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Okay. Ask your rheumatologist about cosinetics. Dead. Good afternoon everybody, I'm Bart Winkler. Welcome into the Winkler Verse.
We've got Jake Kokorowski going to join us. today to talk some Wisconsin Badgers. I don't know how many people are excited about them. Hopefully, Jay can get us more excited. But that's not his job.
His job is just to observe. Uh as he's got his new sub stack. Badger Observer.
So we will talk to him there. And I do hope that if you're a Badger fan and you like what Jake has to say. You will help support him in his new endeavor.
So we'll talk to him coming up. A little bit here. A couple of things I wanted to mention before we get into the interview portion of today's activities is that the Brewers are amazing. Uh, this is getting weird. Do do people really hate What the brewers are doing.
I feel like people hate what the Brewers are doing. I do. I feel like nationally Some are like, hey, what a cool story. But I feel like people hate what the brewers are doing. But uh that might be Strawman.
Am I straw manning this? Am I straw manning this? Am I uh. Just wanting people to hate what the brewers are doing because I'm so used to people. Shitting on Milwaukee and Wisconsin?
Am I going to Sydney Sweeney the situation? Oh, people are mad about Sidney Sweeney. They are? Who? Show me one Person.
That's mad about that. I don't know. Um So the brewers are amazing. The uh Stats, the record as they head into Tuesday nights against Pittsburgh, Tuesday night's game against Pittsburgh, 49 and 16 in their last 65. 25 and 4 in their last 29.
Make it 13 and one. In their last 14. I know that Cubs fans, and you have to do this. If you're in the division, you have to start to think about the wild card. Uh they still have that five-game series, so If I was in their shoes, I wouldn't give up hope yet.
But it's six and a half games back. Uh in the division. Are the Brewers. If the season were to end today, the Brewers would have the one seed. The Phillies would have the two.
The Dodgers would have the three. And they would host The Mets And then the Padres would go to the Cubs. They started the series against each other in Wrigley or the season, they would do that again. As of right now, Cubs with a game lead over San Diego.
So, I don't think it's too early to start looking at that stuff. And I'm fully like, give me the division, give me a buy. You know, I I I d I Overall, I wish that baseball did not have a bye week. I I I would like to go back to like 1992 or You know, there's like seven teams in the east and seven teams in the west, and it's a true pennant race. And then you just play the, you know, you play the seven-game series.
Um I know that won't happen.
So maybe a maybe four teams in the playoffs is fine. But even even still. Um We're not going back to that. I don't like interleague play.
Well, I mean, I do, it's fine, but I liked it better when the American League and National League were separate. And for that reason, I'd like to reiterate one of the takes that I don't think anyone can argue with. I've got takes that are not agreeable. I've got takes that are. You know, interesting.
But if we're going to homogenize the American League and the National League, why are we still giving out MVP awards to each? There's no difference between the American League and National League. They're as different as the NFC and AFC as the Eastern Conference is the Western Conference. Why are we still giving out separate MVP awards? In these leagues.
And separate Cy Young and second manager, two manager of the years, two rookie of the years. Why are we still doing that? I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't see a flaw.
I don't see a flaw in that take. Brewers of the Pirates on Tuesday and then Wednesday afternoon. Wanted to play some hooky with my kid who's got camp. Tickets, man, this is the thing. Like, it's really great that everyone's supporting them.
It is so great. These atmospheres are great. People are wading through waters on Sunday to get to the game. But then my brother's coming to town. He's like, hey, we should go.
Here's the day I can be at. Oh, okay. Let me look. Oh, Eucharist Celebration of Life Day. Oh.
The tickets that I got for $60 by the dugout two months ago are now $300. And if I want to pay $60, I'm sitting behind a pole.
So You know, you got to pay up a little bit. There's a premium when your team's this good. But Jesus, I just want to go to these games. But so does everybody. I get it.
Supply E demand. I get it. I get it. I get it. But very exciting.
I think town's really embracing it. You're starting to see more brewers gear out. Wherever you go, I think that's a great part of it. You can see somebody wearing a brewer's hat. You can talk to them.
I was at jury duty the other day. Get to that in a minute. Um, just talking brewers in line with somebody.
So that was really cool. It's really cool how they're um Good. And I like that.
So, hopefully, this keeps rolling for a little bit. Are they peaking too soon? People wonder. I don't. That's not a concern for me.
Because either way, they're going to have that if they get the one seed or two seed, they're going to have a week-long break. The momentum question is going to be there regardless.
So Hashtag enjoy. The ride I was telling my kid the other day, I go, I had to wait 41 years for a season like this. They're six. You're six, man. Speaking of him turning six, we had his birthday party.
On the video I do with Jake, I'll be wearing a Milwaukee Milkman hat that I got as part of his birthday celebration. And I think they do a good job. You get hats, you get a b you got a game ball. They put his name on the Jumbotron. There's supposed to be some on-field celebration.
We didn't get into that.
So. I've had a lot on my mind the last week. 'Cause on Sunday I had this birthday party. where I'm carting all these families, I'm telling them to come down to Franklin for this game. And I'm watching the weather, and of course, you know, some of you may have been much more affected than a slight delay of a birthday party.
And I hope you're able to. you know, clean out the basements or or whatever has happened. To you, this 500,000-year flood that ripped through Milwaukee, where the rain just sat over us and the lightning was a strobe light, and you didn't even need a fan that night because the thunder just rolled. For, I mean, it was just a perpetual sound. It was, it was wild.
It was a wild, wild night in Milwaukee. And hopefully, everybody's okay. I mean, these scenes of cars flooded outside of the stadium. Which, yeah, sorry the roof leaked a little bit. There's three feet of standing water on the highway.
And you still played a baseball game.
Sorry. That the roof leaked. Slightly. Our apologies. Uh to that.
