November 27, 2023 • 12 mins
The voice of the Badgers Matt Lepay is back with us on 101.5 IBA-FM! This week we breakdown the Wisconsin football team's 28 to 14 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Paul Bunyan's Axe COMING HOME!! We also ask Matt to sum up this season for the football Badgers which started with such high hopes, hit a rough patch, but finished strong with back to back wins over Nebraska and Minnesota. We also find out when we will know which bowl game the Badgers will play in this year! Matt then previews Tonight's Badger basketball matchup with Western Illinois at the Kohl Center, a game you can hear on 101.5 IBA-FM starting at 5! Matt also tells us how the depth of this year's team, led by freshman John Blackwell coming off the bench, has led to their early success and is a key to the team's success this season!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
One at one point five, IMEYFM, Madison's Classic Rock with the carsay
mondays with Matt's the voice of theBadgers, Matt Lapek. He's with us
presented by Middleton Ford Matts. Howare you today? Doing well? Ben?
How's it going? Everything's going wellhere. It's good to say the
acts is back in Madison. Wisconsintook down Minnesota over the weekend twenty eight
(00:20):
two fourteen, actually back on Saturday. And really, Matt, this was
a game that's was on the backsof the offensive line, wasn't it.
Yeah, it really was. Ithink a Badger fan who's enjoyed watching this
program over the last thirty plus yearshad to really enjoy that game on Saturday.
The obvious beating your rival Minnesota andgetting getting the trophy back, but
(00:42):
how they did it. I guessit doesn't matter how, just whatever works.
But I think fans are used toseeing Wisconsin when it's at its best
pound on teams. That was whathappened. The offensive line was terrific.
Brayln Allen looked as good as he'slooked in several weeks. Kind of a
captain obvious statement there, Tanner Mordecaiproved his toughness, his ability to hurt
(01:04):
people with his feet again, andafter one of those slow, head scratching
slow starts for the defense, thedefense settled in and played well. It
was It was really good to seeWisconsin win and win convincingly, and they
had every reason to feel good aboutit after the game. Yeah. I
think it's also important to note,and you brought it up there with Tanner,
(01:26):
just what he has meant to thisteam this year, obviously being what
a fifth year senior I believe,sixth year whatever it may be, but
just what he has brought to thisteam mentality wise and kind of maybe taking
charge of the offense is just sayingto some of these younger guys with guys
within experience, and this is whatwe got to do to get this done.
And that really helped the Badgers year, who have now finished at seven
and five for the year. Yeah, being a sixth year guy and being
(01:47):
someone who's whose path here was prettyinteresting in Locahoma and at SMU. The
two big years at SMU have beencoming here and statistically it wasn't what people
thought would be. But yet youdo have to look beyond that and his
toughness coming back from the from thebroken bone in his hand against the Iowa
game, and just finding ways.Uh. You know, Luke Fickele was
(02:13):
talking to him several weeks ago aboutthis, said, well, you know,
we all saw the numbers seventy twotouchdown passes in two seasons at SMU
as its quarterback. When did youknow about his mobility? And he said
it was the second year, itwas. It was last year at SMU.
They had seen some things that youbroke a long run a game against
Navy. They were aware. Andwith the injuries to the backfield this season,
(02:37):
uh, his running ability became moreand more important. And the good
news for Tanner after not really wantingto slide there for a couple of games
and he was going to say Tanner, go down, and he did that,
so you know, it was itwas really it was just good to
see and the leadership became very evidentwith him and you know, among others,
(02:58):
but certainly with Mordecai and helping leadthis offense. And wasn't again,
it wasn't what people thought it wouldbe, but you could see how good
it can be when you start toget some some of the key players healthy,
which was what we saw what wesaw on Saturday. Talking with the
voice of the Badgers, Matt LapeMondays with Matt presented behind Middleton Ford.
So the season now complete, we'llsee where the Badgers land in the bowl
(03:21):
games. Hear that or we shouldfind that out Sunday, December third,
So this coming Sunday. But Matt, now that the regular season is complete,
how would you sum up this year, first year under head coach Luke
Fickle and the new coaching staff.Well, I think most people would tell
you it wasn't what they what everybodythought it would be. Myself included.
Yeah, I said over and overover the summer it was going to expect
(03:44):
it to look clunky early in theseason. But the other problem was it
did look clunky most of the season. The injuries are real, you know.
