In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys battle colds as Indiana takes home the College Football National Championship in a victory Monday night over Miami. Curt Cignetti did the impossible by taking his team 16-0, and all it took was the backing of some of the biggest billionaires around. This is the new order of college football; gone are the days that players look for college culture, or facilities, or anything else. Now the only question they’re asking is “how much NIL will I get?” Can we still be happy for the players and coaches? Of course. But is this new order better? That’s for you to judge.

There were several products of Wisconsin on Indiana’s championship team, including a few former Badgers. There have been plenty of guys in recent years who just “didn’t fit” in Madison who went on to do some big things around college football. Meanwhile, Luke Fickell is looking for his third offensive line coach in four years. But still, Fickell is changing tactics once again this year. Air raid is gone, and whatever they did last year is gone too. Now, it’s time for full use of the transfer portal. Will it work? That depends, can Fickell build up team culture fast like Cignetti? After all, gone are the days of building team chemistry over the course of a few years. Now, you hope that someone else develops someone so you can scoop them up and hope for the best. But if Monday told us anything, it’s that Wisconsin is just one big benefactor away from a national championship. Well, maybe a few benefactors.

Meanwhile in the NFL, Jeff Hafley is officially the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. That means that a newly resigned Matt LaFleur needs to find a new defensive coordinator. Several names have already been thrown out there and there is one name that a lot of Wisconsin sports fans hope is the winner. Jim Leonard certainly would like to return to his home in Wisconsin, even if he did turn down a job in Green Bay once upon a time. Another name thrown around is Raheem Morris, former head coach for the Falcons. He and LaFleur are friends, and he’s well respected around the league. Or maybe they’ll find someone in-house they can promote up to the position. Whoever they go with, if Saturday is any indication their first order of business should be to find a way to stop Caleb Williams and those big passes of his…

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, in the wake of the Packers loss to the Bears on Saturday night, there is just one name on every Wisconsin sports fan's mind: Matt LaFleur. As of recording, he is still with the team and discussing his future. Around the league there are nine openings for head coaching positions, and a lot of Packers fans wish there were 10. But Oates asks a real question before jumping right to firing: can you upgrade from Matt LaFleur? Especially with the amount of competition out there right now, a true upgrade might be out of the Packers pay range. A solution that works for both Lucas and Oates? Give LaFleur a one year contract extension. That way next year he isn’t a lame duck coach and he will have to really prove that he deserves to be there. The Packers have about two or three years to get over this hump, given the contract position for a lot of key players on the team. If it isn’t LaFleur, someone will need to figure out how to get them there and winning playoff games.

Saturday’s loss to the Bears was exactly like their loss last year in Philly, a dominating first half and a complete fall apart in the second. The phrase of the day is “lack of adjustment.” Sure, it’s a cliche thing for sports fans to say when their team does badly, but when even the players are saying it after the game it starts to mean something. On defense they just shut down, and on offense the offensive line was unable to adapt to the changes that the Bears made after halftime. Part of the issue is that LaFleur is so caught up on calling plays on offense that he forgets to pay attention to what’s happening with the rest of the team. His nose is so buried in his iPad that there was even footage of him sitting on the bench while his defense was on the field going over plays. Maybe LaFleur needs a real offensive coordinator who he can let call plays instead, if he’ll give it up. After all, it seems likely he’ll be replacing his defensive coordinator anyways.

Finally in college basketball, the Badgers scored a huge win over the previously-undefeated Michigan Saturday night. Now as of recording they had not played Minnesota, but on Saturday the team was really able to showcase their improvements as a team. There were a lot of new guys on the floor to start the season, and those new guys took some time to learn the systems in place. But now it looks like they’re starting to get it and are open to being coached. If they can beat all the talent that Michigan has, then their ceiling just skyrocketed.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates’ wishes last week were granted as the Badgers sign Colton Joseph from Old Dominion. From what we’ve seen, Joseph is a good dual-threat quarterback who had great success in the Sun Belt. He’s seen as a better runner than passer, which does cause a little worry, but he has shown that he can get the ball down field when he needs to. Plus, his running power should fit in nicely with the Badgers’ offense.

Now if only Joseph can stay healthy. He isn’t the first quarterback to come to Madison with some hype behind him in recent years, and all of those other guys fell to injury. But if Joseph lives up to his billing, he should be a good addition for UW-Madison. At least he’ll be paid like it; it’s estimated that most college quarterbacks these days are making between $1.5-4 million dollars. That’s enough that a lot of young guys are looking to stick around in college for as long as possible. All but a select few quarterbacks across the country can never expect that kind of money in the NFL. But still, as long as Joseph plays better than Clayton Tune, it’ll at least be something.

Speaking of the now former Packer, Green Bay will get a big rematch against the Bears in Chicago on Saturday night in the first round of the playoffs. The Packers-Bears rivalry has been going on for longer than any of us have been alive, and historically one team tends to dominate the other for decades at a time. But that might be changing; the Packers are still a good football team and the Bears seem to be catching up. Saturday’s game should be a testament to that as Lucas and Oates see no clear favorite between the two. On the one hand the Packers are a better team, but they have a tendency to lose in the worst ways and are riddled with big injuries. On the other hand, the Bears are healthy and Caleb Williams is on his way to becoming a great quarterback, but their defense is hopeless. Either way, it’s a good thing the game is on Saturday night instead of Sunday so that both states can safely get to work on Monday morning…

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.