This Week in Badgers: TED Walks, Bad YouTubes and Marrying Your Stalker
This Week in Badgers: Season 1, Episode 32
Welcome to This Week in Badgers, where we talk Luke Benzschawel, Ted Gilmore and of course, old Badger YouTube videos.
Housekeeping
News:
Luke Benzschawel is hanging it up after a 4th knee surgery. Last year they missed having a second pass catching threat out of the TE position and you would think if healthy, Benz could have been that guy in 2020.
I’m sure Chryst would love for someone to step up for the 2nd TE role so they don’t have to rely on Cormac Sampson again. I’m really curious to see how Jack Eschenbach looks in the spring. He was a hot name in Fall Camp but disappeared once the season started. At 6’6” 225 (listed stats last year) I don’t think that really works at TE, but if he’s able to put on some weight before fall camp I think they might have something.
Hayden Rucci, Clay Cundiff and possibly Gabe Lloyd are a few other names who are going to be in the mix. Ferguson is obviously more of a pass catching threat than a great blocker, so being able to provide solid run blocking to compliment him is going to be the path to playing time.
If nothing else, it seems like they should have some better depth this year. It was a minor miracle that Ferguson was able to play 95% of the snaps last year without getting hurt.
Ted Gilmore is gone! Off to Michigan State to coach TEs for what is assumed to be a significant pay raise.
I have a couple takes, let’s test drive them here.
The OH MY GOD WE’RE LOSING HIM take:
Wide Receiver was in rough, rough shape before he took over. The heralded Rushing- Sanders-Jamerson class didn’t do anything (on offense at least) and the other guys, well, Jordan Fredrick started games at WR because he could run block. Instate walk-ons were miles better than the scholarship recruits. It wasn’t great.
Gilmore immediately added talent to the position with Taylor, Pryor, Davis and Cephus. We talked a couple weeks ago about the challenges recruiting CBs, and WR is just as tough. Gilmore was tasked with bringing in guys from out of state to a run-first system in cold weather. That’s a challenge.
He also seemed to be well-liked, which counts for something. He was able to keep the Taylor/Davis/Pryor/Cephus core together even through the QB struggles and lack of chances. It also seems pretty clear that Cephus never comes back to Wisconsin, and perhaps they don’t go to the Rose Bowl, if Gilmore wasn’t around for support.
Devastating loss, particularly to a rival.
The “ARE WE SURE GILMORE WAS GOOD?” take:
Cephus was obviously an amazing find, but are we really sold on the rest of that talent he brought in? Davis seems to have regressed since Freshman year. Pryor and Taylor have shown (or showed) flashes but neither were consistent game changers at the position. We saw the struggles everyone had in getting open in 2018. Are these guys actually good or is it just just like the group in the first half of the decade with Cephus thrown in to make them look better?
We also have a lot of Gilmore recruits that weren’t able to beat out Jack Dunn last year: Aron Cruickshank, Stephan Bracey, Taj Mustapha, AJ Abbott, Cade Green, Emmet Perry. Are we sure he is a good recruiter after reading that list? His last two recruits - Devin Chander and Isaac Smith were among the lowest rated in the class. Of course ratings don’t mean everything but on paper he’s not recruiting the position much different than the host of WR coaches who came before him. With Cephus and AJ Taylor leaving, was Gilmore just looking to get out of town while his stock was at it’s highest?
My actual, restrained take
He was obviously good at his job, well liked and it hurts to lose him, but also don’t think this is devastating and they should be able to find a capable replacement for him.
Speaking of replacements, Bucky’s 5th Quarter has a list out that made my week. Would like to be clear that I’m not mocking them for making it, if someone asked me to come up with a list of potential WR coaches I would have no idea and its absolutely impossible to guess what Chryst might do, but the names on here are like a Remember Some Guys segment come to life.
There are a few guys who have never coached that might make you sort of wonder, but really the idea of Brian White coming back was just too much for me, I audibly gasped when I saw it.
Sidenote on Brian White. When I was a kid in the early/mid 90s we’d get to games early and go down to the field and watch the players warm up (this was when they had the track around the field and you could easily get right next to the field, that was great). It was primarily kids and their parents who would do this. Before one game, Brian White was not happy with the efforts in warmups and unleashed a string of expletives that completely delighted every kid and horrified every parent that was there. He’ll forever be in my memory for that. Brian White swearing in front of kids, remembered.