I think when you lose Braylan Allen, when you lose Chess Malusy and
talk about leadership, people tell youthat he really was a guy who was
and not just the productivity and thefit for the offense. There's a leadership
(04:04):
component to him that was sorely missed. And other guys in and out of
the lineup that is real. ButI also think if you really take a
look at the big picture, itprobably shouldn't be that surprising that it wasn't
what we all were Many people thoughtit would be because it's a new system,
(04:26):
and quite frankly because the offense.But you know, the three years
prior wasn't all that's either. Youknow, you're talking about twenty five twenty
six points a game, a dipyou know, to about twenty three points
a game through the regular season thisyear. But I think maybe it's more
about summing it up. It's morelike a lesson for all of us.
It's just hard to it's hard toquick fix. It's just hard to.
(04:50):
I mean, you see it everynow and then, but most of the
time you don't. And you know, they've brought in a lot of new
faces through the transfer portal and onthe offensive side of the ball, obviously
at quarterback and then wide receiver.Will Pauling is is real. I think
Rice and Green is really really good, and they missed him the last couple
of weeks. Other guys are stillvery young. But just to think that
(05:12):
overnight you're going to go from aseven to sixteen to ten and two,
I mean, it has happened,but it's hard to do that. As
coach, prime coach, they werelike to toast to college football and it
was great early on. Check theirrecord now it's really really hard to do
that. Yeah, talking to theVoice of the Badger's Matt Lafe, moneays
(05:32):
with Matt presented by Middleton Ford hereon ib AFM and Matt. Hopefully when
we talk again next year, theBig Ten is going to look a lot
different the Western I should say,the divisions are going to be gone.
We have schools coming in from whatwas we now know is the Pac twelve.
It's going to be odd a littlebit next year, isn't it different?
Well, and I think one ofthe things we might brace for.
(05:53):
It may not necessarily happen, butit could. You know. We just
saw the Michigan Ohio State game highstakes. Yeah, on Saturday, you
know, win and you're in theconference title game, and certainly with a
path to the playoff. You lose, you're probably out, which is the
case with Ohio State. I mean, a bunch of things could happen.
I suppose next year they could havea rematch one week later because there are
(06:16):
no divisions, you know, that'sthat is a possibility. So you know,
I think a lot of these rivalrivalry games in particularly and in the
case of the Big Ten, whichclearly this year was the Big Two,
it was like the old days,the Woody versus Bow years and and other
years beyond that too, but youcould you could see that now, maybe
(06:40):
not with the Oregon and Washington.And you know, we'll see if USC
decides to tackle anybody next year,and if they're decent defensively, then they
could be really good again. Butthat possibility exists. So it is a
it's it's a bit of an endof an era. And I think next
year to ben with an eighteen teamconference. I mean, if you could
(07:00):
win your league, that's awesome,but you know, for schools like a
Wisconsin where that could be extraordinarily difficult, you're trying to get into the twelve
team playoffs. So how you viewthings is going to be different. It's
not about winning your division. It'sabout seeing if you can't, you know,
get that chase and get there andbe a part of the playoffs.
(07:24):
And you know, whether that happensnext year, we'll find out with the
Badgers, but that is the goalfor teams across the country. Now,
winning your league is great, itmeans a ton, but it's really you
know, for the overwhelming majority ofyou know, those teams that are good
but maybe not league title good,get in the playoffs and then see what
(07:47):
happens from there. Yeah, Iget the big tech gonna look different next
year, But we still have onemore game yet this year we find out
where the Badgers go bowling on Sunday. Now we transition into Badger men's basketball.
They come the Fort Myers tip OffChampionship, taking down SMU this past
Wednesday night, sixty nine to sixtyone. Also, I don't want to
forget about it because this game happenedlast Monday after Mat and I talked.
(08:09):
But that's also had a good winover Virginia sixty five to forty one.
Now Western Illinois to cole Center tonight. So Matt Scotty report on the Leathernecks.
Yeah, Chad Boudreau as their coach. He's he had been with Rob
Heater for a number of years andincluding it at Milwaukee and UW Milwaukee.
There. This is one of theseprograms that's trying to find itself right now.
