ESPN La Crosse 105.5

Packers WR Allen Lazard Out Indefinitely

By Adam Roberts – 10/2/2020

Every year, it seems the NFL becomes more and more riddled with players suffering indefinite or season-ending injuries. Much remains uncertain for Green Bay when it comes to wideout Davante Adams, who remains uncertain for Monday night against the Falcons. Adams was a limited participant yesterday, and told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday he would only return to play when he was “100% ready”.

Now, coaches and fans alike are probably crossing their fingers extra hard that that comes in the next few days.

After a breakout game against the Saints in the WR1 role, Allen Lazard is now out indefinitely after undergoing core muscle surgery. Lazard played incredibly well in the team’s win over New Orleans; the third-year wideout recorded six catches for 146 yards and a score last Sunday.

Now, the WR1 role will likely fall to Marquez Valdez-Scantling, one of just three receivers on the active roster that aren’t currently injured. MVS so far has eight grabs for 165 yards and a score this season, while neither Malik Taylor or Darrius Shepherd have recorded a pass; Equanimeous St. Brown has been on injured reserve since September 19th and can come off the list after the team’s bye next week.

Look for Packer running backs and tight ends to be targeted more than usual against Atlanta. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has 39 total targets so far to Aaron Jones, Robert Tonyan, Jace Sternberger, and Jamaal Williams combined this season.

High School Football Week Two Preview UPDATED

By Adam Roberts

Slowly but surely, I think school districts are learning how to plan for the uncertainties of juggling a football schedule in a pandemic.

That doesn’t mean we won’t still have a ton of week-to-week confusion.

Just as I’m writing this, Tomah had JUST found an opponent for this week, securing a date with the Darlington Redbirds. And West Salem and Holmen remain on lockdown at the moment (although West Salem seems to be almost ready to return, scheduling a game against Onalaska for next week). For this week though, we still will have a limited palate of games to follow. Let’s go through each one:

EDGAR (#1 Small Schools -AP) vs ONALASKA (RV Large Schools – AP) (6pm on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, TuneIn)

This is a match up that can really only exist in a COVID-impacted regular season. A year ago, a competition that wasn’t a scrimmage between these two teams would have been highly unlikely, given the disparity in school size as well as the physical distance between the two programs (much farther than six feet!). But don’t tell that to Hall of Fame head coach Jerry Sinz, who said to me that school size is a non-issue for the Wildcats, one of statistically the most successful football programs in state history who regularly scrimmage schools like Menomonie and Eau Claire Memorial.

So, what we get is a game featuring two of the fastest teams you’ll see; Sinz is proud of the strides his secondary has made given how weird practice is these days, while everyone around here knows how athletic Tom Yashinsky-coached Onalaska teams are. Landon Peterson will be tested on his routes by Wildcat corners that limited Athens QB Cooper Diedrich to just 38 yards and a lone 11-yard score through the air. Now, Hilltopper junior Ayden Larson flashed some nice throws against Tomah last week, airing it out 15 times for 162 yards and two scores to Hudson Weber, so it would seem he’ll be up to the challenge. But Konnor Wolf also can pepper the pigskin pretty well, and Coach Sinz said he ought to have gone 9 for 11 rather than 5 for 11; there were a couple of balls with so much juice the receivers couldn’t glove them.

Either way, it would appear fans of offense will enjoy this game. Look for special teams to also play a role; Edgar is traditionally a decent kicking school, and often punters will avoid kicking to their returners. I think this comes down to O-line versus D-Line, and here I think the Hilltoppers have an ever so slight advantage.

Prediction: Onalaska 35 Edgar 28

DARLINGTON (#6 Small Schools – AP) vs TOMAH

***UPDATE*** The Darlington-Tomah game scheduled for this week has been cancelled due to a COVID-19 issue at Darlington.

AQUINAS @ VIROQUA

In a certainly unintentional tribute to the late WWF wrestler Joe Laurinaitis (Road Warrior Animal), the Blugolds will be required to travel to every one of their games this season. With UWL on lockdown and no sports at Logan this year, this seemed to be the best way to ensure there would be an Aquinas football season. But if any coach can rally his kids to take on the challenge around here, it would be Tom Lee. And he has some rallying material as well; last season Aquinas had their best year on the gridiron in a LONG time, getting all the way to Level Two before falling to G-E-T and finishing 7-4.

