Three and Out with Mike Lucas: Bowling Green
September 19, 2014 | Football
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Sept. 19, 2014
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com
MADISON, Wis. -- Basic math: 30 + 59 = ?
“We’re always on the same page mentally,” said No. 30, Derek Landisch
“We can rely on each other if we make a mistake,” said No. 59, Marcus Trotter.
Basic football: Landisch + Trotter = chemistry.
“We’ve played a lot of football together,” said Trotter, a senior from Milwaukee Marquette.
“Playing next to him has been an honor,” said Landisch, a senior from Arrowhead.
Before meshing as college linebackers, they were intense high school rivals.
“We wore the same number, No. 44,” Trotter said. “I was really happy when he came here.”
Obviously, they have become very close over the last four seasons.
“Marcus has kind of mentored me,” Landisch said.
Going into Saturday’s game against Bowling Green, Trotter leads the Badgers in tackles with 18.
“Marcus puts in a ton of film study,” Landisch said. “That’s what makes him so good.”
That’s what makes THEM so good. They have the same studious approach to the game.
“We have a good chemistry,” said Trotter. “So we can rely on each other if we make a mistake.”
That word again: chemistry. It was there from the start between Landisch and Trotter, a fifth-year senior whose twin brother, Michael, is also an inside linebacker and the backup to Landisch.
“Marcus is so selfless,” said Landisch. “He was the first guy to step up and take me up to the offices and show me the defense when I didn’t know anything about the playbook.
“I really think we play better when we’re next to each other because we’ve gone through all of these different transitions. Throughout it all, it has always been me and Marcus. That continuity helps.”
Landisch was one of three true freshmen to letter in 2011. The linebackers coach then was Dave Huxtable. In 2012, it was Andy Buh. The last two years it has been defensive coordinator Dave Aranda.
During these transitions, Landisch and Trotter have been overshadowed by other prominent linebackers. But they kept working and waiting -- waiting for their turn to take over as starters.
“It definitely feels a little different,” Landisch said, “playing behind all of those great linebackers, and now having them graduate and being in this role (as a starter).”
Landisch has not taken anything for granted. “I couldn’t be more thankful to have this opportunity,” he said. “Ever since I was a little kid it’s been a dream to play for this school.”
It might have seemed like a nightmare -- for any player on an opposing defense -- watching Bowling Green run off 113 plays last Saturday in the Falcons’ stunning 45-42 victory over Indiana.
“Watching on TV,” said Landisch, “gave me a real sense of how fast they go.”
Such a high pace offense can put a real strain on defensive communication.
“Everything has to be communicated much more quickly,” said Landisch, snapping his fingers. “Everyone has to be aligned properly and we have to execute our assignments and tackle well.
“Hopefully we can create some takeaways and big plays. That’s going to be the key to slowing down this offense. We think of ourselves as a big play defense.”
You can safely assume that Landisch and Trotter will be on the same wavelength.
“We’re always communicating with each other,” Landisch said. “He knows what I’m going to do and I know what he’s going to do and that definitely helps playing team defense.”
• • • •
The rugby-style kick has had a growing impact on punt returns in college football.
More and more punters, including UW’s Drew Meyer, have that kick in their arsenal.
Much to the chagrin of returners like Kenzel Doe.
“It definitely changes things,” said Doe, a senior from Reidsville, North Carolina. “You know that it’s going to be a line drive and the ball is going to be rolling.
“A majority of the time I’m looking to make a call to get everybody out of the way just so it doesn’t roll into any of my teammates running down the field.
“I don’t necessarily look to return a rugby kick,” Doe said. “But if it’s rolling and I can get it like a normal return, I’ll get it and go.”
Doe hasn’t had many chances to return any rugby-style punts through the first two games.
So far, he has returned three punts for an average of minus-1 yard.
His first return of the season went for a minus-3 against LSU.
Jamie Keehn averaged 42.5 yards on eight punts, plus he had five downed inside the UW’s 20.
“That first game I didn’t have too many that I could work with,” Doe said. “Some were punted way over my head and I didn’t want to catch the ball on the 5 or 3 yard line.
“The one I did get to return was hard because they were right in my face when I caught it.”
Against Western Illinois, Doe had a 6-yard return, his longest of the season.
On his only other return, he fumbled the punt but he was able to fall on it for a loss of 4.