(08:33):
On this they really games like thishelped the program exist. They read
ILLTOI on Friday, they've played SMU, so you get you get a paycheck,
and you you know, for ateam out of it. They're in
the Ohio Valley Conference now for thefirst time. You know, they've they've
got a couple of guys with size. A lot of times you play teams
like this and they're not particularly big, but they do have a couple of
(08:56):
kids who were in at six tensix eleven size. They haven't shot the
ball well, they've been turnover prone, but they do have a couple of
players who who could be a problemif they get hot. And this is
one of those of your Wisconsin youknow, just to be blunt about it,
you want to be able to takecare of your business because you go
(09:16):
through another gauntlet. They've already gonethrough one of those. They got Marquette
here on Saturday. They go toMichigan State and Arizona next week. So
I mean, as we sit rightnow, the next three games are going
to be two of them are goingto be against top three teams. So
you know, take care of yourstuff here tonight and then buckle up because
it's going to get real tough realsoon once again. Yeah, kind of
(09:39):
talking about the strength of what we'veseen from the reserves, the guys that
are coming off the bench throughout thispoint of the season. I mean,
especially the key contributions which have beenled by freshman John Blackwell. Just how
important have those guys been to thisteam and really their success to this point.
It's been a massive strength right nowwith this team with the depth that
it had, as you can bringit John Blackwell off the bench and they've
(10:03):
the staff has been high on himfrom the beginning, even though he's probably
the least talked about of the newcomers. You know, they knew he could
defend. I think his his offensiveability has really been impressive. He you
know, no one shot more freepros than than he has, so he's
he's got a very high basketball iQ has a savvy that is beyond his
(10:24):
class rank of being a freshman,and you know, it's been really good.
A AJ store obviously is it canbe a difference maker in the offensive
end, but if there's a struggleat the other end of the floor,
you can bring Blackwell in and you'vebecome better defensively and he can score for
you. Nolan Winter off the bench. You know he's still learning, still
(10:46):
growing, but you know he's ahe's a seven footer and one of the
fun plays of the of the ofthe deal last week. And and Fort
Myers was the freshman, the freshmanlot Blackwell lot who blushed it. So
they Greg, Greg has pieces hecan work with here. And I think
they they've found out that when theyplay well, they have to be superhuman.
(11:07):
But when they play well, everybody'sconnected. They can play with everyone.
They prove that against Virginia. Theydominated a Virginia team that we all
know has been a national power underTony Bennett. But they didn't need anybody
to any one player to be extraordinary. They just stuck to their principles.
On the defensive end. They wereefficient, certainly efficient enough offensively. That's
(11:30):
a pretty good sign. Long wayto go, and they said they got
another gauntlet coming up, but Ithink they so far they've learned that when
they when they adhere to their principles, that they can match up with anybody.
Wisconsin meets Western Illinois tonight at theCole Center. Our cover starts at
five, tip off is set forsix. Matt have fun tonight. We'll
talk again next week. All right, sounds a good band. Take care,
take care of yourself, Matt.There we go. All right.
(11:52):
If you missed any part of ourconversation and grab it shortly on our website
wywfm dot com. Coming back withfoghts An Arrowsmith
One at one point five, IMEYFM, Madison's Classic Rock with the carsay
mondays with Matt's the voice of theBadgers, Matt Lapek. He's with us
presented by Middleton Ford Matts. Howare you today? Doing well? Ben?
How's it going? Everything's going wellhere. It's good to say the
acts is back in Madison. Wisconsintook down Minnesota over the weekend twenty eight
(00:20):
two fourteen, actually back on Saturday. And really, Matt, this was
a game that's was on the backsof the offensive line, wasn't it.
Yeah, it really was. Ithink a Badger fan who's enjoyed watching this
program over the last thirty plus yearshad to really enjoy that game on Saturday.
The obvious beating your rival Minnesota andgetting getting the trophy back, but
(00:42):
how they did it. I guessit doesn't matter how, just whatever works.
But I think fans are used toseeing Wisconsin when it's at its best
pound on teams. That was whathappened. The offensive line was terrific.
Brayln Allen looked as good as he'slooked in several weeks. Kind of a
captain obvious statement there, Tanner Mordecaiproved his toughness, his ability to hurt
(01:04):
people with his feet again, andafter one of those slow, head scratching
slow starts for the defense, thedefense settled in and played well. It
was It was really good to seeWisconsin win and win convincingly, and they
had every reason to feel good aboutit after the game. Yeah. I
think it's also important to note,and you brought it up there with Tanner,
(01:26):
just what he has meant to thisteam this year, obviously being what
a fifth year senior I believe,sixth year whatever it may be, but
just what he has brought to thisteam mentality wise and kind of maybe taking
charge of the offense is just sayingto some of these younger guys with guys
within experience, and this is whatwe got to do to get this done.