It’s the Blugolds’ first season as a part of the Coulee Conference, and they’ll take on the only other conference team currently playing games (excluding Altoona). Last week, Viroqua gave up 335 yards to Mauston in that 48-6 blowout loss, and it very possibly could happen again this week. Aquinas’s Jackson Flottmeyer was the starter against G-E-T, and wants to leave that game in the dust with a big season opener. The sophomore has the stature coaches statewide would pay good money for: 6’3″, 215 lbs at 15 years old. I sense a debut of the Tom Lee Air Raid offense.

Prediction: Aquinas 36 Viroqua 14

LUTHER @ RIVER RIDGE

Both of these teams last week left their Week One games probably feeling pretty good about their offenses; Luther was all over Boscobel 43-0, while River Ridge was point away from matching the Knights, defeating Iowa-Grant 42-0. So which of the offenses is legit? Can’t it be both?

I do think the QB advantage goes to RR’s Logan Drone over Dillion Yang; Drone got playing experience last season at the varsity level as part of an 8-4 campaign, while Yang; wasn’t even a quarterback last season, playing exclusively as a running back. Both young men are dual threats, so defenses will have to respect that and play solidly on the edges. What will ultimately probably sway this in favor of the Timberwolves will be a lesser chance of errors; Luther last week had some growing pains moving the ball early in the game, and while that will work against Boscobel, River Ridge has a more dynamic offense to contend with.

Prediction: River Ridge 40 Luther 14

BLAIR-TAYLOR @ WHITEHALL

All around, Blair-Taylor last season was the class of the Dairyland Conference. The Wildcats led the conference in both offense and defense, and will return both 1,000-yard passing QB Cain Fremstad and 1,000 yard rusher Matthew Brandenburg. Conversely, Whitehall struggled scoring last season; their 20-12 season opening win over Colfax was their offensive highlight. On the other side of the ball, the Vikings were middle of the pack in terms of points against. However, one of Whitehall’s 4 2019 wins WAS against the Wildcats; Now-senior QB Ryan Kleinhans out-dueled Fremstad that day, and so the match up will be one to watch this week.

Prediction: Blair-Taylor 21 Whitehall 15

MSHSL Approves Adapted Winter Sports Seasons

By Adam Roberts – 10/1/2020

While the fall sports postseason will be shortened for any sports involving MSHSL teams in Minnesota, winter sports got the official thumbs up today.

John Millea tweeted today around noon that the league would allow for a maximized winter season for all sports at 70% of a normal season with regard to games played. First practice dates will be November 23rd for boy’s hockey and basketball, with girl’s hockey and wrestling beginning November 30th and girls basketball and gymnastics starting practice December 7th. The other notable caveat is the prohibiting of fans at any winter sports events held indoors, so in other words all of them.

We’ll of course follow for any changes that could come to this, but for now, winter sports in Minnesota are a go.

Badgers Back At Practice

By Adam Roberts – 10/1/2020

With so much going on (and at the same time, not) in the high school sports world, plus a Brewers’ playoff series, and Packers and Vikings news, college football in this area can be easy to forget about. I certainly wouldn’t blame you; there hasn’t been any college football played and very little practice work to report on.

That changed yesterday as the Badgers returned to the field in pads. It was their first practice work since the team was forced to stop practices earlier this year when the Big Ten announced it would play spring football in 2021.

That is no longer the case, and with Badger football about three weeks away, the team has a lot of ground to cover in a short time.

“There’s been a different rhythm to this whole year” head coach Paul Chryst said yesterday, referring to how summer has been full of wondering and will they/won’t they speculation. “I think it’s trying to find that perfect balance of how much you’re doing with them, and you’re still getting ready to play a season. And yet with the way the offseason has gone…it’s not like you’re coming just off of a really consistent summer program. And now you’re going into camp.”

