MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin doesn’t want to refer to itself as “Running Back U” until it performs at a level that would make Ron Dayne, Jonathan Taylor and other former Badgers ball carriers proud.

That task gets easier if Wisconsin starts resembling “O-Line U” again.

Wisconsin earned those nicknames during its glory years as superstar backs dominated games with help from future NFL linemen. The Badgers didn’t run the ball nearly that well while going a combined 9-15 the last two seasons.

“We’re not going to say that we’re anything that we’re not yet,” new running backs coach Jayden Everett said. “We know what we have to do. We know what being a running back at the University of Wisconsin means.”

They got reminders from Wisconsin royalty during spring practice, which ended Wednesday. Dayne, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1999, and other former Badgers star running backs have visited.

“They just preach doing the little things … making sure that not only we know what we’re doing but what other people are doing, how the O-line’s blocking — just little gadgets that can really help us with our game,” running back Abu Sama said.

Wisconsin rushed for 116.67 yards per game last year to rank 116th out of 136 Bowl Subdivision programs. The Badgers averaged 3.31 yards per carry to finish 127th. The last time Wisconsin had lower averages in each of those categories was 1991.

In some respects, the issues stem to the beginning of Luke Fickell’s coaching tenure in 2023 and his hire of Air Raid disciple Phil Longo as offensive coordinator. In Fickell’s debut year, Wisconsin attempted more passes than runs for the first time since at least 1946, which is as far back as its records go.

Yet the problems remain even after Longo’s November 2024 firing. Wisconsin ran 60.9% of the time last year but ranked 135th — ahead of only UMass — in total yards per play, total yards per game and points per game.

Fickell’s future at Wisconsin likely depends on whether the Badgers get more productivity from their running backs.

“Coach Fick said the room’s kind of average right now,” running back Darrion Dupree said. “I took that to heart. The running backs took that to heart.”

Staff and personnel changes

Fickell and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes are back from last season, but the Badgers made staff moves elsewhere. Everett arrived from Minnesota. Wisconsin’s fifth offensive line coach in the last six seasons is Eric Mateos, who spent the last two years at Arkansas.

Wisconsin also overhauled its roster.

Dupree returns from last year’s team, but Sama rushed for 1,933 yards at Iowa State over the last three seasons. Other transfer portal additions at running back include Bryan Jackson (formerly at Southern California) and Nate Palmer (TCU).

“The best thing about that group is there’s a competitiveness within it that’s going to be interesting to see as we work through fall,” Fickell said.

Wisconsin’s rushing attack adds a wrinkle with new quarterback Colton Joseph, who ran for 1,007 yards at Old Dominion last season.

The Badgers also need their offensive line to regain its lost reputation.

Issues on the offensive line

Wisconsin had 20 offensive linemen earn first-team all-Big Ten honors from 2004-21, and 11 of them also made the Associated Press All-America team. No Wisconsin offensive linemen have been first-team or second-team all-Big Ten selections the last four years.

“We talk about earning our ‘W’ and living up to the expectation of Wisconsin offensive linemen,” guard Colin Cubberly said. “We need to be able to build up to that and earn our ‘W.’ There’s been guys who’ve come here and have the same number as you. We need to play to that standard every day. Good is not good enough. We need to be great.”

Cubberly and Emerson Mandell are the only returning linemen who started multiple games for Wisconsin last season. The Badgers lost two experienced linemen to Big Ten rivals as Joe Brunner transferred to Indiana and Jake Renfro left for Illinois.

Wisconsin retooled through the portal. Mateos knew what he wanted.

“You think of great players in sports that take games over, you think of hoopers who just get in a zone or whatever, a quarterback who can’t miss or a wideout who can’t be covered,” Mateos said. “I think a Wisconsin O-lineman is like, ‘Hey, run it again. Run it again. Run it behind me. Hey, it’s power. It’s coming right here.’”

Wisconsin gets Kevin Heywood back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that sidelined him last season. Portal additions include P.J. Wilkins (Mississippi), Austin Kawecki (Oklahoma State), Blake Cherry (Arkansas), Lucas Simmons-Johansson (Florida State) and Stylz Blackmon (Augustana).

Mateos plans to make sure they have the right mentality for run blocking.

“There must be a passion for the physicality,” Mateos said. “I think so much of what gets taught with tempo offenses — that’s been a big thing over the years — is, like, how fast can we run the next play. That, I think, has made O-linemen more concerned about conserving energy rather than just emptying the tank on that play.”

Mateos wants them going full throttle more often. That could help Wisconsin regain its status as RBU.