And that really helped the Badgers year, who have now finished at seven
and five for the year. Yeah, being a sixth year guy and being
(01:47):
someone who's whose path here was prettyinteresting in Locahoma and at SMU. The
two big years at SMU have beencoming here and statistically it wasn't what people
thought would be. But yet youdo have to look beyond that and his
toughness coming back from the from thebroken bone in his hand against the Iowa
game, and just finding ways.Uh. You know, Luke Fickele was
(02:13):
talking to him several weeks ago aboutthis, said, well, you know,
we all saw the numbers seventy twotouchdown passes in two seasons at SMU
as its quarterback. When did youknow about his mobility? And he said
it was the second year, itwas. It was last year at SMU.
They had seen some things that youbroke a long run a game against
Navy. They were aware. Andwith the injuries to the backfield this season,
(02:37):
uh, his running ability became moreand more important. And the good
news for Tanner after not really wantingto slide there for a couple of games
and he was going to say Tanner, go down, and he did that,
so you know, it was itwas really it was just good to
see and the leadership became very evidentwith him and you know, among others,
(02:58):
but certainly with Mordecai and helping leadthis offense. And wasn't again,
it wasn't what people thought it wouldbe, but you could see how good
it can be when you start toget some some of the key players healthy,
which was what we saw what wesaw on Saturday. Talking with the
voice of the Badgers, Matt LapeMondays with Matt presented behind Middleton Ford.
So the season now complete, we'llsee where the Badgers land in the bowl
(03:21):
games. Hear that or we shouldfind that out Sunday, December third,
So this coming Sunday. But Matt, now that the regular season is complete,
how would you sum up this year, first year under head coach Luke
Fickle and the new coaching staff.Well, I think most people would tell
you it wasn't what they what everybodythought it would be. Myself included.
Yeah, I said over and overover the summer it was going to expect
(03:44):
it to look clunky early in theseason. But the other problem was it
did look clunky most of the season. The injuries are real, you know.
I think when you lose Braylan Allen, when you lose Chess Malusy and
talk about leadership, people tell youthat he really was a guy who was
and not just the productivity and thefit for the offense. There's a leadership
(04:04):
component to him that was sorely missed. And other guys in and out of
the lineup that is real. ButI also think if you really take a
look at the big picture, itprobably shouldn't be that surprising that it wasn't
what we all were Many people thoughtit would be because it's a new system,
(04:26):
and quite frankly because the offense.But you know, the three years
prior wasn't all that's either. Youknow, you're talking about twenty five twenty
six points a game, a dipyou know, to about twenty three points
a game through the regular season thisyear. But I think maybe it's more
about summing it up. It's morelike a lesson for all of us.
It's just hard to it's hard toquick fix. It's just hard to.
(04:50):
I mean, you see it everynow and then, but most of the
time you don't. And you know, they've brought in a lot of new
faces through the transfer portal and onthe offensive side of the ball, obviously
at quarterback and then wide receiver.Will Pauling is is real. I think
Rice and Green is really really good, and they missed him the last couple
of weeks. Other guys are stillvery young. But just to think that
(05:12):
overnight you're going to go from aseven to sixteen to ten and two,
I mean, it has happened,but it's hard to do that. As
coach, prime coach, they werelike to toast to college football and it
was great early on. Check theirrecord now it's really really hard to do
that. Yeah, talking to theVoice of the Badger's Matt Lafe, moneays
(05:32):
with Matt presented by Middleton Ford hereon ib AFM and Matt. Hopefully when
we talk again next year, theBig Ten is going to look a lot
different the Western I should say,the divisions are going to be gone.
We have schools coming in from whatwas we now know is the Pac twelve.
It's going to be odd a littlebit next year, isn't it different?
Well, and I think one ofthe things we might brace for.
(05:53):
It may not necessarily happen, butit could. You know. We just
saw the Michigan Ohio State game highstakes. Yeah, on Saturday, you
know, win and you're in theconference title game, and certainly with a
path to the playoff. You lose, you're probably out, which is the
case with Ohio State. I mean, a bunch of things could happen.
I suppose next year they could havea rematch one week later because there are
(06:16):
no divisions, you know, that'sthat is a possibility. So you know,
I think a lot of these rivalrivalry games in particularly and in the
case of the Big Ten, whichclearly this year was the Big Two,
it was like the old days,the Woody versus Bow years and and other
years beyond that too, but youcould you could see that now, maybe
(06:40):
not with the Oregon and Washington.And you know, we'll see if USC
decides to tackle anybody next year,and if they're decent defensively, then they
could be really good again. Butthat possibility exists. So it is a
it's it's a bit of an endof an era. And I think next
year to ben with an eighteen teamconference. I mean, if you could
(07:00):
win your league, that's awesome,but you know, for schools like a
Wisconsin where that could be extraordinarily difficult, you're trying to get into the twelve
team playoffs. So how you viewthings is going to be different. It's
not about winning your division. It'sabout seeing if you can't, you know,
get that chase and get there andbe a part of the playoffs.
