The Wisconsin Badgers will see a revamped offensive line in 2026, as several starters from the 2025 team are heading elsewhere. Left tackle Riley Mahlman is heading to the 2026 NFL Draft, as he’s out of eligibility, while Joe Brunner and Jake Renfro both entered the transfer portal.

Brunner was a recent addition, as he was also mulling entering the draft before returning to school. With one year of eligibility left, he’ll head elsewhere and is expected to be a hot commodity for some top programs.

Renfro, on the other hand, is heading to a seventh year of college football, thanks to a redshirt that wrapped up his third season at Wisconsin. Injuries have been an unfortunate theme of Renfro’s career. He missed the entire 2022 season at Cincinnati due to injury. Then, after transferring to Wisconsin ahead of the 2023 season, where he was projected to start at center, lower-body injuries cost the offensive lineman another season.

He started all 12 games for the Badgers in 2024 at center and looked to come back and have one more year of tape before heading to the pros. Unfortunately, Renfro got hurt during fall camp and never fully looked himself this season, constantly battling injuries before being ruled out for the season. He ended up playing just four games and entered the portal for his seventh year of college football.

Well, Renfro has a new destination: the Illinois Fighting Illini. Illinois is losing four starting offensive linemen this offseason, including center Josh Kreutz, and needs experience up front. Should he be healthy, Renfro could be a plug-and-play starter for the Fighting Illini in 2026.

There are a few connections for Renfro at Illinois, as his father, Rick, played offensive line there from 1982-84. Renfro is also an Illinois native and should be a leader in the room next year.

Wisconsin moved quickly to replace Renfro, landing Oklahoma State center Austin Kawecki in the transfer portal. He should start there in his final year of eligibility.

The NFL showed on Saturday why they’re the best league in professional American sports. Both Wild Card games were phenomenal, and the dramatic finishes in each game were jaw-dropping. But let’s put aside the thrilling Rams vs. Panthers finish, because the nightcap was far more interesting to Detroit Lions fans.

The Chicago Bears somehow mounted yet another fourth-quarter comeback against the Green Bay Packers in what is already a defining moment in Ben Johnson’s career as the Bears head coach. I got a sense from most Lions fans that they were rooting against Johnson and the Bears for obvious reasons: It’s tough to watch your offensive coordinator go out there and win the division and beat the Packers in the playoffs in his first year.

But there was also a strong contingent of Lions fans out there after Saturday’s outstanding drama reminding people that the Packers remain enemy No. 1—a sentiment I happen to agree with.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

How are you feeling after the Bears’ wild win over the Packers?

My answer: I was definitely among the people rooting against the Bears on Saturday night. For me, it was less about Ben Johnson and more about the Bears being exposed as somewhat fraudulent. Their defense is bad and over-reliant on turnovers, and the last-second comebacks are completely unsustainable. In both of those senses, Saturday was a miserable failure for those narratives. I mean, this statistic is absolutely ridiculous:

And as much as I hate to do it, I have to give the Bears defense credit for changing up their gameplan out of the half, making Jordan Love look uncomfortable for the final two quarters, and holding Green Bay to just six second-half points without even forcing a turnover. As for the comebacks, they can’t keep getting away with it, right???

All of that said, I was still grinning ear-to-ear after the game. For one, I just love dramatic, entertaining football. I’ll take that result any day over the Packers beating the Bears 42-0.

Additionally, the Packers just had their hearts ripped out. One of the most pompous and smug franchises in all of sports now has to sit there and come to terms with blowing an 11-point lead in the final five minutes to their biggest rival. They have to marinate in a 1-4 record in their last five playoff games. And now they have to seriously consider whether their coach—once billed as one of the winningest coaches in NFL history—is the right guy to lead them into the future.

So I’m still brimming with schadenfreude this wonderful Sunday morning, and no amount of “did you write this article from Cancun?” comments will hurt me.

What are your thoughts on the game and the NFC North? Scroll down to the comment section and sound off!

The Milwaukee Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a critically missing 15-year-old girl who was last seen with an unknown man.

Esther D. Prado was last seen Sunday, Jan. 11, around 12:30 a.m. near West Fillmore Drive and West Sumac Place. That’s near Jackson Park on the southwest side of Milwaukee.

Esther is described as a white female, 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds. She has brown hair, brown eyes and may be wearing pink pajamas.

Anyone with information is asked to call MPD’s District 6 at (414) 935-7262.

“Critically missing” is a label police apply to people who may be especially vulnerable due to a variety of factors.

Hope Karnopp can be reached at HKarnopp@gannett.com.