GT: Badgers @ Hawkeyes

[Turk Nowitzki]

Have we heard from Lippo lately? I'm guessing not given the way Mertz has been playing.

To be honest, Mertz has basically has nothing on offense right now but at the same time he's also missing throws and making terrible decisions. Just a bad situation to have him in but I also know for damn sure Coan wouldn't be getting the benefit of the doubt right now.

[MikeIsGood]

Given how useless this season is (at least for us), I was in favor of continuing to play Mertz and letting him learn by fire. But he's been so bad now the past two weeks that I now would be worried about his confidence.

We play Minnesota next week now. I do NOT want to lose to the Gophers.

[DrWood]

Given how useless this season is (at least for us), I was in favor of continuing to play Mertz and letting him learn by fire. But he's been so bad now the past two weeks that I now would be worried about his confidence.

We play Minnesota next week now. I do NOT want to lose to the Gophers.

I got my bachelor's from UW and my Ph.D. from UMn, so I don't hate the gophers, but their coach is a dick and I don't want them to do well vs. the badgers.

[Kerb Hohl]

Given how useless this season is (at least for us), I was in favor of continuing to play Mertz and letting him learn by fire. But he's been so bad now the past two weeks that I now would be worried about his confidence.

We play Minnesota next week now. I do NOT want to lose to the Gophers.

I got my bachelor's from UW and my Ph.D. from UMn, so I don't hate the gophers, but their coach is a dick and I don't want them to do well vs. the badgers.

No ****, the "Dr" actually stands for doctor here.

[Kerb Hohl]

I had accidentally stumbled across what I believe is Coan's dad's twitter account trying to find some news on him last week and remembered seeing some of his tweets in the past.

He definitely likes lots of comments about Coan being better for the team than Mertz. I wasn't sure if it was a situation where Coan was "cleared" but they didn't want to throw him in the fire because he wasn't really ready. I think those likes mean that Coan could've actually played the last week or two and they're sticking with Mertz. Feels like Coan may be elsewhere next year.

Loved Coan's fire on the sideline when the Badgers had their short spark of a few passes. He seems like a good teammate/guy. Never would bone one of his linemen's girlfriends as our QBs are known to.

[jakecronus8]

Way too much doom and gloom here. This entire season has degenerated into a sham. I saw enough arm talent and moxie in the first two games when the Badgers were mostly healthy to be extremely excited for Mertz. Everything after that has been a **** show due to covid and injuries. Mertz and the Badgers will bounce back and they have some special recruiting classes coming in.

[Bernman]

Way too much doom and gloom here. This entire season has degenerated into a sham. I saw enough arm talent and moxie in the first two games when the Badgers were mostly healthy to be extremely excited for Mertz. Everything after that has been a **** show due to covid and injuries. Mertz and the Badgers will bounce back and they have some special recruiting classes coming in.

There's not much doom and gloom about the future. That doesn't excuse Mertz' present struggles. Nobody to blame but Mertz himself for missing open receivers and throwing INT's not under pressure. Unless his brain is still in a fog from contracting covid 2 months ago. The personnel losses are separate from the things he can control.

Coan should have gotten the job back the middle of his 1st game returning (against Indiana). He's a better QB atm. Bucky could have potentially finished this season w/ 1 loss, seen Coan graduate, THEN transitioned naturally to Mertz next yr. This way we lose AND Coan may return to create a problem. Nobody could reasonably argue he wouldn't have a case for the job. Saying otherwise would be recruiting ranking prejudice and valuing theoretical potential. But then maybe Mertz transfers. Coan not finishing out his college career here wouldn't be ideal either. It's a cluster-f**k that seemingly could have been avoided.

[jakecronus8]

There’s no way the Badgers could have had a one loss season with the skill position guys they’ve been forced to toss out there. Better for Mertz to go through the growing pains. These are all free reps.

[Bernman]

There’s no way the Badgers could have had a one loss season with the skill position guys they’ve been forced to toss out there. Better for Mertz to go through the growing pains. These are all free reps.

As I've pointed out before, we've had even worse skill player & coaching - 07, '14, '15 - didn't make the offense this dysfunctional. Managed 5-3, 7-1, & 6-2 conference record. Defense is as strong as strong or stronger than it was then. And that was w/ Stave + Donovan as qb's. Coan is likely better than they were.

