Big Ten 2023 football schedule released, the Wisconsin Badgers could make behind Graham Mertz

what is going on everybody Big Ten football schedule release day um there's some interesting things here that I think we gotta chop up uh all that and more why the schedule is a new coach's best friend coming up on today's lockdown Badgers let's go [Music] you are locked on Badgers your daily podcast on the Wisconsin Badgers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] hey what is going on my friends uh welcome to lockdown Badgers I am your host Ryan herrings as always locked on Badgers is for year for you your team every single day just continue to build that Badger Community really appreciate everybody tuning in today's show is brought to you by our good friends over at that online that online has you covered this season with more props odds and lines than ever before that online where the game starts let's get into it so uh Big Ten Conference released their conference schedules and this is the Wisconsin Badgers kind of have a big final present under the Christmas tree before the Big Ten just goes nuclear and the divisions go away USC gets here you UCLA gets here they probably go into some type of pod format uh we're going to talk about that on a different show like what the what the Big Ten Conference is going to look like with the addition of the Pac-12 teams and and more potentially but we have one more year we have one more run with the big ten west and the Big Ten East and it's going to be set up in a way for the Badgers to potentially go out as Big Ten West champions just like they came in right and this schedule sets up pretty well for them to be completely honest not and not just for quite frankly for a big 10 West Title but it sets up pretty well if some of the younger pieces which we're going to talk about coming up you know coalesce this team could be pretty special given some of the young Talent excuse me on the roster excuse me end the schedule that is in front of them um so we're gonna get right into it I'm gonna put it up here so everybody's watching at least on YouTube can kind of see the schedule as it Scrolls by but I'm also going to talk about so if you're listening on the Pod no worries you're not going to miss anything so out of conference season starts with Buffalo at Washington State then Georgia Southern there's your out of conference games Okay so let's start there Buffalo is a solid Mac team a pretty good Mac team actually a winning record they come to Madison listen Wisconsin is going to be a sizable favorite there then they have to go to Washington State out out to Pullman and that's the team that beat them this year obviously in Madison but cam Ward Washington State's quarterback could be gone and again quite frankly this team this Wisconsin team was so disjointed at the beginning of the year that we all know what happened right Paul Chris ended up getting fired so this was not a healthy healthy Wisconsin team and that probably won't be the same Washington State team next year and then you play Georgia Southern to wrap up the out of conference games Georgia Southern is a solid Sunbelt team a mid-tier Sunbelt team um but there's nothing there that should really scare you as a Badgers fan then you go to Purdue a team Wisconsin has owned Aidan O'Connell will be gone not that ain't no maybe that's not a maybe for Badger fans we would like Aiden O'Connell to stay because he seems to do pretty well against a lot of teams except for Wisconsin but ain't no con will be gone who knows what Purdue's gonna look like but that's again a team that Wisconsin's own Wisconsin is going to be favored in that game and then you go into a buy you know I don't love this the where the buy is slotted for Wisconsin I'm going to talk about that in a little bit here I think that's too early but there's also a very good chance you are 4-0 going into that buy again non-conference right Buffalo um Washington state Georgia Southern and then a game at Purdue that's a that's a really nice stretch to ease into so um then you have the buy coming out of the Bayou of Rutgers who hasn't looked that good this year one and three in conference you have Iowa at home and Iowa has the worst offense in power five and there's no optimism there's no hope by the way um that they fire their offensive coordinator because we all know who his dad is right so Iowa's probably not going to be dramatically better then you go to Illinois right that's that could be tricky for sure with what bilimo's been doing Illinois wamped us this year again though that was a wounded Badger team and Tommy DeVito will probably be gone for Illinois we'll see what they look like I'm certainly not going to chalk that up as an auto win by any stretch um and then you were home against Ohio State obviously a tough one there and you finish up with a road game at Indiana home Northwestern home Nebraska at Minnesota so let me break this down a little bit um let's start here the Crossovers ever since the the Big Ten West Indies got started everybody focuses on the Crossovers especially from the Big 10 West the East doesn't really care but from the Big Ten West standpoint everybody focuses on the Crossovers right because you've got those three those three Giants in the East you have Penn State Michigan Ohio State and obviously one it stands above the other two but they're still all when you see those on the schedule you Circle them victin did an interesting thing this year every Big Ten West team has one tough crossover that's it right Wisconsin and Purdue play Ohio State um Northwestern Iowa and Illinois play Penn State Nebraska and Minnesota play Michigan so it they did a good job of really evening this out there's no teams in the west that that'll play a Penn State and Michigan in the same year which Wisconsin has done right there's no teams in the the Big Ten West that won't play any of those teams so crossovers are relatively equal now obviously you would rather play Penn State than Ohio State you'd probably