After a pit-stop on the way down I-75 for three games and some questionable “chili,” the Tigers continued south to visit the red-hot Atlanta ball club for the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday night. The Tigers’ bats ran cold, two key players left the game with injuries, and they dropped the opener to the tune of a 5-2 tally.

Making his sixth start of the season for the Tigers was Casey Mize, and he’s looked good in his last couple of starts before tonight. Arguably, his April 17 outing in Boston was one of the best of his career: 6 2/3 shutout innings, three hits, one walk and seven strikeouts? By the stat of Game Score — a rough index to try and determine how good a start is — that was a 74, the highest of his career, one above a stellar start in 2021 against the Mariners. (There are some names in that box score, eh?)

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Facing Mize and the Tigers was lefty Martín Pérez, making his fourth start (against two relief appearances) for Atlanta this year. He spent nine years in the Rangers’ rotation before bouncing around a little: some time with the Twins, another stint in Texas, and the south side of Chicago last year. He didn’t make Atlanta’s big-league roster out of Spring Training, but was quickly recalled from Triple-A and has had some nice appearances so far. He’ll give you some innings, won’t dominate you too often, generally limits home-run power and, while he used to be an extreme ground-ball pitcher early in his career, has become much less so recently.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the first, Ronald Acuña Jr. smacked a double to the wall, but Mize was able to get the next three batters and strand him at third. He then sawed-through the next three batters in the second, including featuring that right-on-right splitter that, earlier in his career, he’d use primarily against lefties alone.

Meanwhile, Pérez was pulling the string with his changeup more than a kid with a new Chatty Cathy doll: he struck out both Spencer Torkelson, Kevin McGonigle and Jahmai Jones (three hitters on heaters lately) with straight change-ups right down the middle. You know what I said about not dominating teams? Well, he had it tonight.

Atlanta got on the board first with a pair of doubles to start the bottom of the third inning, by Mike Yastrzemski and Acuña to put the home team up 1-0, and let the record show that I spelled Yastrzemski right without looking. The next batter, Drake Baldwin, hit a dribbler up the first-base line; Mize fielded the ball and tossed underhand to first for the out, and he came up limping, favouring his right leg, and that was it for Mize; it was later reported that he had some “right groin tightness.”

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Brant Hurter, who’s been used as a multi-inning reliever, came on for Mize and gave up a sacrifice-fly liner to score Acuña for a 2-0 lead.

Dillon Dingler managed the first Tiger hit with one out in the fourth, despite getting three on base before that via the base-on-balls. Alas, Dingler was stranded there after Riley Greene flew out and Torkelson struck out.

Hao-Yu Lee started the fifth with a double, and Javier Báez hit a grounder to shortstop. The throw to first was high, and Báez figured he could get underneath a tag by sliding into first base — which is never a good idea, kids — and ended up twisting his right ankle. He had to be taken off the field on a cart, but if you can have a little hope here, he was seen wiggling and moving his ankle around while on the cart.

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(I don’t want to have to point this out, but… that belt of Báez looks a little too Zubaz-ish for my liking. IYKYK.)

After Gleyber Torres walked, McGonigle hit a long fly ball to right, but it was caught halfway up the wall for the third out and the threat was extinguished.

Pérez, whose pitch count was pushed up by a few long at-bats, was out after five innings and Didier Fuentes, a young right-hander from Colombia, took over and he had his slider working overtime, scattering a Greene walk harmlessly amid three quick outs. The Tigers struck out less than the Braves in this one, and hit the ball pretty solidly for the most part, but they neglected to hit them where they ain’t.

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Burch Smith took over for Hurter to start the sixth, facing the heart of the order. He got Matt Olson to strike out swinging, and after walking Ozzie Albies, he got Michael Harris II to ground into an inning-ending double play. Smith carried on into the seventh, and with two outs he gave up a double to Mauricio Dubón, who scored on a Yastrzemski single just over Torres’ glove to make it 3-0. But then Chris Fetter paid Smith a visit, whispered some sweet nothings into Smith’s ear, and he struck out Acuña on three pitches.

In the top of the eighth McGonigle singled and Dingler doubled, putting runners on second and third with two outs and bringing Greene to the plate as the tying run. Alas, Greene struck out looking on a pitch that barely nicked the corner of the strike zone, and the inning was over.

Tyler Holton relieved Smith in the bottom of the eighth, and the Georgians tacked-on a pair of runs but-quick: with one out Olson doubled and Albies smacked a fat changeup over the fence for a 5-0 lead.

Torkelson came up first in the ninth inning for one last chance to extend his home run-hitting streak, but he grounded out to third; fun while it lasted. After Colt Keith singled, Wenceel Pérez hit his second home run of the year to get the Tigers on the board, but that would be the final scoring action of the game.