But we have the we had the party, the Milkman game supposed to start at one. Get there by 12:10 for birthday festivities. We get there at 12:10. It's delayed till 2.30.
Okay. So, I got all these families, and we're wondering what the hell to do. Should we just go home? Should we all sit at a McDonald's? Root River Parkway, this bowling alley right nearby.
Thank you, God, for existing. And Google said they weren't open till two. And I was like, Please no So I called them and they were open. And so we threw an impromptu birthday party there. got some pizzas, did some bowling for the kids, and it was great.
And I thought the Milkman game was going to be canceled, but then it cleared up that afternoon. And I said, well, guys, thank you all for coming. This is the party now. We still do have 30 tickets. If anyone would like to go to the game, you're more than welcome.
And everybody went.
So it's one thing to like scramble and put on some birthday parties, but these parents that did five hours with us. God bless them. God bless their hearts. God bless their time. And so that was a big burden off my shoulders.
to have moved past that and then Monday was jury duty. Which I did not want to be on a jury. Fifteen years ago in Fond du Lac I got selected and I wanted to be on a jury. And I sat there. I didn't say anything.
I didn't answer any questions, or I didn't ask any questions. 'Cause I thought if I don't talk they'll put me on.
Well, they didn't put me on. In Milwaukee, it's different. You go there. I was supposed to be summoned for Monday and Tuesday. I ended up not having to go Tuesday and I I'm I mean, wow.
I felt like I felt free. I I d I I Monday after I got out of jury duty. With the party in my rear view, with jury, I felt like a new, I felt free. I've never felt this light in a long time. Um And I was sitting in there, got called for a case initially.
And it was probably going to take a while.
Now, the second K, I ended up getting. Called for two cases. I didn't get on either of them. But in the second case, it's the whole process was interesting to me where. The judge talks, asks you questions, then the attorney District Attorney's Office asks you questions.
Then the defense is supposed to go up there last. Which kind of is like a He's you know, you're going last. You're already kind of You don't want to go last.
So the second I did, the judge is like, hey, everybody, you know, innocent until proven guilty. You might not have to testify. You know, you might not do this. If they don't, is everybody okay with that? Oh, yeah, yeah.
But the first one, the guy, Was asking these questions like, you know, the way that he was presenting. There was a lot of qualifications, I thought. And I would have nudged somebody and said, I don't think he's confident in this case.
So I thought, if I'm going to say that. privately I'm going to raise my hand. And I told this guy: I don't feel like you're very confident in your case. He looked at me like. What are you doing?
And then he goes, I'm confident in my case. And then some woman behind me is like, No, it's supposed to be this way. And I turn around, I go, what did you say? And then the judge goes, Hey, hey, no talking. And I made a scene.
I made a scene. I was hoping just, you know, being in the media somewhat, and I've worked in TV, and I told them that. I've worked in court cases. You know, I've spent time in these kind of buildings where You kinda get you can get a little friendly with the DA 'cause they give you the audio that you need.
Sometimes you have to track down the defense attorneys. I mean, this is in La Crosse 25 years ago, 15 years ago. Same difference, really, when you're this old. But I think that was enough to get out. But like you're going around and you're saying your job, and I'm like, I host the Bart Winkler show.
On Infinity Sports Network? When it's one thing to like. Go to an event where people are like, hey, that's Bart. From the show. Hi, Bart.
Hey. Thank you for listening. It's another to tell a room of 40 people that Don't know what you do. To say I host a show on the Infinity Sports Network. You feel kinda douchey.
Tbh. Uh and and I did feel douchey. And I did. And then some people after, like, oh, what happened to 1250 anyway? And, like, they know.
Everyone always asks me about 1250. Like, they know Sparky, they know Gary, they know Bill, they know Chuck. Oh, you were in the what now? You were who? I was in the mornings.
That was the I was a I was this I was a tentpole show, man. It was in the mornings. I worked there for eight years. Oh yeah! No.
And you wear now? I only listen to the score, one guy says. I go, I'm on the score three hours a night. What? Yeah.
Never have had a bigger platform, never have felt Relevant. Look next time that there's an article written about the Infinity Sports Network. It says the Infinity Sports Network, home of Megan Perloff, Bill Ryder, Rich Eisen, Zach Gelb, JR Sport Brief, Pat Boyle, and others. There's only one others, that's me.
So, to get out of jury duty, either have a radio show or tell the defense attorney you don't think he's that good at his job. We are brought to you by Happy Play Sam promo code bar. 25% off each and every order. That's 25% off each and every order. I didn't like drink at all last weekend.
Wow. It's amazing how productive you can be when you don't do that. But then to unwind at night. Hey. That's where the gummies get in.
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Anyway, I'm gonna rub some c some cream on it. And report back to you on that one. But the Seltzers, the Gummies, the Sleep Gummies, they're all available. Try them out for yourself. Like, do I want five milligrams?
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Well, you try. You try, you see what works for you, you see what you need. And then you go back and get more. There's sampler packs. And then you can get bigger orders.
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So check that out: happyplacehemp.com in Muskego. If you want to visit Chris and Rob. Otherwise, happyplacehemp.com promo code is Bart. 25% off every order at checkout. Let's talk some Badgers when we return into the Winklerverse.
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Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people that you want faster. And it makes a huge difference. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45% more applications than non-sponsored jobs.
Plus with Indeed sponsored jobs, there's no monthly subscriptions, no long-term contracts, and you only pay for results. How fast is indeed?
Well, in the minute I've been talking to you, 23 hires were made on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/slash BWN. Just go to indeed.com slash BWN right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
Indeed.com slash BWN. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, indeed, is all you need. You are into the Winkler verse. Thank you for being here, and thank Jay Kokorowski for being here as well.
He's been covering the Badgers for a long time, and he'll continue to do that for you at Badger Observer. Sign up at badgerobserver.com. It's his new sub stack. Recruiting will be covered, volleyball will be covered, the football team will be covered. You are like, what, weeks into this new endeavor?