rather play Michigan than Ohio State but every every team in the west has one tough crossover so to me that's that equals out a little bit and Wisconsin has the fortune Good Fortune of getting Ohio State at home like so by the way that Ohio State game I put this on Twitter as well but I want to mention it here I want to take a second to talk about it here that Ohio State game on October 28th of next year in Madison not in November in October had better not be a noon kickoff I am sorry I will Riot if we have gone and done night games in very recent years on the road against Ohio State Michigan uh against Penn State against Iowa it is high time that we get Ohio State at night again in Madison um yeah that and that would be such an epic environment right if because up to that point we talked about Wisconsin schedule Wisconsin if they put it together is going to come into that team with one loss or potentially even undefeated Ohio State's going to be Ohio state that could be a marquee matchup at night in Madison what an opportunity um they better not put that that better not be this big noon kickoff nonsense it that had better be at least at least a 230 kick so that's my take on there I'm gonna be so annoyed if that's a an early game because Wisconsin deserves better and quite frankly Wisconsin fans deserve better they deserve a prime time Big Time night environment game and our recruiting department would love to work with that too by the way so that's that's kind of the bulk of the schedule let's talk about a few more of the things that caught my eye um we do have I mentioned the bye week I want to dive into that a little bit more I don't love the placement of it it's early right it's week five um it is the earliest bye week in the Big Ten west by the way it's the earliest bye week in the Big 10 west by two weeks there's no big 10 West team with a a week five by except Wisconsin There's No Big Ten West team with the week six by the earliest that next buy is week seven so for whatever reason Wisconsin is just a couple weeks early on the buy it is what it is it's not gonna kill the season but I you would like that to be a little later um the toughest three-game stretch I went through this and I tried to pick up my toughest three great three game stretch for Wisconsin all right so here it is home gaming against Iowa we talked about Iowa listen that's not incredibly daunting but I can tell you this when you start stacking up tough physical games and you start getting beat up a little bit I was gonna at least still beat you up a little bit right they're a physical team the defense should be good the offense can't be worse shrug shoulders I don't know it can't it shouldn't be but the defense will be tough they'll try to run the ball they'll be physical and then after that Iowa game you go to Illinois right another team that Brett bulima is building into a physical want to run the ball so you're gonna have a couple games there in a row or you're gonna get beat up and then you come home to play Ohio State that's a tough stretch right playing Iowa going to Illinois if Brett bilima continues to build this thing and then you follow it up with Ohio State that is the toughest stretch of the season in my opinion but even that's not crazy like it's not like you're playing Michigan Iowa and then Ohio State like you have one Marquee team in there you have one Marquee game on the entire schedule um again the other conference isn't crazy and the Big Ten you look at some of the teams on the schedule that they're playing you know Northwestern has been terrible this year Nebraska we we all saw what happened there who knows what they have Iowa has been a mess they just waxed Purdue they waxed Northwestern um you have Illinois Indiana's not been good this year like guys listen everybody this could be again it's the optimistic fan inside of me right all of it could fall apart we could lose to Washington State and Illinois again I don't know but the optimistic fan inside of me sees a road map to win the Big Ten West in the last year of the Big Ten West and go to a Big Ten title game I'm excited for it I love this schedule it's super manageable for Wisconsin uh coming up next we're going to talk about is this a new coach's best friend right is this um basically a layup for a new coach coming into Wisconsin we're going to talk about that next on lockdown badges but first Today's Show is brought to you by our friends at sweat block I've talked to before about my friend Tony you know had perspiration issues you know he used to get so sweaty that we replaced the word sweaty with Tony in our vernacular so I would always be like oh when I'm playing basketball I'd be like Oh I'm getting on Tony you know you couldn't guard him in the post you'd slide off him and he's just you know it really impacted his social life his personal life and sweat block solved all that for Tony it kept him from getting all Tony uh sweat block gives you the confidence to wear what you want without embarrassing underarm sweat uh the sweat the sweat block wife sorry were featured and tested on the Rachel Ray Show with firefighters and listen if firefighters can pass that test I guarantee you most of us aren't working that hard it's going to work for us if it works for them if you are someone you love is experiencing uh embarrassing sweat or odor try sweat blocks save 20 with promo code locked on at sweatblock.com also available on Amazon um thank you for making locked and Badgers your first listen every day really do appreciate it when you're done here go check out locked on sports today from the games that matter the most to the biggest stories and sports go beyond the scoreboard and behind the scenes with local experts and insight only lockdown can provide lockdown sports today available on this app YouTube our Riverview podcast I want to thank everyone again uh just tuning in listening to the show I really do appreciate it we're going to take off the scheduling ticker and let's keep talking so I wanted to talk