Feature: Badgers WR Vinny Anthony

 

Vinny Anthony II has begun to take off in his junior year with the Badgers. The big play threat has been all over the field during his first five games of the season. Anthony has proved to be a security blanket for Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony, a junior from Louisville, Kentucky, has rarely been featured on this Badgers offense, throughout his brief career, aside from his special teams role. 

In his first five games, Anthony has already produced more total yards than his previous two seasons with Wisconsin. So far on the season, Anthony has registered 9 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns in his last two games against USC and Purdue. 

Impressively, Anthony is averaging almost 23 yards per catch in the campaign so far. Anthony currently leads the Big Ten in this category as well. For a wide receiver core predicted to be led by Will Pauling, Anthony is currently carrying the statistical title as the leading receiver thus far for the Badgers. Wisconsin has been looking for that one dynamic receiver for some time. Could Anthony be the one they’ve been looking for? 

Along with his impressive start, Anthony is the first Badger since Jared Abbrederis in 2013 to record multiple 50+ yard catches in a single season. In his previous two games, Anthony has recorded long touchdowns through the air on 63-yard and 52-yard heaves from Braedyn Locke. 

Anthony is embracing offensive coordinator Phil Longo's air raid offense with his big play touchdowns in back to back weeks. Executing big plays down the stretch on offense will be crucial towards the Badgers potential success. 

The air-raid offense has been in question since Longo took the role as the offensive coordinator in Madison. An offense that averaged just over 23 points per game last season, was averaging around 21 points per game this season prior to the Purdue game last Saturday. 

Longo and his air-raid offense came over to the Badgers with Luke Fickell last season. The hype and excitement of the offense was real, but the production was not. We had yet to see its full potential until last Saturday against the Purdue Boilermakers.  

The Badgers dropped 52 points on the Boilermakers operated by Longo's offense. Through the air, Braedyn Locke threw for three touchdowns that were all at least 25 yards. Braedyn Locke registered the most passing yards in a game since Joel Stave in 2015 for the Badgers. 

Wisconsin will head to New Brunswick, New Jersey this weekend to take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Rutgers currently ranks as 27th in passing yards allowed per game. The Badgers are currently listed as a 2.5 point underdog going into Shi Stadium. 

Vinny Anthony will have a chance to extend his touchdown streak to three games come Saturday if the Badgers can figure out the Scarlet Knights defense. The game plan is clear for the Badgers: get Vinny Anthony the ball. 

Preview: Jets vs Vikings in London

 

The NFL international slate kicks off tomorrow morning as the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings head to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Sam Darnold will face his old team while getting his Vikings off to an historic start to open the 2024 campaign. 

The Vikings have started off the season with a 4-0 record thanks to magnificent quarterback play from Sam Darnold. Darnold left the Jets after the 2020 season and his since bounced around from Carolina to San Francisco before finding a home in Minnesota. 

New York selected Darnold with the third overall pick back in 2018, but their expectations for him never came true. Since losing Darnold, the Jets had yet another quarterback failure in Zach Wilson and are now onto Aaron Rodgers. So was it the Jets fault for Darnold's miserable three years in the Big Apple?

Gang Green has opened up the season with some big ups and downs to say the least. They will come into this matchup with a 2-2 record after a brutal loss to the Denver Broncos. The defense has been just what everyone envisioned with a dominant start to the season. They combined to allow only 13 points in their last two games, yet the Jets only won 1 of those 2 games. 

The offense was the problem last game. We've seen it year after year, the Jets offense struggles to be any bit effective when there is weather problems. Last week, with the rain being a constant factor, the Jets couldn't get anything going offensively. The fact that they couldn't score more than 10 points against one of the subpar teams in the NFL is not a good sign going forward. 

Now we can blame it all on the offense, but I believe some of the blame has to go to the coaching staff. There needed to be a blip in the game plan, especially with the weather, but there wasn't. This falls directly on Robert Saleh and Nathaniel Hackett. The coaches need to adapt to certain conditions because every game isn't going to have luxurious weather especially come the later months. 

Another thing to point out was the Jets offense not all being on the same page. There were a couple plays late in the game where Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson were visibly not reading the same play book. Breece Hall had the worst game of his career by far didn't help much either. 

The offense needs to quickly get their act together before they fall behind even more. With a win last Sunday, the Jets could have been sitting in the top seed in the AFC East, but luckily they are still in the playoff picture. I know it's early, but it's been 14 years since the Jets last made their fans somewhat happy. 

