MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — After playing in his Saturday morning youth league game on the West High School practice field, if the Badgers were at home on the same day, Jack Dunn would hop in the car with his gramps and they'd make the short drive down Regent Street to Camp Randall Stadium.

"My grandfather was really important to me … growing up, I always remember going to Wisconsin football games with him," he said of the late Robert "Max" Dunn, a local builder, real estate developer and loyal Badger fan who held season tickets with wife Mary Jeanne for over 50 years.

"I'd take my shoulder pads off after my game. But I'd still have my dirty football pants on because we didn't have time to go home and shower.

"Always having him at my games was something that was important … he was always my biggest fan. When he passed away, that was the thing that hurt the most, not having him being able to watch my games and call me afterwards and talk about it, things like that.

"That has been missing over the last year or two.

"He was a super important figure in my life."

Max Dunn died in mid-August of 2019. He was 94. Nearly a year earlier, he saw his grandson catch his first pass in a Wisconsin uniform. It was Jack Dunn's only reception during his redshirt sophomore season when he was utilized primarily as a punt returner.

Imagine how proud gramps would have been to see how far he has come since then and how much he has developed in 2020. Over the last two games, Dunn has 12 catches, including a game-high seven for 76 yards and a touchdown in a dramatic 20-17 overtime win over Minnesota.

"Every time I go out there, I'm trying to make my dad (also a Robert Dunn and prominent local developer) proud and obviously, I always wanted to make my grandpa proud, too. To me that's always one of the most important things — trying to make your family proud."

Family includes his mom Julie and older brother — yet another Robert Dunn, albeit a Bobby — who's completing his third season on Paul Chryst's coaching staff as a graduate assistant. His primary focus has been assisting quarterbacks coach Jon Budmayr.

In late March when a "safer at home" order was issued at the state level and the pandemic was altering everyday normality, the Brothers Dunn decided to help others in the Madison community by establishing the Team 2020 Campaign to support Agrace, a local hospice care organization, in getting meals to people.

Agrace was close to their heart in that their grandfather was a patient.

The Edgewater Hotel — re-developed and owned by their dad — partnered in this project.

"We ended up hitting our goal of $100,000 a while back and that was really important to us because we knew it would help serve a lot of meals," Jack Dunn said. "Ultimately, it was a big success. We were able to help a lot of people.

"Personally, it was a great experience to be able to give back to the community. And I was able to see how people are willing to step up and give back. It showed me how great of a community it is, how many great people live here.

"The most gratifying moment was when I was actually able to deliver the meals myself. Just going up to someone's door and ringing the doorbell — we obviously had to maintain a distance — and seeing people's faces and how you're making an impact on their day in helping them out …

"That was something special to me to have that personal interaction."

It brought him full circle in a respect.

"I've been the kid before looking up to the student-athletes here. To have that kind of flipped, it was a weird feeling, but a good feeling to be able to give back to a place that has given me a lot."

Knowing that he had put a smile on someone's face, he always walked away smiling.

On December 13, he had something else to smile about.

Dunn graduated with a double-major in finance and real estate.

Although the school offered a virtual commencement, he hung out instead with some of his best friends and teammates: Noah Burks, Isaiahh Loudermilk, Adam Krumholz, Mike Maskalunas and Mason Stokke. "We just sat around and thought about graduating," Dunn said.

Had to be a weird feeling? "Definitely weird to be sitting in your living room on graduation day thinking that it has been four years and four and one-half years or whatever and this is how your undergrad ends," he conceded. "But I'm not really the celebrating type for that type of thing."

Not that he took his UW degree for granted. On the contrary.

"That's huge," he said. "Not just getting a degree but getting a degree from the University of Wisconsin, one of the best schools in the country in my mind. Being a kid growing up in Madison, this is where I always wanted to go to school and getting that degree is special to me."

When asked if school was easy for him, he said, "I don't know if it has been easy. But it's always been important to me, so I've dedicated a lot of time to trying to make sure I got good grades. Things are only as easy as you make them. It kind of comes down to the amount of work that you put in."

Words to live by. On and off the field. And he has done just that. Especially as a senior.

Just ask first-year UW wide receivers coach Alvis Whitted for his earliest impressions on Dunn.

"He takes everything serious, he's a student of the game with a high football IQ," said Whitted, who has seen that dogged approach pay dividends most recently.

"He practices hard. I've always been of the mindset that if you prepare well, it makes the game so much easier and he's just done that."

Whitted can relate to Dunn on another front. Both were college walk-ons.

"We weren't given anything, so everything had to be earned," said Whitted, a world-class sprinter who made a name for himself as a receiver/return specialist at NC State. "He grinds and that's the way I was. He gets it done. And he has done some great things for us."

Dunn earned his scholarship the spring after his redshirt sophomore season, a reckoning point.

"I always had the confidence that I could play here from Day One — you have to have that if you're going to compete at a high level," said Dunn, who starred as a dual-threat quarterback at Madison Edgewood High School and had to make a difficult transition to wide receiver at the UW.

"It was probably my first spring when I started to get a lot of reps — playing in a more competitive setting instead of just the scout team settings — when I felt there was not a huge difference between me and anyone else here."

Dunn continually reminded himself, "If I put the work in, I can be as good as I want to be."

Learning a new position was definitely hard work, particularly at the collegiate level.

"The first thing I think about is how bad a receiver I was," he admitted. "I had never played receiver at any point in my football career. I had always been a quarterback or running back. I had no idea how to get in and out of breaks. And I wasn't great catching the ball."