Um That's scary. Been there. How are you doing? Thanks, Barban. It's always great talking with you, my man.
No, it's scary, man. It is, you know, I know we were talking before we started recording this, but you're not just a reporter. You're not just a founder of a new publication. You're also a small business owner. And that's kind of the scariest thing of, you know, there's a business side to things that you need to accomplish within this and your taxes, other things, and hitting goals and benchmarks.
But, you know, it's really, it's an exciting time. It's, you know, my, I've enjoyed every publication that I've written for and I've reported for throughout my time. But, you know, there's a time after no longer being part of the State Journal in late March, you know, this has always been kind of in my head of going out on my own. And it's obviously I have so many years covering Wisconsin football and recruiting. And the big thing with volleyball coming, obviously, the Badgers are a blue blood underneath Kelly Sheffield and what they've done.
And there's, in my eyes, not nearly enough coverage in what, you know, in terms of. Player profiles, staff profiles, among other projects that could be used to cover them and report on. And so that's where kind of Badger Observer kind of came to be came to light and came to life that way. And it's been fun, you know, yeah, two and a half, three weeks in, I would say, right now to fall, you know, since we started and going strong, going steady. And we got a lot more coming, you know, coming in the next few weeks, especially at the start of high school football, the Badgers football season, and then volleyball kicks up too.
I mean, there's a scrimmage in the first exhibition game for Wisconsin come up this weekend.
So there's plenty more to come at Badger Observer. I'll be busy. Yeah, and that's why now's a good, I mean, getting it off the ground, but now is a good time to sign up because everything is getting started with football. You know, you've been a trusted voice on that for a while, recruiting. I mean, people that love recruiting, you either love you either don't care too much or like it's your life.
So you'll have some good access there. And then volleyball, I mean, we're seeing, just look at like on T V. Big networks, broadcast networks are like, oh, this will pop a number and we'll do well. And there's a lot of interest in there.
So, like, just before we get into football and all this kind of stuff. You probably you gotta You're like next month. Have you mapped that out where you're like, I gotta be at a high school game here? You're going to Florida to check out some recruits. There's Volleyball, there's football.
Just keeping the calendar alone. For you sounds like a job. It really is. Yeah, I need to hire if there's any intern, any college students that want to be unpaid interns on a ground up publication. I would never do unpaid internships.
I would feel terrible doing that. I know you and I have experienced, I'm guessing you and I have experienced things in the past where, you know, us growing up through sports media. I'm still a guy that advocates that doing an unpaid internship is beneficial. But everybody nobody we're in a nobody likes to I mean, I don't know. I Yeah, no, I hear you.
I hear you. You want to get paid and you're doing work and you don't want to get taken advantage of, but.
Sounds like Don't miss your opportunity. But I think the last guy that said that online. That like advocated for that got attacked. Oh, it did not. Not like physically, but like you suck, you suck, dude.
So I keep that. I keep that one quiet that I... I got you, man. But but then but then again, if I were to have an intern. let's say, in some crazy reality.
I'd be like I got to pay this guy. Yeah. No, I get. No, it's it's a yeah, it's a crazy time for sports media, especially. I mean, it's, you know, especially trying to like.
Uh, even with we've talked about this, and we'll get back to the schedule part in a second, but I mean, even just you know, what we've seen throughout Wisconsin, uh, those that cover Wisconsin football, it's just the opportunities dwindling in terms of the number of people covering sports. Uh, and it's not just Wisconsin, but using the Badgers beat as the cover, you know, people are moving around, uh, people are, you know, did you see uh Mike Tomlin the other day? Yeah. So Mike Tomlin There's this video of him after I think Pittsburgh was in Jacksonville for a preseason game. I think that's who they played.
And they're there. And Mike Tomlin's like, all right, here's my opening statement, blah, blah, blah. Any questions? Looks around, says no.
Okay, good. And it went kind of viral because it's like, Oh, nobody asked a question. That's weird. Nobody asked a question because nobody sent any reporters there. That was why there was nobody in the room.
To ask a question.
So it wasn't reporters. being shy, it was reporters not being sent. To go cover An NFL preseason game game coverage for? Oh, I know. And that's the thing that is kind of the crux of my.
Newsletter is: you know, I'm not going to be able to get down to Alabama or to Oregon this year. You know, the prices are there. I will admit I will be seeing Weird Al Yankovic in Madison on the 12th. Yes, yep, at Bree Stevensfield. Life.
I call it the Steve. You got to get that going. Nice.
Okay. Yeah. No, I'm going. I love. I mean, I have friends going.
It's going to be like, it's my childhood. And you know how it is with us millennials, our geriatric millennials. Anything from our past, we got to go to.
So you had that. But I am going. You talked about going to the Florida trip.
Next weekend, I'm going down to watch Jaden Betit, the four-star wide receiver from Naples, and then going. Hopefully I can get credential for this. I'm still waiting confirmation on that, but uh Matter Day, the powerhouse program in California, their quarterback. Is a Wisconsin commit Ryan Hopkins.
So I'm driving from the southwest side of Florida over to Fort Lauderdale to watch Modern Day take on St. Thomas Aquinas. And like probably, and people have talked about it, it's probably the most talked about high school matchup of that week. And it's going to be one of the powerhouse matchups between a California, you know, arguably the best team for high schools in the nation taking on one of a top 10 team in the nation for a high school program. And so, you know, it's part of that's being calculated, right?
Where my goal is to go to, you know, go watch the Badgers face Michigan in Ann Arbor. But it's also within that trip watching two high school recruits stopping in Indiana. I'll watch one. And then Sunday, that Sunday, Jack Janda, who's a tight end commit for Wisconsin for this 2026 class upcoming, he plays on a Sunday.