This is a make or break year for a lot of people in the Jets organization. The players need to start playing more like it. Getting a win against Minnesota in London is the perfect way to start. If the offense and coaching staff can fix their mistakes, I see no reason the Jets aren't smiling on their long flight back to the US. 

Can the Badgers Make a Bowl Game This Year?

As the Badgers head into the bye week, they stand in at 2-1 on the season following a disappointing loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Badgers will head to Southern California after the bye week to take on the USC Trojans. With the expansion of the Big Ten and tougher schedules in place, everyone is wondering, will the Badgers be able to make it back to bowl season? 

Dating back to 2002, the Badgers have made a bowl game every year and will look to further the streak in 2024. In every year since 2002, the Badgers have also had at least seven wins every year. After a unique start for Wisconsin, do they have a chance to achieve at least six wins this season? There is certainly a lot at stake. 

For those that do not know, in order to become bowl eligible, each team must accomplish at least six wins in a season. So with nine games remaining, the Badgers need to win at least four of their nine games in order to be eligible for a 23rd straight season. 

Dating back to 2014, the Badgers have won eight of their ten bowl games as well. Wisconsin also holds the third longest consecutive bowl game streak in the entire nation, behind the Georgia Bulldogs and Oklahoma Sooners by just a couple of years.  

The Badgers will now head into the Big Ten part of their schedule after their bye week. Their opponents include: USC, Purdue, Rutgers, Northwestern, Penn State, Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, and Minnesota. 

Remaining on the schedule is four home games compared to five away games as the Badgers will head to USC for their first road matchup of the year. According to ESPN projections, the Badgers are only favored to win two of their nine matchups. Currently, four of these teams are ranked with two of the matchups on the road and two at home. 

After losing quarterback Tyler Van Dyke for the season, the outlook of the season for the Badgers has changed drastically. They will now be lead by sophomore quarterback Braedyn Locke for the foreseeable future unless there is another change made. 

In a small sample size last year, Braedyn Locke lead the Badgers to an underwhelming 1-3 record with their only win coming against Illinois. If Locke is unable to prove his worth in getting the Badgers to a bowl game, Luke Fickell has some other options to consider. 

Wisconsin also has freshmen quarterbacks Mabrey Mettauer and Cole LaCrue to resort to if Locke is unable to get the job done. The Badgers will need to execute the pass game in order to open up the run game for Chez Mellusi, Tawee Walker, and Cade Yacamelli. 

With four of the Badgers future opponents ranked, a possible upset will be huge for the Badgers hopes at achieving the six win mark. The best chance the Badgers have at pulling off an upset is probably at home where they will take on the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Oregon Ducks. 

I believe the games that the Badgers are most likely to win are against Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Purdue. Winning all four of these games will make the Badgers bowl eligible for the 23rd season in a row. Mix in a possible upset out of their other matchups and Wisconsin could be looking at a higher stakes bowl game as well. 

The odds are certainly against the Badgers, but beating four of these nine opponents is definitely doable for the Badgers. I believe that by the time Thanksgiving comes around, the Badgers will be comfortably set into bowl season and extend their illustrious streak of consecutive bowl games to 23 straight years. 

Badgers on Top!

After coming up just short in 2024, the Badgers women's hockey team will look to capture the crown once again in 2025. As the season slowly approaches, the Badgers were ranked as the #1 team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) coaches poll for the 2024-2025 season after receiving 46 points.

The previous champion, Ohio State Buckeyes, pull in just behind them as the 2nd ranked team in the nation, while Minnesota was deemed the third ranked team with Minnesota Duluth, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State not far behind in the rankings as well. 

The 2023-24 season was a memorable season for the Badgers despite not taking home the national crown. They won their tenth WCHA playoff title behind star players such as Kirsten Simms, Casey O'Brien, and Caroline Harvey. Along with being throned the #1 ranking, some of these Badger stars were rewarded with high recognition in the preseason honors.  

Coming off a career-high 75 points a season ago, junior forward Kirsten Simms was granted the WCHA Preseason Player of the Year. Simms is looking to follow up her WCHA Player of the Year, First-Team All-American, All-WCHA First Team, and WCHA Forward of the Year, with an even better season in 2025. 

