BY BARRY ALVAREZ
UW Director of Athletics
MADISON, Wis. — When I watch Jack Cichy, I see someone who plays with a lot of confidence and brings energy and a personality to the field. His enthusiasm is contagious for the whole defense.
Jack is a downhill linebacker. There is no hesitation. He comes full bore all the time. He is not feeling his way around. He is fun to watch.
That's a tremendous loss. Jack's out for the season with a torn pectoral. A redshirt junior from Somerset, Wisconsin, he's lead the team in tackling this season with 60 so far.
Every week, we've been losing two or three guys. Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and Iowa are all very physical teams. Now we play Nebraska. You put them all in a row and it's brutal.
That's asking a lot out of a team. A gauntlet, like we've had, takes a toll. We've got to sit down and look at scheduling as athletic directors and as a league. We have to be fair somehow.
• • • •
Last week, we announced that Lamar "Soup" Campbell had been named assistant athletic director for student-athlete engagement.
Soup went to school here and played football for us. He understands what we're all about. He believes in our program and the university and he's a great communicator. He's a tremendous fit.
When we had an opportunity to hire him full-time, we thought it was a no-brainer, just by the way he relates to the student-athletes and by the way they take to him.
As a player, Soup was always very vocal. He had a personality and energy and he was smart. He played in the NFL and had his own business. But he thought it was important to come back and get his degree and advanced degree. We keep the door open for all of our student-athletes who leave without their diploma.
That's part of who we are. You come here to get an education. And, in some cases, like Al Johnson's, you go into the NFL and don't realize what a degree means until you're done playing.
Al was a second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2003 and spent three years starting at center for our team. He's now working on Paul Chryst's staff as a graduate assistant. Al wanted to get into coaching, but you can't get a college job without a degree. And now, he can send a message to our current athletes on how important it is, and how it's not just lip service.
Like all GAs, he's sacrificing something for the opportunity to show people that he can not only get his degree but he can coach. My message? This exposure will pay off for him.
In the coaching business, you need contacts, you need some people who are willing to go out on a limb and recommend you. Al was a great player for me, but I didn't know if he could coach.
Paul gave him some coaching responsibilities and we'll be able to tell people about him now if someone out there is looking for an O-line coach. You have to pay your dues.
Jimmy Leonhard, our secondary coach in his first year back at UW, has a little different story. The year after he retired from the NFL, he spent time in the office here studying film and that type of thing.
Jimmy was always a teacher on the field and I think that's why he was able to extend his career as long as he did. Defensive coordinators wanted him lining up people and making the adjustments.
He always saw the big picture in the secondary and he's now getting that across to our kids. We have some great teachers on this football staff and we're playing with a lot of confidence on defense.
We've played against a lot of good teams, four top-10 teams, and the players have gone into every game well prepared. When you're confident in what you're doing, it allows you to play faster.
That's how we have to keep playing despite the injuries.