One group hoping for more consistency than the scheduling process is #19 Wisconsin’s running back corps, who this year will be tasked by fans and the media with filling the shoes of now-Colt Jonathan Taylor. Chryst wants the backs to not think of it as trying to fill JT’s shoes, but remember what standard he set for how to conduct yourself at the position. “One of the gifts that JT gave us was ‘How do [I] approach things?'”

The team is also very excited to have Jon Dietzen back on the field. The lineman had stepped away from football last year due to accumulating injuries, but was out practicing yesterday and will be on the field for 2020. “I loved it, it’s been fun to see him out there” Chryst said. “Moving really well…there was a feeling when he made the [2019] decision that he couldn’t do it again, so there’s an excitement for that.”

Wisconsin begins the 2020 season October 24th at home against Illinois; we’ll have the game on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, and on TuneIn!

Brent Suter Pitches 1.2 Innings; Brewers Lose Game One 4-2

By Adam Roberts – 10/1/2020

We knew the bullpen would be critical for the Milwaukee Brewers going into last night’s wild-card series opener against the Dodgers. And after starter Brent Suter gave up three runs on three hits in just an inning and two thirds, manager Craig Counsell was quickly charged with handling a playoff baseball game when his pitching rotation is riddled with injuries.

The four-man bullpen combination of Eric Yardley, Justin Topa, Freddy Peralta, and Drew Rasmussen actually pitched quite well, striking out five and giving up just one more run over 6 1/3 innings of work. Unfortunately, the Dodger bullpen also came to play, with Julio Urias, Blake Treinen, and Kenley Jansen sharing seven K’s over five innings of scoreless baseball. In the end, the lack of offensive production doomed the Brewers once again in the 4-2 loss; Christian Yelich and Avisail Garcia each had multiple hits, but other than an Orlando Arcia two-run shot in the 4th inning off of LA starter Walker Buehler there was no consistency at the plate.

To make matters worse, right fielder Ryan Braun had to exit the game early with a back strain that apparently happened during Sunday’s regular season finale against St. Louis but flared up last night. Counsell said Braun would be day-to-day, adding “I think everybody is at this point.” We’ll see as we get closer to first pitch tonight what Braun’s status is for Game Two.

Coverage tonight begins at 8:45pm on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, and TuneIn!

Brewers RHP Devin Williams OUT For Dodgers Series w/ Arm Injury

By Adam Roberts – 9/30/2020

After garnering a reputation as one of the best relief pitchers in baseball this season, righty Devin Williams was expected to be the ace in the hole for the Brewers’ pitching staff heading into tonight’s series against the Dodgers.

But like much of the rotation, Williams now has to deal with the injury bug.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweeted this afternoon that Williams would not be a part of the Brewers’ roster for the Dodgers series due to an arm injury.

Williams this season had a 1.51. ERA with 67 strikeouts and a 1.01 WHIP. The Brewers did get some good news with the returns of designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach and outfielder Ben Gamel, both of whom were dealing with quadriceps injuries.

Coverage from the west coast begins at 8:45pm tonight on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, and TuneIn!

Coulee Region Football Conversations: Jerry Sinz, HC Edgar

By Adam Roberts – 9/30/2020

This week, the Coulee Region will get a rare treat that has come up as a result of the pandemic: a unique high school football match up. Despite a school size difference of 764 students and a distance of 128 miles apart, the Onalaska (RV in AP Large Division, #4 in Wissports.net D3 Coaches Poll) and Edgar (#1, #1 D7) programs will face each other this Friday night, barring any sudden changes this week.

Before ESPN La Crosse 105.5 heads out to Onalaska for the first time this season, I got a chance to speak with one of the all-time greats who will be coaching opposite Tom Yashinsky and the Hilltoppers this week. Jerry Sinz has been head coach for the Wildcats since 1975, and during that time has complied numerous state titles and recorded a 432-85 overall record. That’s the second most wins in state history, behind only Bob Hyland of St. Mary’s Springs, my old ball coach. Sinz and I discussed this week’s matchup, their week one win over Athens, and building brotherhood when protocol dictates separation. Here’s a portion of that conversation.