Along with Simms, Caroline Harvey received some well-deserved recognition in the preseason honors as well. She was also named to the Preseason All-WCHA alongside Simms. Harvey posted an amazing plus/minus of +54 in the 2023-2024 season. She ranked third in this category in all of the WCHA. Caroline Harvey and Kirsten Simms are both getting the respect that they deserve prior to the 2024-25 season kicking off. 

Wisconsin is once again in good hands with Mike Johnson entering his 21st season as the head coach of the Badgers. Johnson has not only coached seven NCAA championship teams in Wisconsin, but he is also the winningest coach in NCAA collegiate women's hockey history. Having a guy like Johnson behind the bench is a pretty big boost for this Badger team. 

The Badgers are ready to get back in action and get the sour taste out of their mouth after watching Ohio State hoist the trophy just a short time ago. They won't have to wait long as the season kicks off in just over a week. Wisconsin will open the season at home against Lindenwood on September 27th. The countdown is on and let's go Badgers!

Badgers Dismantled by the Tide

In one of the most highly anticipated Badger football games in some time, the Badgers got absolutely dismantled by the Alabama Crimson Tide on national television by a final score of 42-10. This game was a lot to take in so let's talk about it. 

It was brutal showing by the Badgers on Saturday after their blowout loss to the Crimson Tide to say the least. They couldn't get anything going on offense and their defense was no match for the high powered offense of the Tide. 

Things all started to fall downhill on the first drive of the game when quarterback Tyler Van Dyke went down. Van Dyke got hurt on a tackle on the Badger sideline and never came back. It was later confirmed that the transfer quarterback suffered a torn ACL and will now miss the entire season. 

Things were left up to sophomore quarterback Braedyn Locke for the remainder of the game. We saw Locke a good amount last season when quarterback Tanner Mordecai suffered a long-term hand injury. He was not very good last season and played like his 2023 self against the Tide as well. 

But I don't blame it all on him, I blame it on the coaching. The coaching was way too conservative in this game and with this type of play calling against the fourth ranked team in the country, the Badgers stood no chance. The Badgers ran the ball way too often right into the teeth of the Alabama defense for minimal gains. 

There were other costly mistakes that took this game away from the Badgers very quickly. Fumbles by both Cade Yacamelli and Chez Mellusi gave the Tide some momentum when the Badgers were within striking distance early in the game. 

Another costly blunder was the missed field goal by Nathaniel Vakos which was the difference from going into halftime with the Badgers being down by three possession compared to just one. All in all, the Badgers were far from perfect this previous Saturday. 

They were simply outmatched. After struggling to really pull away in their first two matchups against Western Michigan and South Dakota, the Tide gave the Badgers a very humbling feeling in their blowout victory. 

As Luke Fickell said to the team after the game, "if you haven't had your ass whooped before, you just did." The Badgers will now have a long time to reflect on their embarrassing loss as they head into their bye week before heading to Southern California. 

The Jets are in the Win Column!

 

For the first time in the 2024 season, the Jets are victorious after their 24-17 win over the Tennessee Titans. The Jets pick up a much needed first victory as they head into a very short week with a date with the New England Patriots on Thursday night. 

It wasn't an easy win by any measures, but the Jets got the job done. There were multiple areas of improvement after their disappointing first loss in San Francisco. For starters, the defense was able to get back on track after completely shutting down Tennessee in the second half of this game. 

Along with forcing a couple of huge turnovers, the Jets defense allowed just 7 second half points which came along with a huge defensive stand after the Titans were threatening to send the game to overtime late in the fourth quarter. Will McDonald shined in this game after recording a career high three sacks. He had just four all of last season. 

The defense did suffer a brutal blow after it was confirmed that Jermaine Johnson did indeed tear his achilles. It seems like season after season the Jets lose a big piece of their team early in the season and fall behind because of it. 

Johnson's presence on the defensive line is huge, but fortunately the Jets do have depth in this area. With the outburst of Will McDonald, the Jets will look for him to assume a larger role throughout the 2024 season. Other guys that will need to step up include Michael Clemons and Takk McKinley. 

CJ Mosley also left this game early but fortunately his injury was not as severe as Johnson's. His hope is to play on Thursday, so this injury seems it will not be long term. New York was also without DJ Reed, but Brandin Echols stepped up big time in his absence with a huge interception. Gang Green will hope that both Reed and Mosley can go come Thursday night. 