So stay a little bit later. Go cover that game, write something up about him, interview him. There's multiple pieces of content within that. And it's about being smart. And instead of contracting coverage, it's not like I'm not.
Watching what I'm spending, you know, there is, you know. I am, you know, when I go down to Florida, I am staying with friends. I am trying to conserve those costs. I'm not getting the big SUV. It's getting the economical big dinner afterwards, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Uh, if I, you know, I should be able to afford a public chicken, uh, chicken tender sub, which is for those that are in Florida that are in the know, you know. Uh, so those are always treat, you know, treats, but yeah, it's about being smart, it's still trying to. Get that coverage though. And you know how it, you know, I believe there is such a benefit to authentic coverage and not just writing off of reports or other things, others' reports, like being authentic, being there, love. Exactly.
Exactly. So that's part of what Badger Observer is. And I mean, you know, it's for right now, we have a great deal going on where. 50 bucks for a year subscription. Otherwise, it's you know, and that'll be through the twenty ninth of August.
It'll be through the first game of the season when you know after the Badgers take on Miami of Ohio on the twenty eighth. But going it's my goal though with this too is I know costs are going up, costs have been high. you know, for families and Badger fans.
So It's also trying to maintain, like, hey, I need, I have three boys. You know, I have a mortgage, among other things, but I also want it to be. You know, people have access to it.
So, right now, 50 bucks a year. Otherwise, it goes up to seven bucks a month or $69 a year, which is still relatively cheap compared to other sites. And that's what we're trying to do: try to be cost-effective and have mutually beneficial costs for everyone involved.
So, badgerobserver.com, as Jake mentioned, that's where he is at. That's where you can sign up, get in before that first game, which is on a Thursday at like 11:30 at night. I think it's eight o'clock. It's late. I think it's late on a Thursday.
This Badger team.
So here's how. The way I've always felt about The Badgers. is I am so into them. At the start of every year. And the the moment they lose a game, I'm like, well.
That's it for me. They have not been that great. as of late. This year, it's gotten to the point where someone's like.
Someone asked me a week ago. Hey, who's the quarterback, by the way? And I'm like. Oh my god. I don't know.
I don't know who the quarterback is. Edwards, I don't know who the running back is coming in.
So this year, I, you know, six and six or whatever seems like a high mark. What are the challenges that you're already seeing that this team is going to face? And is there like any signs that Maybe maybe we are being a little. just overtly pessimistic about uh what you've seen so far. Right.
I mean, yeah, it's tough. Like, we talked about that. A high mark could be six and six. I agree with you an extent where, you know, seven, five, eight and four would be a great season because of the schedule that they face. This is, I think, was it yesterday the AP top 25 came out the preseason one, and there are six opponents.
I think I saw it right, right? Six opponents that were in the top 25. That's we don't know how they'll fare throughout the year. There could be major injuries or other things where they're, you know, disappoint. Uh, and those teams could fall out of the AP rankings, but that's half your regular season schedule right there.
Uh, and they have to go to Alabama, they have to go to Michigan, who I know that you know they fell off last year in Sharon Moore's first year, but they still got tons of talent and a five-star quarterback that that will be leading them. Uh, but you all, you know, then yeah, Ohio States at home, they go to Indiana, but then you know, we're not even talking about like you know, they have Iowa, the trophy games of Iowa, who will always be tough, and Minnesota, who underneath PJ Fleck, they've made it a competitive rivalry again after Wisconsin kind of mopped the floor. Loar for 10, 15 years. And so. You know, for Wisconsin, you know, Billy Edwards Jr.
is the court, is QB1. He, you know, the Maryland transfer, I think he's a good fit for this offense just because he's got the height. He's basically kind of the prototype of what Jeff Grimes, the new offensive coordinator, wants with this offense. He's got a good arm. He's got the arm talent.
He can air it out deep because they blend this wide zone type scheme that you see underneath like a Sean McVay or a Matt Laffleur, you know, variation of that. It's going to be run emphasis for this offense, which I think is music to everybody's ears that love Wisconsin. But you also, you know, they like downfield passing, and Edwards can do that. They have the targets that are fast, and wide receivers, Vinnie Anthony II, and Jaden Ballard. Trash Kekahuna, I think, in the slot can be really dangerous, not just.
receiving the ball, but running the ball. And so, but it's also an NFL-style system that I think is going to help Wisconsin, where, and that's how Jeff Grimes kind of refers to it, where it's going to be multiple types of formations and personnel. And they're also going to make, you know, defenses defend the entire field, not just with, you know, a running back running the ball. It could be a wide receiver. We've seen that already.
And we've seen Wisconsin, or we've seen Green Bay do that underneath Matt LaFleur, right?
So, you know, you've seen these types of variations within that kind of wide zone scheme. But those are kind of, you know, the challenges are going to be that schedule. It's also, you know, with it's identifying certain things within the offense, for example, at left tackle where Ken, you know, they had a young player, sophomore Kevin Haywood, go down in the spring with an ACL injury. And he was going to be kind of, he's kind of the. The next, I don't want to anoint him because you never want to put expectations on younger kids, but he could be the next great Wisconsin lineman going up through the ranks.
But his ACL injury, they had to go to the transfer portal and find Davis Heinzen, who's from the state, but he's playing left tackle. He came from central Michigan. Can they make sure that they can protect Billy Edwards in that regard? The other side is for defensively. They got ran on so much last year.
The last five games, they. Average, they gave up an average of 200.2 yards per game and 12 total rushing touchdowns in the final five games. That's not characteristic Wisconsin defense, you know, from what was seen recently underneath defensive coordinator Jim Leonard, who's now with the Broncos. But Mike Tressel and the new, you know, the defensive coordinator that's been there since Luke Fickle took over. And the staff, they've Went to the transfer portal and they really You know, I think they hit really well on defensive linemen.