“I made a mistake,” Doe said. “They had a left-footed kicker and the ball spun the opposite way than I thought it would. Once I adjusted, it was no big deal. It wasn’t like I was losing confidence.”
Over his first three seasons, Doe averaged 9.1 yards on 25 punt returns. Few, if any, including UW coach Gary Andersen, will forget his 82-yard touchdown return against Utah State in 2012.
Doe is still confident that he has a long return coming. That goes for kickoffs, too.
Western Illinois kicked off just twice. One was a touchback, the other Doe returned for 17 yards.
LSU kicked off six times with three touchbacks, one out of bounds and Doe returns of 25 and 6.
“I just need a chance to show them what I can do once the ball is in my hands,” Doe said.
He could have been talking about returns. Instead, he was talking about his role as a receiver. Doe has more rushing attempts -- one for 5 yards against Western -- than receptions.
Eleven different players have caught passes. He just hasn’t been one of them.
“Last week I thought I did a good job at practice and this week the same thing,” said Doe, who has 25 career catches in 36 games. His season high was 16 in 2012.
“I know I’m on the clock (as a senior). I want to go out there and catch the ball and be a leader of this group. But I have to take it one day at a time, one game at a time."
• • • •
Freshman cornerback Derrick Tindal didn’t hide his disappointment after not playing against LSU.
“But I understand that they went with experience,” he said, “and I had to wait for my chance.”
That came in the home opener against Western Illinois.
“Now that I’ve got that chance,” he said, “I’m going to make the best of it.”
Tindal had two tackles in his college debut; the same number as safety Michael Caputo.
“Like Coach (Cory) Hall tells me, ‘Tackling is something you have to want to do,”’ Tindal said.
Hall, a former NFL defensive back, is a graduate assistant on Wisconsin’s coaching staff.
Tackling is something the 5-foot-11, 174-pound Tindal likes to do. “It just comes naturally,” he said.
Like all first-year players, though, he’s still adjusting to the tempo and physicality of the game.
In this context, he has taken advantage of the more experienced corners in the meeting room.
“When I first came here, I was low in confidence after getting beat in one-on-ones (during training camp),” said Tindal, a second-team all-state selection out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
That’s when sophomore Sojourn Shelton, another Floridian, got in his ear.
“One day I was really mad after practice,” Tindal recounted. “I was sitting in the locker room and Sojourn talked to me about it (the adjustment from high school to college football).
“Basically he told me, ‘When I first came here, the same thing happened to me. I see you as me, but you’re much more ahead of me. You’re on a higher level than I was.’ That was big for me.”
UW cornerback Darius Hillary has also gotten into his ear.
“Off the field, he makes sure I’m right in the classroom,” Tindal said. “On the field, he makes sure I do everything right, too, he keeps my tempo high and makes sure I hustle and I’m in the game.”
The UW has a Big Brother program where an upperclassmen oversees a freshman.
Tindal’s mentor has been Devin Gaulden, a junior cornerback from Miramar, Florida.
“The first day of class, I was late,” Tindal admitted, “and he knew I was late before I did.”
Gaulden rode his scooter over to Tindal’s dorm and made sure he got to class.
Time management is something all freshmen deal with.
“You don’t really have any time to yourself,” Tindal said. “But that’s what I signed up for.”
He’s happy that he did -- sign with Wisconsin -- even if he didn’t play in the season opener.
“I’ve always had the confidence,” he said. “I was just waiting for Coach Strick to make the decision to play me. Now I’ve earned my coach’s trust and he has put me on the field.”
Coach Strick is Ben Strickland, who coaches the cornerbacks.
Tindal has received additional support from his cousin, Corey Tindal, a cornerback at Marshall.
“We’re real close,” Tindal said. “He’s like my brother.”
Flashing back to the LSU game, Derrick Tindal said, “I’m not going to lie, when I didn’t play, it got to me a little bit and then he (Corey) called and we talked.
“He said, ‘I can hear in your voice that you’re mad. But you’ve got to keep your head up. You’ve been telling me you’re going hard in practice, just keep going hard and it’s going to work out for you.
“When I got here (Marshall), I wasn’t playing, now look at me.”
In 2013, Corey Tindal was the co-Freshman of the Year in Conference USA.
Derrick Tindal has taken that to heart.