Anyways, back to the list. There are some great names there. My guess is its someone out of left field (like Gilmore was when they pulled him from the Oakland Raiders), but Chryst is an enigma, so maybe they pull Al Toon away from whatever he’s doing.
My Yearly Rant About Assistant Coaches Salaries
We’re at the point of the year where people care about assistant coaches salaries, which for all practical purposes only matter as a recruiting tool when hiring a new head coach, as its become an accepted practice to promise a good chunk of change to let him hire their friends as assistants.
It makes sense, do whatever it takes to get the head guy, who obviously matters. They set up the culture, oversee recruiting, the actual football coaching, everything. And sure, depending on the Head Coach, Coordinators matter as well. If you have Paul Chryst, its probably a good idea to pair him with a good defensive guy. So sure, pay up.
Does it really matter outside that? I don’t really think so. Just because a team is paying a lot for assistant coaches doesn’t mean they’re necessarily better assistant coaches than guys making less. The Badgers could double the salary of every assistant coach and win the PR cycle about how dedicated they are to football and they’re ready to compete against the big boys, they’d still have the same assistants. Ted Gilmore isn’t all of a sudden a better coach because Michigan State doubled his salary.
There seems to be a lot of wishful thinking that if teams just pay the right assistant coach it can totally change their recruiting fortunes. If only the Badgers had a hot shot recruiter they’d be able to take guys from Ohio State, but it doesn’t really work that way. Recruiting trends don’t change that quickly (well, legally anyways) and any change is a larger, slow moving one that has more to do with the overall success and culture of the program, not a specific recruiter.
Teams like South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida State, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and Michigan have all spent huge ($5m+) on assistants with middling results.
This will sound overly cocky, but Chryst has the program to the point where they’re too good to worry about losing a single position coach. Jon Budmayr recruited Graham Mertz, Mickey Turner got Logan Brown, Bobby April recruited Nick Herbig and of course the much maligned John Settle closed Jalen Berger. They didn’t get these guys because the individual assistants were great recruiters, they got them because of the overall plan, vision and success the program has had under Chryst, and the 20+ years before him.
It's a totally different world, but teams like Alabama and Ohio State constantly cycle through assistants and are almost always elite teams. Its not because they pay the new guys more and are just great at hiring assistants, its because they’re Alabama and Ohio State. Good teams don’t sweat losing the WR coach.
One thing you can say about Paul Chryst is he doesn’t care about optics. He’ll bring in someone he knows will fit with what they want to do even if it seems a little weird at first glance (Bostad, linebackers). Fascinated to see where he goes with this one.
Links
I’m sure there’s a reason for it, but it seems strange that they announced the Doak Walker award in December then wait until late February to have a ceremony.
The college version of Pro Football Focus put out their top 10 returning players in each conference and of course the Badgers representative was Eric Burrell. Wait, what? Ok then.
Colton at the State Journal had a good article on incoming Kicker/Punter Jack Van Dyke
Your Jesse Temple link of the week is an article on incoming TE Cam Large. I really never think about TEs having an impact as true Freshman, there’s just so much of the playbook to pick up having to learn the run game blocking and pass routes, but does seem like he has the size to maybe get a little action next year in a 4 games and redshirt situation.
Jesse also ranked the 2020 football games. Main takeaway was that Kare Lyles will be the starting QB when Southern Illinois comes to town. Jesse has the Wrigley game against Northwestern as #2, which I think is way too high. Yes, the novelty of Wrigley will be cool but it won’t take long to realize its a November game against Northwestern. Give me Michigan, Minnesota or Iowa matchups ahead of this one.
Jake at AllBadgers had a good read on 2021 instate LB Ayo Adebogun as well as a mailbag with a Cade Green mention for all the deep depth chart die-hards like myself.
The Official Instagram account had a weight lifting hype video. Welcome to February.
This is old news, but I feel like I know everything there is to know about weird Badger stuff and was recently made aware that Chris Chambers once took a restraining order out against a woman for stalking him, and later married her.
