BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — During an August practice, Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard was wearing a T-shirt with an outline of a wolf on the front. Not a Badger, but a wolf.
"Coach (Paul) Chryst's wolf," he said with a mischievous smile. "This is his pet wolf."
To paraphrase Chryst, the fourth-year head coach, and Rudyard Kipling, the late writer-poet, "For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."
This is one of the team's pet phrases.
When Leonhard wasn't modeling the wolf on his chest during training camp, he was wearing a T-shirt with another phrase – "FirstUp" – on the front.
This one belongs to assistant coach Chris Haering.
"That's what Coach Haering calls special teams … first play of the game, right?" Leonhard said referencing the kickoff cover and return units. "The first meeting of the day is special teams."
How long has Haering called attention to his specialists in this manner?
"He has done that," Leonhard said, "as long as I've been around here."
Not long. But it's all about quality over quantity, right?
Leonhard is entering his third season as the secondary coach; second as defensive coordinator. In a previous life as a UW player, he was here for four years, three as an All-America safety.
In the days leading up to the 2018 opener, Leonhard wore the confident look of someone who's team-centric and comfortable in his own skin, confirming the positive messaging on his T-shirts.
"There has been huge growth for me," said Leonhard, who had no previous coaching experience at any level prior to joining Chryst's staff following a 10-year NFL career.
"Two years ago, just being the defensive backs coach and then going into a coordinator's role last year, I was really just making sure we were doing things the way I wanted it done.
"It has been a totally different approach this year kind of knowing what I liked and what I didn't like. I just grew a lot this offseason talking to a lot of different coaches."
In those talks, he'd be upfront, "I don't feel right about this? How do you approach it?"
For example, on the invitation of LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, who spent three seasons building the UW defense under Gary Andersen and Chryst, Leonhard took part in a 3-4 clinic.
"It was great for me being with guys doing stuff that is similar to you but different," Leonhard said. "Same problems, different way of thinking. I learned a lot."
In the end, he found that not everything was a fit for what he's doing at Wisconsin.
"You try to pick out a handful of things that can improve your team," said the 35-year-old Leonhard. "It's really about evaluating your talent.
"That's what this (3-4) scheme has been good at — finding out your playmakers and putting them in positions to make plays and help you win games."
Two former NFL head coaches, Mike Pettine and Rex Ryan, have been on his list of "go-to" mentors. Leonhard played for them at various stops. There have been others for sure.
"You kind of get a feel for who they are and how they think about things, and you just kind of see what has changed," said Leonhard, who was aptly tagged during his time as a player as their "coach on the field."
"I reach out to a lot of those guys at times to see where their head is at and what's important to them, and I see if I can implement it with what I do."
When asked if he had talked much recently with Ryan, an ESPN analyst, he joked, "A little bit, but not that much. He's a busy man. It takes a long time for him to get pretty for TV."
Although Pettine is now plotting Xs and Os now as defensive coordinator in Green Bay, he said, "I've kind of backed away; Year One is a busy time. We've had brief conversations, but I've just kind of let him get settled in."
Given his coaching resources, and his own experiences, Leonhard should be a better coach today than he was the day that Chryst recruited him to replace Daronte' Jones, who left for the NFL?
"In theory, right?" Leonhard said. "I've definitely learned a lot. As a player, just like a coach, you realize sometimes knowledge doesn't necessarily mean results, right?
"I'm just trying to be smart and learn this year's team."
An annual transition is accepting that the personnel is different, and so is the personality.
"Last year's team was so different because of the experience," he said. "The veterans on that team were able to handle a lot of adjustments and every situation because they've been in it before.
"This is a different group. I always try to keep that in my head. Not that you try to simplify. But you've got to coach. You can never assume young guys understand something.
"You realize there are situations that come up almost every single day where this guy hasn't seen that and this is new for him."
Prior to the opener, he predicted, "There's going to be a lot of plays where we didn't see it this way (on tape) or it didn't look like that in practice or they (the opponent) tweaked something.
"You've got to get guys to understand that it's a thinking man's game and you have to be able to react. You can't become a deer in headlights.
"You've got to play faster in those situations. That's the hard part with youth. Myself being a young coach, I'm trying to keep that always in perspective."
• • • •
After his defense had allowed just 15 first downs, 305 total yards and only a field goal to Western Kentucky in a 34-3 win, it was past midnight by the time Leonhard left the locker room.
"I thought our guys competed and made plays," he said on his way out of the facility.
Seven players made their first career starts on defense: Andrew Van Ginkel, Zack Baun, Caesar Williams, Matt Henningsen, Kayden Lyles, Faion Hicks and Scott Nelson.
Van Ginkel is a senior, Baun is a redshirt junior and Williams is a redshirt sophomore. Henningsen, Lyles, Hicks and Nelson are redshirt freshmen.