about um we're obviously having new full-time head coach next year whether it's taking the interim tag off Jim Leonard which is Far and Away the most likely scenario at this point or it's bringing someone else in either way what especially for coming into a winning program a program with tradition a program with pedigree which Wisconsin checks every single one of those boxes right what does a new coach have to do coming in right away they have to establish that you know the program is on the right track right it matters suddenly nationally and um from a recruiting standpoint Wisconsin looks a little vulnerable right um this program has had a few down years they fired their head coach what's going on there is that thing going to fall off the rails well if you come in and you bang out a great season right away as a new coach you're even if it's kind of propped up by a shallow schedule right even if it's propped up by a bad non-conference slate it doesn't really matter you're able to sell instant results you're able to win right away which at a school like Wisconsin matters so much because that's all we've done and for a long time is Win games so coming in setting that right away being that coach to to get Wisconsin quote unquote back on the right track now you can build hype in the program you can recruit to it you know and that all leads into kind of the point I was making earlier there's there's a very real chance here that October 28th Ohio State game next year with a new coach who's built a lot of program momentum coming into that you Wisconsin might be undefeated or maybe a day of one loss coming into that Ohio State game and suddenly you have it looks on the outside it looks maybe from a recruit standpoint that you know those troubles that Wisconsin were just a speed bump they were just like a little pothole and now you're over it and you're crushing it and Wisconsin is right back on track that's why this new schedule or this schedule with a new head coach is so important because it's it's so manageable you're not bringing in Jim Leonard or someone else and you're instantly playing that schedule you know from a year ago when you had Notre Dame and you had Penn State and you had Michigan and you know you could easily start off on three and then even if the new coaches whoever it is again it's probably Jim Leonard let's be honest but even if the new coach is really doing yeoman's work and crushing it starting Owen three under a new regime to start a season it's tough it would really impact momentum it would impact recruiting and it would allow for a narrative to develop that Wisconsin shouldn't have fired Paul Crest right it would allow for a narrative that uh Jim Leonard or whoever it is again I'm saying Jim Leonard we don't know but he's not the guy and now instead of that instead of opening up with a gauntlet instead of having a really tough schedule you have you know Georgia Southern you have Buffalo you have an away game against Washington State Purdue your crossovers are Rutgers in Indiana plus Ohio State you know it's just it really provides a launching platform for a new coach to come in win a bunch of games look really good and be able to sell that instant success into recruiting Because again we're coming off a recruiting cycle last year that wasn't very good a recruiting cycle this year that's probably not going to be very good we're gonna do some more shows on it uh but next year's recruiting cycle is incredibly important right it's a deep in-state class there's a couple Blue Chip prospects we've talked about uh Donovan Harbor is obviously at the top of that you know you have to have a good year next year you have to be able to sell the program next year because you can't have three straight recruiting classes that are subpar right and that's why again it feels like a great opportunity this schedule does and we're going to talk about some of the youth in the program coming up but it feels like a great opportunity with this schedule to finish off the Big Ten West with a great season to finish off the Big Ten West by putting another big ten west uh division championship kind of in the back pocket go play probably Ohio State and for for another Big Ten title but it's really that that opportunity is all there with the schedule and it's going to set up a new coach with a great spot where they can really do that execute it so that's why I'm so excited about it let me know in the comments obviously I'm not trying to get him ahead of myself there's a lot of this season to play out we don't know how all these teams are going to look next year but I definitely you know historically you can look at these teams you can look at Wisconsin you can assume Jim Leonard's going to be head coach and if all of those things kind of historically track Wisconsin's going to be favored in every game next year except for Ohio State and maybe Washington State Illinois but they're probably going to be favored in those as well Wisconsin is just a better program than those schools and outside of this kind of speed bump I think I think it can get right back on track and I think that schedule is going to be a play a really big part in it let me know in the comments again I'm not trying to I'm not here for the comments they're like uh you know you were so optimistic this year I was I was wrong um and I'm not here really like for the comments that are like ah don't worry about the season this season's not over focus on this one we can do both like we can focus on this year but we can take an episode and look um a year down the road and say boys next year really could be that season that could be that special year um and we're going to talk about why it might be that special year with some of the youth on the team coming up next on lockdown Badgers but first a word from our sponsors I want to thank everybody for tuning in to locked on Badgers um continuing to join the show continuing to build the community join the Discord if you want uh we do free giveaways on the Discord we have