The offense also showed some signs of encouragement on Sunday as well. The emergence of rookie Braelon Allen was on full display. Allen caught a touchdown and rushed for the game winning touchdown during the win on Sunday. His role was heavily increased from his minimal one on Monday night in Santa Clara. 

Giving Allen an increased role is the perfect thing for Breece Hall and the Jets. There are some people talking about Braelon Allen as potentially a Derrick Henry 2.0. Drawing these comparisons is no joke and it seems as if the sky is the limit for the rookie running back. 

The offensive line is looking much improved from their debut just a week ago as well. With all of the new additions and shakeups this offseason, the line was very hyped up and given high expectations. Those expectations looked like they were met yesterday and will continue to be placed on them week after week.

Aaron Rodgers looked like he took yet another step back as well. Throwing for two touchdowns and continuously making big throw after big throw, Rodgers is looking more and more like his pre-achilles injury self. 

After Rodgers threw for multiple touchdowns in the past two weeks, it is the first time since the 2021 season where a Jets quarterback has thrown for multiple touchdowns in back to back games. An absolutely absurd stat that points in the direction of hope for the Jets in 2024. 

The Jets will head home for the first time this season after going from Santa Clara to Nashville on their brief two game road trip. They will take on the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football in a highly anticipated matchup at JetLife Stadium. 

Tomorrow: Football is On! (AFC Edition)

 

Around this time tomorrow, the Ravens and the Chiefs will kickoff the 2024 NFL season in Kansas City. The Chiefs will look to start their journey to a three-peat with the Ravens on the other side looking to avenge their AFC Championship loss.

This NFL season has so many big headlines. Kansas City has the chance to make history once again by becoming the first franchise to win three Super Bowls in a row. The Chiefs will have a much steeper hill to climb this year with the rest of the AFC mightily improving around them. 

Will the Ravens finally be able to get over the hump this year? Since Lamar Jackson took over the quarterback position, the Ravens haven't been able to piece it all together and get back to the big game. 

Getting past AFC teams such as Kansas City or Buffalo has hurt the Ravens in the past. With Buffalo's decline, Baltimore has really taken over as that second best team in the AFC behind Kansas City. 

Baltimore will also have a steeper climb to the top this season with their division improving around them. The Bengals are back and healthier with Joe Burrow at the helm. The Browns, with the best defense in the league and a healthy Deshaun Watson, have a good shot at the division. 

If Pittsburgh can get decent quarterback play from either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields, they can be a problem as well. The rest of the AFC is looking good as well. However, after over two decades of dominance, it seems as if in 2024 the Patriots will no longer be a threat. 

The Pats have entered rebuild mode around their rookie quarterback Drake Maye. On the other hand, the rest of the AFC East are contenders. Between the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins, these three teams all have equal chances at taking home the crown of the East. 

Don't count out the AFC South either. The Titans, arguably the least spoken about improved team this offseason, look like a brand new team that is ready to compete in 2024. After a down year, the Jags are hungry and coming for revenge in the South. 

Who can forget about what a special year the Texans had in 2023. Houston is looking easily like a top 3 team in the AFC and looking to go back to back in winning the South in 2024. Indianapolis will look to get more than a couple games from Anthony Richardson this year after a brief stint in 2023. This division is looking nasty. 

The last time the AFC West was not won by the Chiefs was 2015. I don't think that will change this year with the Chiefs looking to three peat. Kansas City will have another relatively easy path in this division with the three other teams most likely not competing for the playoffs just yet. 

The Chargers have adopted a whole new identity with their new coach Jim Harbaugh. They got rid of a lot of their vets this offseason and will look to rebuild the team around their new young guys. Denver has been a rollercoaster of a team ever since Peyton Manning left in 2015. 

They haven't been very competitive since the last time a team not named the Chiefs won the West. I'm excited to see how Bo Nix develops and could be a bright light leading the Broncos into the future. The Raiders may give the Chiefs the most fits this season. 

Bringing back Antonio Pierce and improving the defense is what the Raiders did well this offseason. The duo of Christian Wilkins and Maxx Crosby will give Patrick Mahomes nightmares for two games this season. It will be interesting to see if Davante Adams remains in the silver and black until 2025. 

Football is so close and I couldn't be more excited. I'm intrigued to see who will give the Chiefs the most trouble on their route to win a third title in a row. The Ravens and the Chiefs at Arrowhead tomorrow night. I can't wait.