With the Badgers players reporting to Platteville this week for the start of fall camp, we can officially say the 2025 season has begun. And with that is also a new season for the Dairy Raid and it's going to be a busy one.
It’s a year of transition as the new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes moves the Badgers’ offense away from the Air Raid to an NFL-style offense which gives football nerds like me a lot to look forward to: new plays, new strategies, and a new outlook on offensive football which is going to allow me to bring the Dairy Raid back to the core of why I started it in the first place. My goal has always been to teach fans the X’s and O’s of football to enhance your viewing experience. With the transition away from the Air Raid, I’ll be expanding the focus of this channel to include more coverage of the whole of Wisconsin football. Staying true to the original vision: football analysis rooted in scheme and structure I’ll still share news, opinions, and all the gossipy good stuff the algorithm loves. But at the end of the day I’m just a football coach so I’m not going to stray too far from my lane.
What to Expect for the 2025 Season
First and foremost I want to be more consistent. As the slump that turned into the whole 2024 season dragged on and the negativity surrounding the program grew, so did my level of burnout and boredom for the process. But a new season and new schemes bring new ambition and renewed energy, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.
Here’s how I plan to present that to you the reader, the viewer, the consumer of the Dairy Raid:
The film never lies and that's where the heavy lifting lies. We’ll start on YouTube with key play breakdowns from every game, both offensively and defensively, presented in a shorter more concise format that helps you understand what's happening on the field without getting bogged down with my seemingly endless fast forwarding and rewinding. As I type this I can feel myself laughing inside at the thought of actually making these videos shorter and easier to digest, but I'm going to try.
I also want to get back to writing and with that the return of the The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly post-game write-ups on here Substack. These will include my thoughts on what happened in the game, as well as a breakdown of a play that made or broke the game for the Badgers. I’m not a professional writer. Sometimes it’s hard to sit down and be creative with the written word. But we’re just going to tell it how we see it, put it on paper, and start building a bigger audience again on Substack.
A New Approach to Full Breakdowns
This season, I’ll also be doing full game breakdowns which will be uploaded to here at a reasonable price point (Shameless plug sorry). For the real football nerds who want to dive deep into the X’s and O’s, this is for you. Since this format will be less dependent on length and focus it will be a great opportunity to really dig into the personalities on the field and the real opinions that come with it.
We’ll also continue with our morning walk-and-talks, In Focus projects, and dive into smaller, key aspects of the game. Whether it’s signs of growth or lack thereof on this Badger team, we’ll go wherever the film takes us. More than anything, I just want to do more and stay motivated while doing it. The Dairy Raid has always been a passion product for me, and by diversifying the content a bit while staying rooted in my core niche, I’m hoping to keep that grow renewed enthusiasm all season long.
Looking at the Bigger Picture
As a part of some broader goals for the 2025 season I want to grow with the new systems. For the last two seasons of the Air Raid at Wisconsin, I focused on what I already knew and sharing that knowledge with you. Now in 2025 a lot is going to be new. Now the coaching staff isn't reinventing the wheel. I’ve been coaching for 23 years and so there will be very little that I haven't seen before (not bragging, but in football nothing is new) but I haven’t seen this staff’s approach to this brand of football. So as I get more comfortable with these new schemes I want to evolve with the scheme, deepen my understanding, and help you do the same.
That means telling the story of the season through the lens of scheme, and how it unfolds, for better or worse, while helping you see the thought process behind the systems. I’ll be myself through all of it. I’ve been called too positive before—always having an answer, always offering an explanation. That’s because that’s what coaching is: finding solutions, understanding the why behind the results, not just reacting to them.
You can find what’s wrong, and you can find what’s right. Whether that comes off as overly optimistic or not, I’m going to tell you what the film says. The tape doesn’t lie.
Season Preview Approach
To get started with the 2025 season, we’ve got to do a preview. Full disclosure I’ve struggled with how to approach it without feeling I'm copying someone else's work. There are dozens of great Badger content creators putting the work with position-by-position breakdowns, and asking the burning questions we're all thinking heading into camp. If you're the type who needs to know who’s going to be the No. 4 wide receiver or the backup right guard there are so many more people are out there who are more qualified to help you.
So what can I do? I feel like I'm repeating myself again (told you I'm not a great writer) we’re going back to the beginning and focus on the X’s and O’s.
I’ve put together a list of plays and/schemes, 10 plays to be exact, offense, defense, and special teams that I believe can help the Badgers grow this season. As I said at the end of the spring I am lucky that spring football was so well documented that I have a lot to work with so we’ll put them on paper, break them down to you familiar with what to look for. That way when you see them on the field in a few weeks, you can think like the play-caller, understand the players’ decisions, and anticipate the logic behind what’s happening.
Like I said at the top we’re sticking to our lane, but we’re going deeper into our niche. We’re getting back to the core of The Dairy Raid: the X’s and O’s, the film, the players on the field, and how this game grows with these new systems in Madison. I’m really looking forward to the 2025 season, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride. Let’s hope this year brings some positive outcomes compared to the last two, right?
Thank you all for your continued support. The Wisconsin football community is a passionate one both the fans and those of us who choose to cover the team. I am very fortunate that since early 2023 to have built a loyal community within my niche within the niche and I continue to always strive to live up to your patronage.
On Wisconsin.