I’m Wisconsin´s coach, I’ve been with and around the team for the last 17 years, and I have serious doubts that MadisonSpade is representing himself honestly. I also think his argument is hogwash, and I back Craig completely.
I was also the coach on U23 who argued for Logan’s inclusion on the national team - he’s a smart player who was able to play a role well when surrounded by all-stars, and he made every play that came to him, both at tryouts and at U23s. I love Logan. But at sectionals this past weekend, I didn’t see that Logan. He seemed bored or disinterested.
MadisonSpade is right about this: take Craig, or any one of those other Wisco players he mentioned - away from Wisconsin, and we’re still Wisconsin, and still ranked at the top of the nation; take away Logan or another star on those mid-tier team and their ranking tanks from 60th-ish to the 120s. Sure.
Flip his argument though: put Craig on any of those teams and he’s the most indispensable player on their roster. Same with Sterling, or Avery, or Speiss, and damn-near half the roster. And then we’d have people like MadisonSpade tripping over themselves here to be the first to sing his praises and hold his jock about how he’d absolutely transform the Hodags if only given the chance. And each of of those players has earned their chance, and they have transformed the Hodags. That we can succeed without any one of them says a lot about the quality of their teammates without taking anything away from the importance of their contributions.
I’d love to take credit for Wisco’s success, and pretend like MadisonSpade does that we’re just a team of decent-but-over-hyped players that are really well-coached and play on an elite team as cogs on the machine. But that’s not accurate in the least. We’re a machine whose cogs would be the engine on any of these other teams.
We have seven rookies who played 7 straight points in finals of conference and went on a 6-0 run. We have two sophomores who start on our O-line, and who have scored on and D’d the best of college this year. And we have at least eight of the best fourteen players in the region. The Hodags play team disc and our wins are a collective effort, but this faceless army talk has become a lazy, tiresome trope. If after years of elite play y’all still can’t tell our players apart, it’s because you’re so blinded by the wealth of talent that you’re unable to differentiate it.
MadisonSpade, go back to that fantasy where you played on the Hodags before imparting your talents elsewhere. If you’d actually played in the baby blue, you’d have never written that post - you’d know that’s not the Hodag way.