some really awesome um let's see we've done team Ray DK autographs we've done boxes of cards we've done gift cards to fnatics so you can buy Badger sway we've done uh these cool coasters that have like Badger great Badger plays sketched on them in slate and they're incredible um it's just a thank you it's a thank you to everyone who supports the show so if you want to join the Discord we'll put the link up um but it's a great way just to join another community of badger fans and it's a great way for me to say thank you for supporting the show so really do appreciate everybody who's listening um let's talk about the youth on this team really quick and we haven't spent a ton of time talking about the youth in terms of what it could look like next year right but now we've seen the schedule it's super manageable and now let's look at this team right Graham Mertz is a junior so again I don't want to make any I'm going to just assume I'm gonna take the transfer portal out of this for a second because anybody could realistically transfer at this point like that's just the real reality we live in but merch should be back right and he's playing great the last especially under Jim Leonard he's been playing incredible uh Mertz is going to come back as one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the Big Ten Braylon Allen's coming back as a junior right this entire young receiving group that we are just over the moon with that have that have looked incredible is coming back and not only that you're adding in Tommy McIntosh you're adding in uh Vinnie Anthony with a bigger role you're adding in uh Brooks as maybe a bigger more physical possession receiver they should be really good already you're looking at this offense now let's look at the offensive line Joe titman could come back and then you have Jack Nelson you have Riley malman Trey wedding you have all these incredibly young talented pieces right no Nolan Ruchi um you have all those players will be coming to age with Bob Olstead with another year this entire offense is stacked the tight end room is Young I mean it's been injury prone but it's young you're getting a lot of those guys back the entire offense is coming back right and with that schedule and this offense coming back with the receiving group with the way Graham Mertz has played with the way Braylon Allen is um I'm telling you this could be a really special offense with another year of growth and you're also going to allow them coming in the next year wherever the offensive coordinator is that's another question we have that we obviously can't answer but whoever that offensive coordinator is he's going to be coming into a system with an established quarterback one of the best running backs in the country one of the best receiving groups Wisconsin has had in a while and an offensive line full of dudes who were four and five stars who have been in the program for a couple years at this point you're telling me that's not a recipe for potentially a really big season against the schedule we just talked about with but maybe one really good team on at Ohio State I'm telling you like there's a lot there now defense is a little more dicey in my opinion right on the defense line you're losing Tiana Benton and that that dude's Irreplaceable he's like Leo Chanel uh on on last year's team like you you can put another inside linebacker there but you're not going to replace the ocean now they'll put another defensive tackle there next year but you're not going to replace Keanu Benton and I'm not sure who that defense tackle would be yet uh maybe it's Curtis Neil stepping into a bigger role a lot of time to speculate on that um the defensive ends for the most part will be back most of the linebacks will be back but certainly Nick her big we we don't know his future I think the goal the entire year has been to GoPro um so we'll see there the secondary's got a lot a lot of young pieces but they're also going to be losing several to grad transfers towards you um is probably gone so there's there's more question marks on defense but I would say this I'm I'm super on the safety group next year I think it'd be Waller and kamoli latu I like a lot of the young Corners the young defense alignment Edge rushers are going to be Juniors and sophomores so they should be ready to go all in all we are gonna have to find a punter by the way fuge is awesome um but all in all you're gonna have a team coming back with a ton of key pieces a ton of experience a lot of talent um those two really good recruiting classes at Paul Chris and his recruiting group uh strong together are going to be matured and you're going to be playing a schedule that is really manageable all this lines up for a new coach probably Again Jim Leonard to take the Reigns and really instantly build some momentum with this program heading into what's going to be a much different Big Ten uh the following year as obviously some Pac-12 teams come in and the schedules get blown up and the Big Ten West is gone um so that's what I wanted to talk about today let me know in the comments if you think the schedules as manageable as I do if I'm kind of just getting maybe ahead of my skis a little bit totally possible but I think it's interesting I think this is one of the more one of the easier schedules for Wisconsin to go through that I've seen in a while and I think it's going to coincide with a really experienced talented team coming back so I'm excited for it excuse me I'm excited for it I'm ready for it um certainly not certainly a lot of this season to go I'm excited for that too um but we'll have to see how it plays out Big Ten schedule release today thank you everybody for listening to lockdown Badgers making one of your first lessons every day really really do appreciate it when you're done here go check out locked on sports today the biggest stories of the day plus instant reactions big game recaps and the take of the day available on the Odyssey app YouTube and wherever you get podcasts thanks guys on Wisconsin