Let’s Remember Some Guys
Today’s guy is Dave Costa, a 4 year starter at Guard from 1997 to 2000. Sort of unheralded compared to other guys like Rabach,, McIntosh, Gibson and others but an absolute rock at the position for some great Badger teams. The 1996 recruiting class was pretty great: Costa, Dayne, Favret, Ferrario, Ghidorzi, Kolodziej and Rabach all came in and won a boatload of game.s
Post college he was in a couple NFL training camps and had a few years in the CFL. He’s now a firefighter/paramedic and referee in Pittsburgh. I can’t imagine being a High School coach and daring to argue a holding call with him.
Dave Costa, remembered.
Badger Thoughts
After the recent Kobe King story mistake and the premature release of the Ted Gilmore story, do you think someone is ready for a trip to Scottsdale? I feel like we are due for some pictures of martinis, tacos, and the Camelback Inn. - "Gary"
How did this one get in here? Trying to delete.
I think the guy on the cover of media guide #9 is John Jardine. - @mattlederman
This is most assuredly correct. Didn’t have the great results as coach, but up there as one of the better looking coaches in Badger history, an admittedly very low bar to clear.
Your Darrin Charles LRSG segment and media guide review reminded me of one of my least favorite sports phenomena - feeling old after looking at photos and highlights from seasons that feel like they were relatively recent. 2003 doesn’t seem like it was that long ago to me (I was in college at the time after all!), but with the combination of the slightly larger shoulder pads and SD video quality, that Charles highlight video might as well have been shot in the 1940s. Even the 2010 Ohio State game is starting to look dated. Given all the digging you've done through old highlights and team photos, what do you think is the most distant season that could reasonably pass for 2020 from a purely visual perspective (e.g. if you were to put a game on TV or show someone a picture)? 2011 maybe? - @johnhermansensf
Great question and it absolutely makes me (Class of 2005) feel old as well. I went to the 2010 link John supplied and was not prepared for it to look that dated.
I do spend way too much time watching old Badger highlights, so let's go through the history of the program using poor quality Youtube.
Before we start I'd like to recognize that a lot of the poor picture quality is on how it was uploaded to YouTube and all sorts of other reasons like that. I'm sure there's a technical answer on this question, but I refuse to research it.
On these screen shots I did my best to grab the image when people weren't moving for best quality.
Year: 2019. Starting with this one as a control to this incredibly dumb experiment.
Year: 1972(ish). This was chosen for the Camp Randall 100 tribute they did a few years ago which would presumably make it the best footage they could find. I'm sure in the early 70s you'd take what you could get for televised games.
Year: 1989. ABC game of the week against Miami is on. Actually not that bad of video for the year.
Year: 1994. Some of the die-hards might remember this game. This is also a decent feed of the game since it was widely distributed on ABC. The shoulder pads and a youthful Barry Alvarez really make it feel dated.
Year: 2000. I appreciate the Sun Bowl being on YouTube, I don't appreciate Jamar Fletcher being blurry during his last Badger game.
Astroturf was a thing and what's with the orange yard lines?
Did you know Wisconsin added Astroturf to Camp Randall in 1968 and to pay for it they had to agree to demolish the practice fields north of Camp Randall and put in parking ramps? The field was so bad it started peeling and fading so by the end of the year they had to spray paint it green. Anyways.
Year: 2003. The YouTube quality on the Schabert to Evans game is actually really solid. Kudos to whoever got that game up. Also a good reminder there was once a time where Ohio State's only shot at beating Sorgi was to choke him out of the game.
Year: 2004. 2001 to 2006 is the darkest time for Badger YouTube. My theory is instead of someone who knows what they're doing putting up the ABC game of the week, its some idiot uploading a VHS copy of a 11 AM ESPN broadcast. There is a lot more out there, but the quality isn't there.
Year: 2011. Jumping ahead a bit, I assumed 2011 would be the year where it looks like today. Its obviously a lot better than 2004, but is still lacking in quality.
Year: 2013. Getting there, but not quite.
Year: 2016. I think we've reached the point where its as good as today. I do NOT feel old watching a 2016 Youtube, though I did forget how involved Rob Wheelwright was in the game plan.
Last week I sort of hedged on doing this every week, then somehow have 2700 words today. Thanks for reading, Go Badgers.