They had three new defensive linemen that are. Bigger and they're they're they're longer in terms of and they have some athleticism to them, but they also hit on the outside linebackers that are going to be more in that defensive front that are bigger and more athletic. Uh, and so they've gotten depth at both of those positions, which will help. Where, you know, like you said, towards the end of the year, the defensive line maybe had three to five guys at most that were rotating in, but most of them there's only like three that really got a significant number of reps on that defensive line. And that showed on wear and tear by the end of the season.
So I think they've addressed that.
Now it's time for you know something that I said when I was at Badger Extra in the State Journal on a podcast where it's a prove it defense now. Like, okay, like you're bringing in these guys. You know, last year they brought in guys through the transfer portal. They recruited well, but you know, they did the same this year. With some players, both freshman and transfer portal, that are really intriguing.
But now it's prove it.
Now it's show, you know, show them show that what you can do against in Alabama. Show what you can do against Michigan or Ohio State. And so that's those are some of the challenges that they'll have to deal with going forward.
Now uh the uh schedule as you mentioned And I'll share it here. on the video stream And there's a nice ad there.
Okay, Miami of Ohio. Late night, Thursday. Middle Tennessee.
Okay, at home. And then bam. Alabama, Maryland, bye week, Michigan. Iowa. Oh, geez.
Look at that. Look at October. My God. Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, bye week, and then Washington, Indiana, Illinois. How about that, Bilema?
uh and uh and Minnesota. I think when um You know, they moved on from Christ and went to Luke Fickle. There was a lot of excitement about that, how good he was at Cincinnati. Could you point to anything as to why? It hasn't reached The Yeah, not even the most lofty expectations, but it really Feels like, oh, this is like.
This is less than we thought we were getting. Yeah, I mean, and I think one point you can point to is just the injuries at quarterback, especially within what was Phil Longo's variation of an air raid passing scheme where there's a lot on quarterbacks.
So, you know, Tanner Mordecai gets injured, has that hand injury during that Iowa game. And, you know, Brayden Locke, you know, he was a great interview, a good person to talk to. It just wasn't the right fit, you know, for both the 2023 and 2024 season. You know, Tyler Van Dyke goes it down with seven plays into the Wisconsin-Alabama game. I'm not saying Wisconsin is going to win that game against Alabama at home what happened.
But you saw how Wisconsin was driving nicely a little bit. I'm not saying that would have continued, but Van Dyke, you know, Had that running ability plus the arm. Tanner Mordecai had that back in 2023. And I would argue Tanner Mordecai's rushing ability, especially against Nebraska and Minnesota, helped get those wins and make Wisconsin Bill eligible that season. But I think that goes to the, so there's injuries at quarterback.
I also believe the scheme, too, when it came to. The offense underneath Phil Longo, I like Phil Longo. I think he's a good football coach. I don't think it was the right, you know, looking back now, hindsight's 2020, everybody wanted. A passing offense for Wisconsin, right?
Remember that when everyone's like with Paul Gris, like, oh, you know, I heard Badger fans, oh, we can't pass the ball, we need something to pass.
Well, there is an overcorrection, right? Where you go to an air raid where they're trying to get athletes in space. That's the whole thing of trying to get them the ball and then they can make plays.
Well, things didn't work out that way. I would say argue the Hire of Jack Bicknell Jr. as offensive line coach for that first year. Wasn't a great, you know, didn't pan out well. We've seen really good things from AJ Blasek in that regard last year.
And into this year, I think that I think him, the offensive line coach for Wisconsin now, you know, Blasek's done a great job recruiting, but also just getting the guys ready. And I think that his way of teaching has really resonated with that group. They love him.
So I think those two hires early on, you know, again, it's hindsight's 2020. But it, you know, 2010 for me, I have 2010 vision. I'm jealous of you. I'm jealous. As you can tell, these glasses, I don't.
But you also, yeah, so those kind of led into that. But I also think, too.
Now there are more players underneath that that have been recruited by By Luke Fickle and his staff now. I think they're at a place now with especially with the offense and who they've brought in for defense. I think they've talked about culture. And I think they've kind of it's year three. I think Fickle, you know, and they have made adjustments to where I think this team, you can tell that, you know, I mean, I've heard even from Brayden Locke last year, he said Wisconsin's locker room is different from every other.
And he meant that in the most positive way about just how close this team, you know, this program is and how the players are close to each other. I think they've even refined that further within the team and just also, you know, just. But with how There are still players that were recruited by Paul Christ. They're still on this team, like Preston Zachman, Riley Maulman, Ricardo Hallman, some big-name players like that. But I also feel it's year three at Luke Figgle.
They know what to expect. I think the culture is also a little bit stronger, too. Um the uh football schedule, like I mentioned. Um It's gonna be hard. Uh After I'm soft booking you to come back on the show week of Alabama.
So. Uh find some time. Badgers hopefully are 2-0. Cool. Heading into Alabama.
So we'll catch up on the football stuff then. Again, sign up at Badger Observer. For all of this great insight. The other things that you cover. Recruiting.
and volleyball. With recruiting. You're so sorry. This is a tough one, I think, to tackle because it's the traditional way of recruiting. I don't know why anyone would basically, I don't know why anyone would want to be a college coach right now.
Because you are recruiting. Like crazy. New people. But then you're also like every day you're with your current team, you're recruiting them to stay with how the transfer portal, which you got to lump in with NIL. That seems like.
If I were to cover that and you're going to cover that. That seems like that would be... Hard. Are you prepared to How are you going to do that? Yeah, well, yeah.
I mean, part of it is, and it's also a challenge of, you know, even I was at the State Journal trying to figure out just what's the right amount of coverage in terms of high school recruiting because there are like this age of NIL and the transfer portal. Like these, like these 25-year-old kids being like, oh, I'm an NIL agent. You're not anything. What are you?