[Kerb Hohl]

There’s no way the Badgers could have had a one loss season with the skill position guys they’ve been forced to toss out there. Better for Mertz to go through the growing pains. These are all free reps.

As I've pointed out before, we've had even worse skill player & coaching - 07, '14, '15 - didn't make the offense this dysfunctional. Managed 5-3, 7-1, & 6-2 conference record. Defense is as strong as strong or stronger than it was then. And that was w/ Stave + Donovan as qb's. Coan is likely better than they were.

So I've been with you on most of this, your points have been valid. And I even have followed along with you with this point.

But I will say that in hindsight, maybe some of the supporting players need some retroactive visitation.

Meaning this: I know that Wisconsin players sometimes surprise us and that this team is pretty loaded with good recruits for our expecations, but look at 2015.

Around then, our opinions probably were, "eh, Dare is just a guy but a nice college player. Erickson is a solid route-running WR. Clement is talented but not our best guy we've had. Linemen are fine but no Joe Thomases in here. Some dynamic LBs on defense and it's good, but so is 2020's."

OK, now fast-forward to right now.

Erickson is still in the NFL. Ditto on Clement and Ogunbawale. I don't care if it's a bit of a trick because those guys all are mostly special teams/3rd down type of players, but they're all still in the pros. CVL (2020 left tackle) has been given some accolades but I've seen some disappointment with his play of late as well. Fumagalli is still in the pros.

Ramczyk is a starting NFL tackle, Edwards is starting, Marz has had a bit of a career. Biegel/Cichy are hanging around the NFL, while Schoebert/Jacobs are good/studs and Watt is a potential HOF player. They had Edwards starting to get some playing time.

Long story short, I'm not sure anyone in the non-Mertz group of players is really going to have this sort of impact. Berger will be good but we had 2 NFL RBs even though they were not Gordon/Taylor-types. I like Herbig but he's a true freshman. Sanborn is good and the Chenal brothers are good - there is NFL potential there...but in 2015 the Badgers had like 7 NFL players, some of them HOF or pro bowlers in the ILB/OLB group. Watt was still just an infrequent player but they had tons of NFL studs there. I don't think this line has 1st/2nd day picks like that one did. We may currently have a slightly better group on the DL but Sagapalu, James, Obisah were very functional.

[Kerb Hohl]

As for 2007, that team did kind of suck...they were probably healthier overall than 2020 and able to just will their way to close wins over 6-6 teams like Iowa, Indiana, Michigan State...a nice win against Michigan but otherwise got the **** kicked out of them by anyone else that they played with a pulse. They kept Brewster's final 1-11 team in the game with them at home and nearly lost.

If this 2020 team got 4 free wins against a **** Washington State team, UNLV, the Citadel, and Northern Illinois plus a game against Tim Brewster's 1-11 Gophers, this 2020 team, too, if COVID stuff wasn't a thing, probably could find its way to 9-3 with a bowl loss to Tennessee similar to that 2007 squad.

[DrWood]

Way too much doom and gloom here. This entire season has degenerated into a sham. I saw enough arm talent and moxie in the first two games when the Badgers were mostly healthy to be extremely excited for Mertz. Everything after that has been a **** show due to covid and injuries. Mertz and the Badgers will bounce back and they have some special recruiting classes coming in.

There's not much doom and gloom about the future. That doesn't excuse Mertz' present struggles. Nobody to blame but Mertz himself for missing open receivers and throwing INT's not under pressure. Unless his brain is still in a fog from contracting covid 2 months ago. The personnel losses are separate from the things he can control.

Coan should have gotten the job back the middle of his 1st game returning (against Indiana). He's a better QB atm. Bucky could have potentially finished this season w/ 1 loss, seen Coan graduate, THEN transitioned naturally to Mertz next yr. This way we lose AND Coan may return to create a problem. Nobody could reasonably argue he wouldn't have a case for the job. Saying otherwise would be recruiting ranking prejudice and valuing theoretical potential. But then maybe Mertz transfers. Coan not finishing out his college career here wouldn't be ideal either. It's a cluster-f**k that seemingly could have been avoided.

The wide receiver group is very thin and weak. Davis has been injured. Dike is promising for a freshman, but he sure plays like a freshman.
And they aren't playing Badger Football, which means running the ball.