked Robin Yount about that on a call this week.
You had a core of guys for four or five years.
How important was it to have Harvey Keen in place to manage your kind of team?
Well, Harvey was almost like a stepdad to all of us.
Everybody respected him more than you know.
We would go over there after
games once in a while and hang out.
And sometimes we were there later than maybe we should.
But Harvey was still the man.
Whatever Harvey said, we followed it to the tee.
That's Brewer Hall of Famer Robin Yacht with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
I'm Mike Clemens.