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Final score: Atlanta 5, Detroit 2

Notes and Numbers

• How about that Spencer Torkelson fellow? Five straight games with a home run last week, and still didn’t win American League Player of the Week. That honour went to the A’s Carlos Cortes who went 13-for-24 with three dingers, which is fine, I guess. That Torkelson: he don’t get no respect, I’ll tell ya.

• After Sunday’s game, the Tigers as a team had the third-highest OPS (and OPS+) in the American League. Detroit’s OPS was .750, with an OPS+ of 106; if you don’t like anything related to OPS, the Tigers were fourth in batting average (.253; league-average is .239, which still boggles my mind).

• First Alex Cora in Boston, then Rob Thomson in Philadelphia: managers are getting fired left, right and centre! Who do you have next on your list?

• On this day in 1900, Dutch astonomer Jan Oort was born. He’s probably most famous for lending his name to the Oort Cloud, the spherical repository of tiny, icy bodies past the Kuiper Belt that most likely is the source of comets. But an argument could be made that his calculations regarding the rotation of the Milky Way, and the conclusion that there must be a lot of unseen (i.e., “dark”) matter kicking around, was the most important in the broader science of cosmology.

• The Milwaukee School Board approved a phased cost-of-living raise for Milwaukee Public Schools staff.
• Staff will receive a 1.5% wage increase in July and another 1.13% increase in January, totaling 2.63%.
• The teachers union had pushed for the full 2.63% raise to be implemented in July.
• The union has filed a complaint, arguing the district has not bargained in good faith.

Milwaukee Public Schools teachers and other staff will receive cost‑of‑living raises next school year under a plan the Milwaukee School Board approved April 28, but not on the timeline the teachers union had pushed.

Following about two and a half hours in closed session, the board voted 7-1 to implement a 1.5% wage increase for staff starting in July and another 1.13% increase in January. Board member Mimi Reza voted against the plan, while Katherine Vannoy recused herself.

The cumulative 2.63% raise matches the rate of inflation and is the maximum amount the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association can bargain for under state law. The union and the district had negotiated the raises for over two months but failed to reach an agreement.

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has said delaying a portion of the wage increases would save MPS money as it faces a $46 million budget deficit. The inflationary raises for MTEA-represented employees are estimated to cost about $10.6 million.

“Tonight’s Board vote shows we value our employees and their commitment to our students while also building a budget that will help us restore the district’s fiscal standing,” Cassellius said in a statement. “There were no easy decisions here, however we are ultimately bringing employees to a full 2.63% increase by January while maintaining our obligation to present a balanced budget to the Board next month.”

The district previously presented two other options to the union, including plans that would have delayed raises until January for some or all employees. The plan that board members approved gives workers the largest wage increase among the three options, said Robert Sanders, a city attorney who served as bargaining counsel for MPS.

The union’s sole ask, however, was to receive the full 2.63% hike to base wages by July 1. Union members had demanded MPS officials accept the MTEA’s offer in various protests throughout April.

The union presented no other options, Sanders told the board. He said the district then sought mediation, and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission declared the parties at an impasse. The district put forth the phased raises as its final offer, which the union rejected.

“The district appreciates MTEA’s engagement throughout this process,” Sanders said. “While MTEA did not provide a counter proposal, the views and concerns MTEA shared informed the district’s decision to identify (this) option as its best and final offer.”

School boards may unilaterally implement a final wage offer after a mediator declares an impasse, though the move is risky because it could potentially violate labor law for failure to bargain in good faith, according to information from the Wisconsin Association of School Boards.

The teachers union already filed a complaint with the state’s employment relations commission on April 24, arguing the district mishandled the negotiations and misrepresented the savings associated with its proposals to the public.

“It is our hope that through this Prohibited Practices complaint to and in mediation with WERC, MPS will be compelled to bargain in good faith with MTEA and to be honest with our community,” MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said in a statement April 27.

Walker-Henry previously said MPS staff have regularly received raises to match cost-of-living inflation over the last seven years, and such increases are necessary to stabilize retention and recruitment. Union leaders have said the MTEA’s preferred proposal would cost about $2.2 million more than the district’s plan.

The latest inflationary raises apply to all employees represented by the union, including teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses, social workers and interpreters, among others. The district said it also intends to ask the board to extend the increases to employees who are not represented by MTEA, similar to how MPS has handled raises in past years.

Kayla Huynh covers K-12 education, teachers and solutions for the Journal Sentinel. Contact: khuynh@gannett.com. Follow her on X: @_kaylahuynh.

Kayla’s reporting is supported by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and reader contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.