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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, we end the year with a few questions. Where is Rashan Gary? Where are the punts? Where will Malik Willis go? And of course, are the Packers a good football team? We can start with Gary, who’s been M.I.A. for a while now and is turning into more than a bit of a disappointment. It’s been months since he recorded his last snap and he seems to simply lag behind most plays. We’ve seen him show some great skill, and we know he’s a workout warrior, so what happened? Unfortunately, we might not know by the end of the season. The next question is about the punting situation. The Packers are now the first team in the history of the Super Bowl era to lose three games without punting the ball in a single season. In fact, every other team that has gone an entire game without punting has been winning this year; the Packers hold the three puntless losses in the league. This spells all sorts of issues for Green Bay, from ineffectiveness in the red zone leading to field goals instead of touchdowns, failures to perform in fourth-and-one situations, and a defense that just isn’t coming in clutch.

Finally, as we come up on the final regular season game against the Vikings on Sunday, we reach the final question: are the Packers a good football team? They were at one point, thinks Oates, but today it’s hard to say. The Packers have been hit too hard by injuries this year, especially in their real difference maker players. Losing Parsons especially has seemed to deal a major blow to the defense (though that can’t excuse everything), and the offensive line has been rattled all year. The season isn’t over, and they have a guaranteed chance in the playoff, but if they don’t go on to win even one playoff game, a few people’s jobs might be in trouble…

Meanwhile, the college football playoffs begin in earnest this week without the Wisconsin Badgers. Remember the days of going down to Tampa to watch the Badgers play around this time of year? Hopefully those days can return in the future, but it won’t be with Billy Edwards Jr. He announced his entry into the transfer portal, which officially opens on January 2. Our two big wishes for 2026? The Badgers need to learn how to run the football again, and they need to figure out their quarterback situation.

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, the Packers saw not one but two of the quarterbacks hurt after Saturday’s loss to the Bears. Jordan Love went down with a concussion thanks to a big helmet-to-helmet hit while Malik Willis hurt his shoulder trying to throw a pass at the end of regulation. Matt LaFluer’s decision to have Willis throw the ball with 17 seconds left in the second half will go down as just another terrible call. He had 80 yards to go and he was left exposed. That call was based solely on emotion; the rational call there would have been to take a knee and try to go during overtime. Instead, he’s questionable and as of Tuesday Love is still in concussion protocol. Could Love be cleared in time to face the Ravens Saturday night? Maybe. But if not, who are we going to trust to throw the ball, Clayton Tune?

The two injuries were not what killed the Packers on Saturday, but a series of bad mistakes made by a number of big name players. There was Romeo Doubs’ fumble of the onside kick, a fumble that if avoided would have meant a win for the Packers. Instead, Doubs took his eyes off the ball to look at who was coming at him and flinched. Then there was Josh Jacob’s fumble with just a few yards to go before a touchdown. Or Xavier McKinney’s should-have-been-but-wasn’t interception. Some credit should be given to the Bears, who did pull out a win. But when you look at the numbers, Caleb Williams did not play his best ball up until the final two drives of the game. But don’t worry, if the season were to end today there would be one more rubber match as Green Bay would be set to take on the Bears in the postseason.

Meanwhile at the Kohl Center, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team took Central Michigan to task on Monday night, but that isn’t much to write home about. There are still some out there that are skeptical of the Badgers this year, and those people are valid. When they play against weak teams, they tend to dominate, but when they go up against real competition they struggle to even be in the same league. That’s an issue, considering they have some tough Big 10 games on the horizon. They’ll start at home with Purdue and UCLA before traveling to take on Michigan. There are plenty of good players on the team, though, they just have to find a way to mesh and put things together.

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.