Well, that's the thing. They have, I mean, yeah, that's another part of it, too, where, you know, I'm hoping to dive a little bit more into NIL. And talk to certain people about it. It's a hard thing to report about because trying to figure out numbers that are trustworthy and, you know, and who you trust within that frame is tough in that regard. But it is a tough thing to, and I give folks at 24-7 Sports and our 24-7 Sports and Ontario and rivals all the credit for diving into that.
I have to do things a little bit differently because I can't, you know, it's a sub-stack newsletter. I'm not trying to put out a small article on every single offer that goes out. It's with what I'm trying to do is, you know, especially with recruiting is watching these players live. And I know other sites do it too, where they go out to kind of do scouting reports. You know, my goal is to go out there and get interviews with these players, but also show what they could bring to Wisconsin.
And obviously, the jump from high school to college is huge, but a lot of it is. Keeping up to date and on track, you know, and just seeing just what some of these commits are doing for Wisconsin and, you know, at the high school level during their final year. And I will be covering a lot of in-state recruits for that matter, too, especially in the 2027 class where you have players that are, you know, with Wisconsin's targeting a bunch of in-state players, most notably on the offensive line for the 2027 class. And so that's part of it. But it's also, you know, trying to see who's coming to Madison for game days.
And that's part of the things that I've always, I'll take a look to see who could, you know, who's on Wisconsin's guest list really. And yeah. But it's also hard too where, you know, in terms of. How the staffs have changed throughout ever, you know, gosh, you know, there wasn't, uh, Even in the last two, three years, you know, we saw really ever since when Luke Fickle took over the program, you know, and we saw a little bit of it with Paul Christ hiring, you know, moving Mickey Turner from tight ends coach over to a head of recruiting type of position. But They've really added a lot of people to this recruiting staff.
And you talk about it, right? The players, you have to retain those players that are, you know, and that's why they have a general manager now, Marcus Sedbury, you know, and you have a director of player personnel and Ethan Russo, and they have director of recruiting Pat Hambert.
So you have a lot of people that can help the coaches deal with the ins and outs of everything that's happening. And you're seeing, you know, especially now during the fall, it's going to be poaching season in terms of, you know, programs that. Taught looking at doing senior evaluations and maybe trying to flip one of the commits to their program, right? And so you talk about it, it's hard for a coach. You know, it's also why they're paid as much as they are, I guess, because there is so much now and it's definitely different from what it was, you know, even.
seven years ago, five, seven years ago.
Well, even different on that same kind of line of thinking. The other thing you're going to be covering is volleyball. Which has been there. And it just seems like recently people are like. Oh, this rules, and we want to cover this.
And oh, Wisconsin's good. Um. And so, for you covering both, they're going on at the same time. That's exciting. I think the weekend that Ohio State comes to.
Camp Randall, the Badgers have games Friday and Sunday of that weekend. Shut up. Yeah, I will be busy. It will be non-stop. I'm taking a look at that right now.
Yeah, it is. And I know I picked it. People are looking at me like, you sure you're not going to do basketball? Give yourself a little bit of a break. I'm like, no.
We're good, you know, like I'll be fine. And but yeah, that that weekend is what UCLA that's top 25 opponents with right now, currently UCLA and USC that weekend in between the you know, the Ohio State Wisconsin game sandwiched between them.
So it's gonna be a huge weekend for Wisconsin athletics, but You know, for me, it yeah, it's one thing I what I did at Badger Extra in the State Journal. I loved doing it was a series called One-on-One, where I talked to my goal to try to get two student athletes per program and sit and talk with them. We couldn't cover every sport all the time because of this current nature of sports journalism and media, but I did my best to try to get to every program and highlight some of the players. And you know, volleyball was always one of those things where, even before at the State Journal, I wrote about the volleyball team volunteering at the polls for the 2020 election. And I, it was going into what my favorite one-on-one video interview I did for the Badger Extra was with Yulia Orzil, who is a Polish volleyball player.
And I spoke a little bit of Polish from my time at UW. Shout out to Penny Miranowska for my three semesters of getting me by there. But it's, you know, it. For so you know, you chat up, you have a great conversation, and but you know, and it was one of my favorite pieces I think I've ever done in terms of just an interview. But this volleyball program.
You know, there's a lot of new pieces this year. There are a lot of transers and new freshmen. And so, a part of like, you know, leading up to the season is going to, you know, I'm talking to these players about like, well, how do you mesh everybody together? It's sort of like football, you know, like, every year. How do you With the transfer portal and recruiting, you know, how do you become a team?
You know, yeah, you could be a team just with the jersey, but how do you really become a team and how do you bond and form those bonds? And a lot of that comes from adversity, but it's also just you know, with the volleyball team, I can tell you, like, one of them they had team dinners and playing games, and that's really helped them out. And so, that article will be up before the season, uh, you know, in a couple in a week or two. Uh, but yeah, that's and that's to me, it's really interesting. And you talked about the popularity, you know, it's one of the best sports to watch on TV, in my friend, in my eyes.
You know, you watch it, I'm on you, and you're just seeing the back and the fourth, and just the, you know, and the volleys get, especially on those long volleys where you feel, even through the TV, you can feel the excitement within the whatever building they're at, especially if you're in the field house, uh, which is, you know, for those that haven't been to the Wisconsin or UW field house, it's small. It's where the, you know, before the Cole Center was built, was when their basketball was played. You know, it's very much on top of you a little, you know, to that extent, but there's an energy. It's smaller than, you know, the Cole Center, obviously. But there is a You know, there's an energy to it, and when it's, you know, when it's sold out, and most of the time it's packed, you know, you that's one of the College volleyball is best places to play.