–

Adam Roberts: Looking at your Week One win over Athens, considering that this offseason was conducted very different circumstances, what did you see that you could take away from the game as a positive?

Coach Sinz: I think we were maybe a little too fired up initially. It was supposed to be our sixth game instead of our first and of course our practices are much, much shorter than they would be in a normal year. Offensively, we weren’t real sharp early, defensively I thought we played well. We actually scrimmaged Mosinee the week before and I thought we played a little bit better in the scrimmage. Though that was probably because the coaches could be on the field.

AR: We’re seeing a number of unique, match ups this season due to scheduling issues, including games this this that normally due to size difference probably wouldn’t happen. I know Coach Hyland flat out refused to ever have us at Springs play Fond du Lac due to the potential problems that can bring. This has to be interesting from a preparation stand point given the size difference, right?

CS: The last couple of years, we’ve scrimmaged against Menomonie, Medford, and we used to do so against Eau Claire Memorial; my nephew Mike coaches at Memorial, but they got out of it and now have a different arrangement so we’ve added [Eau Claire] Regis instead. We continually try to do that just to get our team ready for the toughest competition they might see; the last couple of years in nonconference we’ve played Baldwin-Woodville, and they’ve got about 500 kids. So we don’t make much of a point of that as coaches here.

AR: Speaking of Menomonie, you and head coach Joe LaBuda both are quite familiar with each other, obviously. What’s it like going one-on-one, even in a scrimmage, against a coach who with the Mustangs has had comparable success to yourself?

CS: Yeah it’s fun, we like it! The nephew I talked about at Eau Claire Memorial, he played for [LaBuda]. We enjoy competing against each other. It’s always a respectful, clean interaction. If we run something that works well against them, he’ll come up to me and go ‘Alright, show us that, slower’, and if they trick us with something, I’ll do the same. It’s competitive and inspiring, but yet it’s friendly!

AR: Your quarterback, Konnor Wolf…I know you said the offensive production was a bit iffy against Athens, but what things has Konnor improved most in from his junior to senior season?

CS: He definitely has improved his arm strength, and he’s a very fiery kind of a kid, a good leader. He actually threw the ball pretty darn well last week, we just flat-out dropped about two or three of them where he hit is guys right in the hands. So even though we went 5-11, he could have easily gone 8 or 9 for 11. And he’s improved his speed as well. We’re really happy with how he’s performing.

AR: Can you tell me a little bit about what I would call “The Edgar Way” for those who maybe have heard of the program’s success but maybe don’t know much about your coaching philosophy or scheme?

CS: Overall, just do your job, and don’t get overly excited over a great play or down on yourself after a bad one. We preach to take a game play-by-play, because the next play is the most important one. We also of course have to stress staying safe and healthy, especially this year. Schematically, we rely a lot on special teams. You may have noticed watching the Athens game, they just refused to punt to us. They have a very good punter and they constantly punted out of bounds. And teams have done that to us for years, they don’t want us to get anything going in the punt return game.

AR: Looking ahead to this week, Onalaska under Tom Yashinsky is very aggressive offensively, I mean I vividly remember the 62-55 shootout with Sparta in 2018. What will you need to see from your defense this week?

CS: Well this year we might just be blessed with the most speed we’ve ever had, so we’re hoping we’ll match up okay on the perimeter with them. But above all, don’t make mistakes, do your job, don’t get tricked, and then just play the game and have fun.

AR: Before I let you go, coaching a contact sport like football in a pandemic has to be one of the biggest challenges of your career, when all the protocol dictates that we need to be as separated as possible. That includes building relationships also; is there anything your boys have been able to do in order to build those relationships given that they can’t be as close as maybe they’d like?

CS: We’ve talked with the guys about having little hand signals that mean something to each other, little eye contact things. Yeah, you can’t high five, so they have signals instead that they give to one another. I spoke to the coaches about this the other day; I said basically that mankind is a social being and is also a creature of habit. When it comes to forcing the kids apart, I don’t think that’s a good direction to be following. I hope we can get through this soon, because the social distancing thing is definitely contrary to what we as coaches teach.

