Cole Tollison

Is it a Quiet Week? Or Will Some Big Upsets Hit? – Week 9 Preview

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A Pac-12 Elimination Game, A Possible Upset in the Big 12, and An ACC Matchup with Title Implications.

It’s not the greatest college football weekend if we’re being honest here. I’ll be watching games, but there is no national needle mover like OSU-PSU or Bama-Texas. In a normal year that game this week would be Florida-Georgia, and that game is still good this week, but Florida is down enough right now that the game doesn’t have the same weight to it. I think the same can be said for OSU-Wisco with Bucky being down for the last 2-3 years. 

Even though there aren’t massive name-brand games, there are games with postseason and long-term implications. The games I talk about this week will, or could affect multiple conference title races. And maybe some upsets happen. Upsets tend to strike when no one sees them coming (that’s why it’s an upset). I think it’s safe to say no one saw UNC blowing it to Virginia last week. Who could go down this week?

I have my picks for the week down below.  It was a little rough last week; I went 3-5, but I was 0.5 pts away from 4-4. It may …

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Wisco Wednesday: Hope is a Dangerous Thing

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A Resilient Road Comeback. An OG Braelon Performance. Madison’s Super Bowl Saturday. 

It feels better to be a Badger fan right now than it has in a long long time. Going into the 2021 season felt kinda like this, but Wisco was 1-3 by week 4. 2019 felt like this, but then Bucky dropped the Illinois game (and got murdered by OSU twice). 

When was the last time Wisconsin had real hope? 2017?

I’m not saying Wisconsin is doing anything special this year, like winning the B1G or beating OSU, but after the Illinois game, there is now hope. Hope can propel a team to play above and beyond their ceiling. Hope can also lead to the lowest of lows if it’s proven to be false. 

Fickell has given me hope; let’s see what he does now. 

Looking Back: 4th Quarter Heroics, Njongmeta’s Statement Game, Opportunity in the West

Wisconsin 25
Illinois 21

Locke 1-0

In his 1st career start, Braedyn Locke brought home a win. It’s only the 4th college football game he’s even been on the field for. 

I hate to knock one guy down to raise another up… but I have 1 Mordecai vs. Locke stat line …

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Tolly’s Top 25 – Post Week 8

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My ballot for the AP Top 25 – If they let me have one

I have some short explanations for my picks in groups of 5 from 1 to 25. Then, at the bottom, I have the top 40 all in one list with the AP rankings in parentheses. As usual, I have plenty of disagreements with the AP. There is an entire conference I think they are overvaluing. 

First order of business, a shoutout:

Last Saturday WOF was at the Wisconsin @ Illinois game. Claire and Mark were in the stands near us in the Wisco away section, and were an absolute blast to watch the game with. Fans could take notes on “how to be a fan” from them. Thanks again, Claire and Mark, for hanging out during the game. 

Top 5

1 – Ohio State
2 – Michigan
3 – Washington
4 – Florida State
5 – Georgia

THE Ohio State is #1. I hate it, but it is what it is. No team has a better pair of wins than At Notre Dame and Vs. Penn State. OSU doesn’t really have any struggle games outside of their big matchups either. So based on overall resume, …

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What to Watch by Conference – Week 8 Preview

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The 1st B1G game, The 3rd Saturday in Oct., and what’s good in the other Conferences.

Week 8 of College football is here. We are well past the halfway point and getting into the meat of conference schedules. With conference play dominating the schedule in week 8, I decided that is how I would break down this week’s games – by conference. 

As far as my picks for the week go, I have them down at the bottom like normal. I finally had a positive week after struggling the last in the last 2. For some reason, I’m leaning heavily towards road teams this week. That won’t come back to bite me, right? 

What to Watch – By Conference

This week we are doing a conference by conference look at what fans should/will be watching. Most fans follow the conference their team plays in and also catch the biggest games. 

Big Ten

You are a B1G fan. This is your conference. And unfortunately, you only have access to 1 television. You could channel flip, but let’s say you don’t. What 3 games will you watch parked in front of your TV for 10 hours on Saturday?

Early:
7 Penn State …

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Wisco Wednesday: The Badgers are Down Bad

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Mordecai went down. The defense gave up only 13, but the offense couldn’t score. Wisconsin is way behind schedule in Fickell’s year 1. 

Fickell’s first season as HC had 1 very clear and attainable goal. Win the division in the last year of its existence, and build on that success heading into 2024. The Badgers were supposed to win the West, not join the chaos. Turns out that when pundits and fans say the B1G West is bad, that includes Wisconsin. We can make excuses about the one big run Iowa had (the only TD of the game), or how the QB went down. But to put it simply: Wisconsin got owned by a team with the worst offense in America. 

Now they need to put the pieces back together and get ready for a 2 game stretch that could really take the season off the rails and into a bottomless canyon. Too hyperbolic? Fine, but Illinois is in the ultimate look ahead spot. Everyone’s looking at the OSU game in 2 weeks when the team needs to be focused on not letting Bielema beat them for the 2nd year in a row. 