"Every snap is extremely important for those guys to continue to learn," Leonhard said, "and to see how teams attack and what happens within a game. I thought the guys really responded well.
"We made some plays in the red zone that changed everything for us, and that's huge. A lot of times, young guys don't rise to the occasion like that. We did a good job handling those situations."
In the third quarter, Western Kentucky had a third-and-3 from the UW 10 when a trick play backfired. Wide receiver Quin Jernighan's pass was intercepted by Hicks, stopping the drive.
On another third-down play in the fourth quarter, third-and-5 from the UW 14, Eric Burrell knocked the ball loose from quarterback Davis Shanely after a 13-yard run and Chris Orr recovered it.
Burrell, a redshirt sophomore safety, got some beneficial playing time in the second half, along with cornerbacks Donte Burton, a true freshman, and Daron Harrell, a redshirt freshman.
"Every opportunity to get some of these guys on the field is going to be huge for us," Leonhard said. "We know there's going to be a handful of them who are going to play significant snaps for us.
A year ago, the Badgers thrived in "Sudden Change" predicaments after the offense turned over the ball (including a blocked punt). They permitted just seven scores (four touchdowns) on 20 such chances.
Friday night, they excelled again in "Sudden Change." After Jonathan Taylor lost a fumble, Western Kentucky had a first-and-10 on the UW 18. But it produced four plays, four yards, zero points.
Overall, the Hilltoppers managed just a field goal on four trips inside the 20. Dating back to Leonhard's first game as defensive coordinator, opponents have just 11 TDs on 39 red-zone series.
"Every time you get to call a game," he said, "you feel more and more comfortable."
That goes for his understanding of what his new players can deliver.
"How do you use those pieces?" he posed. "That's the fun part for the staff. We're going to be evaluating a lot of the guys on this Western Kentucky tape seeing how they responded."
Leonhard was a candidate to wear a turnover chain (with all due respect to the Miami Hurricanes) considering the personnel turnover in the secondary alone from the Orange Bowl.
With the departures of Nick Nelson (to the NFL), Derrick Tindal, Natrell Jamerson and Joe Ferguson (to graduation) and Dontye Carriere-Williams (transferring), there are new faces aplenty.
Leonhard knew that he would have to replace all but one starter (D'Cota Dixon).
"But you don't have juniors and seniors to replace them," he said. "You feel pretty comfortable replacing Leo Musso with Natrell Jamerson and Sojourn Shelton with Nick Nelson.
"Whereas this year, you're replacing them with a guy who doesn't have experience. It feels a little different with some of the unknowns. Am I excited? I really am because you don't know.
"I think I have a really good idea. But, at the same time, you're still waiting to find out."
The Badgers will return to action Saturday against New Mexico, whose defensive coordinator, Kevin Cosgrove, has a well-researched scouting report on Leonhard, the player and family man.
Cosgrove was a hand-picked member of Alvarez's first staff and coached 14 seasons here. Linebackers have been his specialty. But he also coordinated the UW defense from '95 to 2003.
Leonhard played three seasons in Cosgrove's scheme.
"One thing about Jimmy, he's a football junkie — that's what made him a special player," Cosgrove said. "He was a gym rat. That type of kid. He was smart and loved football.
"You watched his NFL career and how long he played and that's pretty impressive. Then to jump right into the coaching profession and have the success that he's had is really impressive."
When contacted about his "second" homecoming, Cosgrove said that he loved his time in Madison. His wife, Shelly, has sisters living here. And they have a lot of close friends in the area.
But this will not be his first time standing on the opposing sideline. Cosgrove was on the Minnesota coaching staff in 2010 when the Gophers lost 41-23 at Camp Randall Stadium.
"It's going to be exciting to be back in the stadium — just the memories from knowing that you were part of building that program from nothing," said Cosgrove. "But it's a business trip for me."
When Cosgrove looks across the field Saturday and sees Leonhard, it's conceivable that he might have a flashback to when the 5-foot-7 Leonhard won the players' slam dunk contest.
"You knew he was special then," he said. "We had some athletic guys. And he beat them all."
And when Leonhard looks back across the field and sees Cosgrove with his play sheet tucked into the front of his coaching pants, a Cos trademark, what will he be thinking?
"I'll be excited to see him and see where he's at," Leonhard said. "I learned a lot of football from him and his approach. I saw how meticulous he was and how he tried to get us to learn."
Leonhard was the pupil then, and now he's the teacher and trying to accelerate the learning curve of his own Badger players by sharing his accumulated knowledge.
"Am I surprised? Not at all," Cosgrove said of Leonhard's rapid climb in the profession. "Jimmy is a helluva person, a helluva coach. I'm glad to see him have the success he's had in a few short years."