Dunn estimated that he caught all of two passes as a prep. Both on trick plays.

"I spent a lot of time with the quarterbacks outside of practice, especially in the offseason," said Dunn, who also credited former UW receivers coach Ted Gilmore for his influence in molding him into a creditable pass catcher and run blocker.

"Whether it was me and Jack Coan or Alex Hornibrook or Kare Lyles, any of those guys, we'd go out and throw some balls so I could get the extra reps. For me, it was always repetition. As reps build up, your experience grows. The more reps you get, the better you get."

Graham Mertz can attest to the fact that Dunn's mentality has been a constant.

"The first thing about Dunn … he's a great guy," said Mertz, who went on to single out Dunn's "mindset towards the game and how he approaches every day at practice in continuing to want to get better and grow." They communicate after nearly every rep.

"After a play during practice, it's kind of, 'What did you see out of my route? What did you see out of the break?' Stuff like that," Mertz said. "That's where you make plays in games — you make them in practice. He's done a great job in the weeks of practice leading into the games."

Dunn returned the compliment to Mertz, a redshirt freshman quarterback.

"Graham has always been the type of guy that carries himself the right way," he said. "He's a mature guy. He's a guy we trust. He's a guy who has the right attitude and approach."

Dunn had a flashback to his own freshman year which evolved under different circumstances.

"You have to be willing to adapt really quickly — the speed of the game picks up so much," Dunn said.

"In terms of a welcome to college football moment, it was probably getting thrown into the frontline of the scout kickoff return — having never been in that spot before — and going to block Ryan Connelly. He just ran right through my face and put me in the dirt."

Dunn regaled the local media with that reflection. He also shared the moral of the story.

"I had to figure out how to deal with that pretty quick," he asserted.

Outside of the Connelly example, he never felt overmatched. Never considered quitting.

"In terms of football, the only thing I really ever wanted to do was play for Wisconsin and help us get wins and be a part of this team. Getting to do that has lived up to every expectation I've had and more. I'm really just honored to have had that opportunity. I wouldn't want it any other way."

His contributions have been well-documented lately.

"Whether I'm getting five targets, 10 targets or zero targets, it doesn't really matter to me where the ball is going. It really matters what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. It's nice to be involved in the offense, there's no doubt. But as long as we're winning, it's the only thing that matters."

During Wisconsin's three-game losing streak, Dunn acknowledged, "You start to question yourself, and you take a look at what you've done throughout the season and find a way to get better."

Perseverance can lead to a high point, the Minnesota win. Finally, he had an Axe to grind.

"Usually, they put the Axe out at practice (the week before the game) and guys will touch it when they walk by," he recounted. "But I've always thought, 'I'm not going to touch the Axe until we've earned the Axe.' Even after we won it in the past, I didn't want to grab it because I wasn't a senior."

Was the Axe heavier than he had imagined it would be?

"It was definitely longer that I thought it was," said Dunn, chuckling. "When I was swinging at the goal post, I was actually hitting some guys. I didn't mean to do that."

Beating the Gophers was impetus for playing in Wednesday's bowl game against Wake Forest.

"In our mind we earned the right to play another game," Dunn stressed. "If we had a losing record and we felt that we hadn't earned that right, people might have thought differently. We've got the type of guys in our locker room that if we have the opportunity to play, we're going to show up and play.

"In my mind, there was never any doubt."

The Duke's Mayo Bowl, staged at Bank America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., will represent a homecoming for Whitted, who was raised a couple of hours away in Hillsborough. While playing at NC State, he had a few memorable battles with Wake Forest, an old rival.

"Playing in the ACC, in general, was a blast," he said. "It was an amazing experience."

Meanwhile, Whitted has dealt with a lack of experience in Wisconsin's receiving corps.

Most notably after seniors Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor were sidelined.

"Considering the season and everything that has been happening," he said, pointing to all the stops and starts and cancelations due to the COVID pandemic, "you've got to give it to these kids and the resiliency they've practiced with and their approach to every day. They really haven't blinked."

Dunn has appreciated Whitted's influence on the development of the position group.

"Coach Whitt has been great, he brings an energy and experience to that room that has been really beneficial in terms of how he interacts with those young guys," Dunn said. "He coaches with such a positive attitude. It can be huge for helping those guys continue to develop down the road.

"I'm able to see the game a lot clearer because of the way he breaks down film and prepares us for games. He has helped me to play with a higher level of confidence."

Dunn, who will turn 23 next month, addressed his own plans for next season and confided, "Right now, I'm undecided about returning next year … if I end up playing again, it would mean getting another chance to compete with my teammates and best friends."
 

That's all he ever wanted to do — compete — from those formative years as a young fan when he sat in his dirty football pants alongside of his gramps in Camp Randall Stadium. One of his earliest favorite players was Jim Leonhard, now the UW defensive coordinator. Later, it was Alex Erickson.

Did the 5-foot-7 Dunn gravitate to the 5-8 Leonhard and 6-foot Erickson because of their size?

Or maybe it was their walk-on status.

"It was a little bit of that," Dunn said. "I've always been a fan of the walk-on, underdog type of story. It's probably somewhat due to their size that I kind of related to them being a smaller guy on whatever teams I've played, so maybe that was the attachment to those guys.

"But it was also the way they carried themselves. They were always great role models."

As he is now for others. On and off the field.