The season can go in 2 very …

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Tolly’s Top 25 – Post Week 7

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My ballot for the AP Top 25 – If they let me have one

I have some short explanations for my picks in groups of 5 from 1 to 25. Then, at the bottom, I have the top 25 all in one list with the AP rankings in parentheses. I’m closer to the AP than I expected, but there are still a couple of major disagreements between our lists. 

Top 5

1 – Michigan
2 – Washington
T-3 – Penn State
T-3 – Ohio State
5 – Georgia

Michigan is the only team that has blown out every single opponent they’ve played. Their schedule is hot garbage, but they’ve done what good teams do to bad schedules: dominate.

Washington has the new “best win in the country” designation. And outside of a pesky Arizona game, they’ve been as dominant as Michigan against their schedule.

Penn State looks like the better team to me, but Ohio State has the better resume (the Notre Dame win on the road). I couldn’t decide, and they play this week. I’ll sort it out then.

Georgia has looked good exactly once: the destruction of Kentucky. Every other game they’ve started slow, had running game issues, …

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Time for the B1G… I Mean Pac-12, to Shine. – Week 7 Preview

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Offense #1 vs Offense #2, USC’s first real test, and A West Championship Game.

It’s the Pac-12’s week to dominate the CFB landscape. The top 2 teams in the conference have a record setting showdown in the PNW. USC gets to show the country if they can win against good teams despite choosing not to play defense. It appears that this week we went heavy on the good primetime games. Noon is lacking, but after 6 pm there are so many good games I don’t have time to cover all of them. 

But let’s address the title for a moment. Washington, Oregon, USC, and Notre Dame are the headliners this week. That effectively makes this a Big 10 week. The Pac-12 schools are joining the conference next year, and Notre Dame will come along eventually. It might be 2 years, 20 years, or 200, but ND will be in the B1G one day. It just feels inevitable. 

At the bottom, I have my picks for the week.  I was dreadful last week going 1-10 ATS. As bad as that was, I’m now .500 on the season. This week’s pick will determine if I’m on the winning or losing side for …

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Wisco Wednesday: Might the Badgers Actually be Good? 

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Still undefeated all time vs. Rutgers. The first team to 15 points wins this week. Mordecai can run now?

The Badgers play the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday. It’s easily the most important game of the season. I know they play Ohio State too, but no one is expecting Fickell to win that game, and that’s okay. The Iowa game matters the most for showing improvement from last year and for how the B1G West is going to shake out. But first, let’s go back and look at some of the keys to the homecoming win over Rutgers. 

Looking Back: Great Defense, Poor Passing, Terrible Snaps.

Rutgers 13
Wisconsin 24

Ricardo Hallman

Give Ricardo his flowers, he had a hell of a game. The 95 yard pick-six couldn’t have come at a better time. It was near the end of the 2nd quarter, and Rutgers still had some life. They drove down the field, were at the 5, and expected to score. That would’ve made it a 3 point game going into halftime. 

Instead, it’s 17-0. All the wind left Rutgers’ sails. Hallman effectively ended the game. 

On top of his INT, Hallman played well for the entire game. He was …

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2 Loss Saban or 2 Loss Fisher, Who Needs the Win More? – Week 6 Preview

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The Red River Shootout, B1G Noon, and SEC Ranked vs. Ranked action. Why must all good things be at 11 AM?

It’s an SEC heavy week, so don’t make any Saturday plans with your buddies down south – unless of course football is involved. Not only are there 3 big SEC matchups this week, but future SEC members have the best game of the week. 11 AM (CT) is the best TV window this week, and I’ll explain why shortly. Who loses the CBS SEC 2:30 spotlight game will have season long ramifications. And, I look at the P5 conference races for those who want to renege on their preseason predictions. I know I have some picks I want back.

At the bottom, I have my picks for the week. I’m on a lot of road teams this week; I’m not sure how that happened. Last week was rough, but I didn’t do too bad for how many bad breaks I got. I was 4-4 ATS. Hopefully, this week goes a bit better. 

What is Interesting this Week? 

I’ll be attending the Wisconsin Homecoming game vs. Rutgers on Saturday morning (So I’m missing the good morning games). After that, the …

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Wisco Wednesday: Homecoming, There’s No Way Bucky Can Screw Up a Party

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What’s a Peacock? Iowa won with Wisco’s leftovers. Rutgers for Homecoming, maybe not my first choice.

Watch out Rutgers, this Wisconsin team had an extra week to prepare and isn’t satisfied with their results so far. They may be itching to make an example of someone. And Badgers, this isn’t the same old Rutgers, watch out. This is only Wisconsin’s second conference game of the season, but it’s their first opponent out of the East. Later on, I’ll talk about some East teams doing very well right now, but this is Wisconsin’s opportunity to prove the West isn’t all bad. If they get the win, they will double the West’s win total over their Eastern counterparts 

Looking Back: Wisco’s Week Off

Want to Read about the Purdue Game?

Check out last week’s Wisco Wednesday.  We covered the Purdue game (Boiler Down!) as well as other games that Badger fans might have had an interest in in week 4.

Bucky was on vacation,

And so is our looking back segment. Move on to the next part to read about what happened in the B1G last weekend.

Around College Football: 

Iowa fans, it’s time to panic.

Many of you likely didn’t watch …

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