(07:24):
And you know, whether that happensnext year, we'll find out with the
Badgers, but that is the goalfor teams across the country. Now,
winning your league is great, itmeans a ton, but it's really you
know, for the overwhelming majority ofyou know, those teams that are good
but maybe not league title good,get in the playoffs and then see what
(07:47):
happens from there. Yeah, Iget the big tech gonna look different next
year, But we still have onemore game yet this year we find out
where the Badgers go bowling on Sunday. Now we transition into Badger men's basketball.
They come the Fort Myers tip OffChampionship, taking down SMU this past
Wednesday night, sixty nine to sixtyone. Also, I don't want to
forget about it because this game happenedlast Monday after Mat and I talked.
(08:09):
But that's also had a good winover Virginia sixty five to forty one.
Now Western Illinois to cole Center tonight. So Matt Scotty report on the Leathernecks.
Yeah, Chad Boudreau as their coach. He's he had been with Rob
Heater for a number of years andincluding it at Milwaukee and UW Milwaukee.
There. This is one of theseprograms that's trying to find itself right now.
(08:33):
On this they really games like thishelped the program exist. They read
ILLTOI on Friday, they've played SMU, so you get you get a paycheck,
and you you know, for ateam out of it. They're in
the Ohio Valley Conference now for thefirst time. You know, they've they've
got a couple of guys with size. A lot of times you play teams
like this and they're not particularly big, but they do have a couple of
(08:56):
kids who were in at six tensix eleven size. They haven't shot the
ball well, they've been turnover prone, but they do have a couple of
players who who could be a problemif they get hot. And this is
one of those of your Wisconsin youknow, just to be blunt about it,
you want to be able to takecare of your business because you go
(09:16):
through another gauntlet. They've already gonethrough one of those. They got Marquette
here on Saturday. They go toMichigan State and Arizona next week. So
I mean, as we sit rightnow, the next three games are going
to be two of them are goingto be against top three teams. So
you know, take care of yourstuff here tonight and then buckle up because
it's going to get real tough realsoon once again. Yeah, kind of
(09:39):
talking about the strength of what we'veseen from the reserves, the guys that
are coming off the bench throughout thispoint of the season. I mean,
especially the key contributions which have beenled by freshman John Blackwell. Just how
important have those guys been to thisteam and really their success to this point.
It's been a massive strength right nowwith this team with the depth that
it had, as you can bringit John Blackwell off the bench and they've
(10:03):
the staff has been high on himfrom the beginning, even though he's probably
the least talked about of the newcomers. You know, they knew he could
defend. I think his his offensiveability has really been impressive. He you
know, no one shot more freepros than than he has, so he's
he's got a very high basketball iQ has a savvy that is beyond his
(10:24):
class rank of being a freshman,and you know, it's been really good.
A AJ store obviously is it canbe a difference maker in the offensive
end, but if there's a struggleat the other end of the floor,
you can bring Blackwell in and you'vebecome better defensively and he can score for
you. Nolan Winter off the bench. You know he's still learning, still
(10:46):
growing, but you know he's ahe's a seven footer and one of the
fun plays of the of the ofthe deal last week. And and Fort
Myers was the freshman, the freshmanlot Blackwell lot who blushed it. So
they Greg, Greg has pieces hecan work with here. And I think
they they've found out that when theyplay well, they have to be superhuman.
(11:07):
But when they play well, everybody'sconnected. They can play with everyone.
They prove that against Virginia. Theydominated a Virginia team that we all
know has been a national power underTony Bennett. But they didn't need anybody
to any one player to be extraordinary. They just stuck to their principles.
On the defensive end. They wereefficient, certainly efficient enough offensively. That's
(11:30):
a pretty good sign. Long wayto go, and they said they got
another gauntlet coming up, but Ithink they so far they've learned that when
they when they adhere to their principles, that they can match up with anybody.
Wisconsin meets Western Illinois tonight at theCole Center. Our cover starts at
five, tip off is set forsix. Matt have fun tonight. We'll
talk again next week. All right, sounds a good band. Take care,
take care of yourself, Matt.There we go. All right.
(11:52):
If you missed any part of ourconversation and grab it shortly on our website
wywfm dot com. Coming back withfoghts An Arrowsmith
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