And so, I think, you know, you see that elsewhere throughout the nation with Louisville or Nebraska, Minnesota, Penn State, other, you know, other places, or Texas, you know, there's a real energy about volleyball. And you're seeing that even with the number of leagues that have formed, the professional volleyball leagues that have formed within the states in recent memory. I think there was three at one point, I think it might be two now with a merger, but you're seeing that as well. And so I think, you know, especially with just Wisconsin and what they've done, especially since Kelly Sheffield's taken over since what, 2013, 2012-ish. You know, that program's gone to new heights, including a national championship.
And We're aiming to, you know, it may not be necessarily all the takeaways from game from matches, if you will, but it's more player profiles, you know, and trying to dive into the lifestyles of these players, talking about the staff, why they made, you know, coming out tomorrow on Wednesday morning. I talked to Gary White, who now in this new position called Director of Player Personnel and Analytics. And just, okay, we've heard about director of player personnel in football and for college football. But okay, so what does it entail for volleyball? And he laid out everything for me where it's like, you know, and there's multiple sides to everything.
And it was a great conversation.
So it's highlighting some of that. And just, you know, for sometimes for the casual fan, they may not be able to grasp everything with a sport, an emerging sport like volleyball. And I'm here to try to explain it all. Yeah, we're in a different landscape than we were 10, even five, even last year. And the thing that you do get with independent journalism is.
You can't like. You need to be good. You need to give it your all, which then means that people that subscribe are going to get content that they know that was written, you know. In a way that is is Trying to be not perfection, but if people are gonna subscribe, you're not gonna not give them what they're looking for. Exactly.
And that's the era that we're in. And this is just getting started. BadgerObserver.com. You can sign up there, get in before game one. For some savings, but other than that, Jake, best of luck.
I'm very excited for you. I think the schedule coming up, you're going to be tired a lot. Uh but it's it's a good tired. It's a it's it's good to be It's good to be busy when you're doing something that you like. Exactly.
I'll have tons of pre-workout riding through me, whether or not I work out or not. The ample of the 400 milligrams or 400 grams of caffeine rolling through my assistant brother. I'm used to that now. And it'll only continue and whatnot. But I appreciate you having me on.
And I'll be right. You know what? Pencil me in for that week. That Friday, if I'm at down, you know, down at the Weird Al concert, let's make it happen, buddy. You know, I'll set up that little tripod.
I'll smuggle in the tripod and I'll have it offstage so we, you know, during eat it or, you know, oh. one of the other side i talked to weirdale once in 2013. did you On uh The music station I was at, I interviewed him. And I didn't want to bring up the song I brought up to him was. The night Santa went crazy, I think.
Or I remember Larry, one of those two. That album got weird. That one, yeah. I liked it. It's good.
Yeah, no, that was a bad day. That was a bad hair day. That was bad hair day. Yep. I remember that play on that cassette all the time during my youth, which probably explains a lot about me at this time of life.
But yeah, man, but it's always great talking with you. Anytime you need me, I'm here for your brother. All right, we will be in touch. Jake Kokorowski, BadgerObserver.com. Thank you, Jake.
Thank you guys. Y'all take care. Be good. You just realized that you needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast?
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Indeed.com slash BWN. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, indeed, is all you need. Jay Kokorowski, obviously a thank you to him, badgerobserver.com. He's getting it off the ground.
And if you're into the Badgers, you should be into BadgerObserver.com.
So I appreciate Jake and his time. Here today. Um I am going to Hashtag tack it on. Where that is when I play some audio from a different outlet. And then make you listen to it on the podcast.
But. I'm going to do it differently. Um I do have some vo I d I had a voicemail from Dan, I have a voicemail from you that I want to play. The audio's not great. I could barely hear it.
Um So I can't I'm not gonna play it Dan, I'm sorry I listened to it. And I appreciated your time. But the audio is not great. You guys can sign up or call the voicemail line 402-915-2278. 402-915-BART.
It's still active. It's still active thanks to our friends at Carl's Place. Check them out for all your golf simulator needs. A link on every YouTube post that I do. But I'm going to tack on.
Jake's a big Weird Al fan, and I mentioned I talked to Weird Al. I haven't done this enough. Maybe. Yeah, I'm doing the podcast. Yes, I'm doing the national show.
Yes, I was on WSSP. Before that, I had a run. At K107.1 FM, WFON FM, which is now a country station. They flipped. like the week after I left and I was very butthurt about it.
Because everything I built was gone. But what I built was kind of shit. It was like... It was like a we play your music kind of thing, and that was our tagline. But we just played, there was no rhyme or reason.
Basically, you call in with a request. I played Lips of the Angel every morning for some guy who was in prison. trying to trying to win his telling the to tell a girl outside that he's coming for her. I'd love to know how that went. One guy one time a guy called and like Proposed to his wife.
Or propose to his fiancée, or propose to his girlfriend. Um And then I was like, okay, how do we know if your girlfriend? We like gave the phone number to call in. We couldn't get her on the line. Good.
The whole thing was weird.
So maybe I'll maybe I'll play. What are some other interviews I did? Uh I interviewed Vinny from Jersey Shore. I interviewed I interviewed Pat Croce, remember the Sixers owner? McFoley?
Kevin Sorbo? Joan Osborne, George Koontz. Curtis Stone. Colin Mockery. Yeah, maybe I'll just give you Weird Al and then we don't have to dig in.
Or maybe we'll do a K107 special. At some point.
So Or I'll put them, I don't know. There's a lot of audio I have that I don't know that anyone wants to listen to.
So this will be like a Taste test.
Now this is 12 years ago. This is in 2013.
So one thing about People that do this for a while is I do sound Much younger. I would have been in my twenties. Holy moly.
So we'll leave you there. Here is a hashtag tachedon interview. From 2013. With Weird Al Yankovic. Thanks for stopping into the Winklerverse.
Mornings with Bart continues, and this is a real treat for me. Weird Al Yankovic joining us on the phone. I can't tell you. I'm sure you've been hearing it all morning, but I can't tell you how much I don't want to make you feel old, but I grew up on you, Al. Oh, I appreciate that.