–

Coverage Friday night begins with the High School Football Preview Show at 6pm on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, and TuneIn!

Brent Suter Named Starter For Game One vs Dodgers

By Adam Roberts – 9/30/2020

Anyone who has followed the Brewers’ since manager Craig Counsell took the steering wheel in 2015 knows that when he has to plan pitching for a postseason series, he can get a little creative. Take Game Five of the 2018 NLCS, where Wade Miley faced exactly one batter in the bottom of the first before Counsell yanked him for Brandon Woodruff. It was quite bizarre to watch in-person, but ultimately proved inconsequential as the batter reached base on a walk but never scored.

Those creative ideas may come into play again this week as Milwaukee begins their postseason run against the Dodgers. Even if, as Counsell said earlier this week in his Zoom conference, he “doesn’t know what creative means”.

“There’s going to be pitchers on the mound, I can assure you that.” Counsell said on Monday. “Might guys pitch one inning or guys pitch two innings? It could be, but we’re hoping we have some healthy guys who can give us good starts.”

Both Counsell and GM David Stearns are carefully considering pitching for the best-of-three series that starts tonight in Los Angeles. With Corbin Burns scratched from his planned Game One start after injuring his oblique last Thursday against the Cardinals, it has necessitated some of those creative juices once again.

Lefty Brent Suter will take the hill tonight for the Brewers, and Brandon Woodruff will likely go for Game Two. Any potential plan for a Game Three, however, will be where the creativity might shine if it’s needed. Brett Anderson is dealing with a blister he sustained Sunday, the same problem he faced to begin the season, so his status for Game Three could be uncertain.

Coverage of Game One this evening begins at 8:45pm on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, espnlacrosse.com, and on TuneIn.

Week Five CFB Rankings Feature B1G Ten Teams

By Adam Roberts – 9/29/2020

While there won’t be a B1G Ten football game played for just under a month yet, that hasn’t stopped the AP from including them in their most recent poll.

The addition of the B1G, ACC, PAC-12, and SEC to the poll this week pushed out teams that had been performing well in their first few games of the season, such as Louisiana who despite a 3-0 record and a win over then-23rd ranked Iowa State are no longer ranked. The Week Five list includes five teams who haven’t played a down of football in 2020.

Trevor Lawrence and Clemson remain in the top spot for both the AP and Coaches polls this week, followed by Alabama. The B1G Ten teams ranked this week are:

6. Ohio State (4 1st place votes)

10. Penn State

19. Wisconsin

23. Michigan

Wisconsin begins the season October 24th at home against Illinois. You can hear every Badger football, basketball, and men’s hockey game on ESPN La Crosse 105.5!

Packers LB Christian Kirksey Out This Week vs Falcons

By Adam Roberts – 9/29/2020

Inside linebacker has been a trouble position for the Packers for quite a while, and their planned fix to that problem this season has now been sidelined.

Per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, first-year Packer Christian Kirksey is out for this Monday night’s match up against the Atlanta Falcons after injuring his shoulder in the team’s win last weekend over the New Orleans Saints. Demovsky reported that the injury isn’t considered to be season-ending, but that it could include a stint on injured reserve.

This is the second hit to the ILB position for defensive coordinator Mike Pettine after rookie Kamal Martin suffered a knee injury during training camp. It’s one of a number of adjustments Pettine has had to make to his roster, but this was expected with an unusual training camp and lack of preseason. Ty Summers took over for Kirksey against the Saints and led the team in tackles. He should be expected to get the start this week.

Whether or not he will have a speaker in his helmet this week remains to be seen. He used it for receiving the play calls from Pettine Sunday. “I thought the communication was pretty good” head coach Matt LaFleur said yesterday. ” He did a great job of relaying the calls to the other ten guys on the field and helping guys get adjusted…like every player there’s always a couple plays here an there that gotta get cleaned up, and those are things that we’ll address when we see him [today].”

This isn’t the first notable injury to Kirksey in his career; while with Cleveland he missed all but the first two games of the year with a broken collarbone and only played seven games for the Browns in 2018.