Thank you. Each C D that you had, we would go get it right away. I'm pretty sure I'd have to go back and look. I had just as many Weird L C D's as I did anything else.
So a real treat to talk to you this morning. You got a new book out now, Writing Kids' Books. It's called My New Teacher and Me. I trust your writing capability, obviously, with the parodies, but I gotta tell you, it was you'd buy the C D for the gangster paradise to eat it, but Some of your original stuff, I'd get the CD and I'd be like, well, this is weird. I want just parodies.
And I'd end up. Like my brother and I Can still recite I Remember Larry, I think is the name.
Well, that's the kind of stuff that I ended up loving the most. That that's kind of a dark one. That guy that sounds very like the dark fight of Weird Ali. That's what I liked at twelve. Your your darkest stuff for me at twelve was what resonated with me.
Did did you hear the uh the backwards masking in that particular song? Uh no, I'll have to get to that tonight. A at at the very end, uh yeah, I I put a secret message into that song. If you if you play that song backwards, you can hear me say Boy, you sure must have a lot of free time on your hands. I will get into that.
Yeah, I mean, awesome to talk to you here today. And we're talking more about the book today because you've written a couple of these now. This is called My New Teacher in Me. How did you gravitate from being really, when people think of parodies, You're going to be the first name that comes up for a long, long time. And now you're writing children's books.
I like to try new things and I was given the opportunity a few years ago by an editor from HarperCollins who was a fan and said, you know, I I love the uh the word play in your lyrics. Uh you you have a big fan base among kids and I think you'd be really great at writing Children's books. And I've always been a huge fan of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, and I've always been a big fan of the medium, and I said I would love to. I did the first one when I grew up.
did really well. It it hit the uh the the New York Times uh the bestseller list and uh it I found it something I really enjoy doing, so I'd I'd like to keep doing it if I can. Is it more challenging to write a children's book than it would be a parody song? I don't know. It's about this it's a lot of the same skill set.
I mean, it's still rhyming text. Uh it's basically as if I were writing a long Narrative song, except they don't have to come up with the music for it.
So it's it's a lot of the you know, it's it's a form that I'm fairly uh comfortable and familiar with already. Where are you at as far as ever putting out another C D again? Because A lot of times now, whenever a song comes out, let's say this happened last summer, big time with Call Me Maybe, within hours. Everybody's coming out with a parody now. You used to be the guy, now all the people that kind of grew up on you are doing it for themselves on YouTube.
Do you think that helps or hurts you?
Well, it makes my job a little bit more difficult because uh, you know, i it's it's gonna be close to impossible for uh my next album to have a lot of timely topical parodies on them because You know, and as you pointed out, anybody can upload something to YouTube and it it's there immediately. And if I'm lucky, You know, it'll be a couple of months after you know, I come up with a parody that it's out in the marketplace 'cause I have w I have one more uh album to go on my record contract. I I need to deliver a conventional C D. Uh and after that, um, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I I think I'm probably gonna focus more on digital distribution just because That seems to be the only way that I could still Current and relevant.
So we'll see what happens. Are there anybody of the people that are coming out and trying these parodies? Are you impressed by them ever? Or are you like, hey, I've been doing that for 30 years, you got a long way to go? A lot of them uh leave a lot to be desired, but there there's a lot of people out there that are doing great work.
Uh Kia Bossum is really great. Um Uh there I mean I'm trying to think uh I don't want to give you a l laundry list of of names of people on the internet that that do uh funny stuff, but there's a a lot of people out there. I'll follow a lot of them on my Twitter account. And it's really great to see the art form continuing. Like I just mentioned, some 30 years, I think my bologna was even, or my bologna, that was in the 70s, right, late seventies.
Yeah, seventy nine, I think that came out the last week of n the seventies. To be doing this for that long, is that something that you could have ever even dreamed about? I don't think anybody really anticipated that. Certainly none of the record companies I was approaching. in the early 80s, everybody thought, oh yeah, funny stuff, one hit wonder, we'll never hear from you again.
And I started to believe that after a while. I thought, well, gosh, well, maybe I'm not meant to have a career in the music industry. And uh you know it took a long time before I started getting any amount of respect. I mean I was putting out album after album after album, people kept thinking, oh yeah. You've going to go away.
And then after about 20, 25 years, they're like, hmm, he seems to be sticking around for some reason. That became a kind of a badge of honor for people to have you do a a parody of their songs. It seems to be. It's it's sort of like, uh, you know, you get your your Grammy and your Platinum album and then, you know, then next is a weird out parody. Then Weird Al takes your hard work and writes a song about food to the same beat.
There you go. Congratulations. The book is called My New Teacher and Me.
So you got another C D that you'll be coming out with. uh relatively soon I think. Hope to move digitally, but Is this where we're going to hear? Are we going to see more Al Yankovic on bookstores than we're going to see Weird Al Yankovic on the Internet? I'm just I'm just gonna be all over the place.
Uh yeah, I mean uh I I don't know when the new album's coming out, but eventually and and certainly the uh the new book is in the stores right now. Uh and and uh I just want to keep doing doing what I do. I I'm having a great time and uh I'll Hopefully hang around for as long as people will will allow me to. When's the sequel to UHF coming out? Oh, I get asked that a lot.
Uh I wouldn't hold my breath on that. I would love to do uh another feature film, but I I kind of doubt it would be a a sequel to UHF unless a a major mot motion picture studio Decides it would be a great idea to do a sequel for a movie that bombs 20 years ago.
Well, we'll see. Good luck on that. Weird Al joining us. Hey, pleasure talking to you. Best of luck.
And again, a real treat to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much. Take care. Again, just a thrill to have Weird Al on the show. I would have loved to talk to him for 20, 30 minutes.
But he was able to give us six, and obviously we appreciate that.
