BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. – While watching the Kansas City Chiefs battle the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, Colin Hitschler had divided loyalties. On one hand, the Wisconsin assistant pointed out, "My family bleeds Eagles green. I grew up watching the Eagles every Sunday with the family together."

On the other hand, he had some skin in the game. At the University of Cincinnati, he coached the safeties the past three seasons and one of his star pupils was Bryan Cook, a second-round draft choice of the Chiefs in the 2022 draft. "It's hard to root against someone you coached," Hitschler said.

It's harder to find a better narrative than Cook's. Coming out of high school, his only scholarship offer was to Howard University, where he played corner for two years before transferring to Cincinnati. Making a successful conversion to safety, he was first-team All-AAC in 2021.

That season, Cook was the fourth-leading tackler on an historic Bearcats' defense that led the nation in pass defense and was the backbone of a team that won 13 games, a second-consecutive American Athletic Conference title and became the first Group of Five entry into the College Football Playoff.

"He was the ultimate worker – you talk about a kid whose work ethic is unique," Hitschler said of Cook, who deflected a Joe Burrow pass intended for Tee Higgins that led to an interception in the AFC Championship game. "It's fun to watch someone you're close to play at that level.

"And it's gratifying knowing where he came from to where he is now."

Cook is now a Super Bowl champion. The same can be said for former Badger linebacker Leo Chenal, a third-round pick of the Chiefs in '22. Both rookies had roles in Sunday's 38-35 win over the Eagles in Phoenix, Arizona. Chenal registered six tackles and a sack while Cook was used situationally in the secondary.

"It's just another story of what hard work can do," reasoned Hitschler, a Philly native.

He was talking about Cook. But he could have been talking Chenal. Or himself (in the coaching profession). It's a message that will get plenty of run in his UW meeting room. He likes what he has already seen. But he's excited about spring practice and the opportunity to further develop relationships.

"It's an extremely talented group with a lot of experience and some really talented young kids," said the 36-year-old Hitschler. "They're very intelligent but also athletically gifted. They have different traits that make them special … and the uniqueness of the group is the depth."

Among the returning safeties are Kamo'i Latu, the fifth-leading tackler last season – "Latu has a lot of physical gifts and plays with nasty intentions," Hitschler said – and Hunter Wohler, who was limited to just six games because of injury but has shown much promise. "Extremely talented," Hitschler added.

Many others will factor into the mix, ranging from sixth-year senior Travian Blaylock to incoming freshman Braedyn Moore. Another youngster, Austin Brown, was overshadowed last season but has already caught Hitschler's eye. "He's as talented as any young safety that we've had," he said.

What's he looking for physically at the position? "You can have a lot of different builds and play it a lot of different ways and be successful," he said. "There's nothing more evident of that than Coach Leonhard. He was as good as it gets, and he wouldn't necessarily have the prototypical build."

Jim Leonhard was 5-8. And yet, he was a three-time All-American at Wisconsin and a 10-year NFL vet. "Two years ago," Hitschler said, "our defensive staff before the playoff run met with the defensive staff here. And I got to spend a lot of time with Jim and talked safety play, schematics in coverage."

While serving as the UW defensive coordinator, Leonhard was the architect of some of the top units in college football. What kind of defense will the Badgers put on the field in 2023? "It's going to have a lot of similar components to the previous Jim Leonhard regime," Hitschler said.

"It's a versatile defense that does a lot of one-high (safety). It's an aggressive, challenging approach to defense. It's an attacking defense. It's attacking offensive schemes, giving them multiple looks and attacking what they do best. That's what us (at UC) and Jim did well (at UW).

"Take away what team's do best and aggressively attack them looking for opportunistic plays."

Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell has assembled a defensive staff that has many of the same reference points. Hitschler was a co-defensive coordinator with Mike Tressel in Cincinnati. Cornerback coach Paul Haynes was at Ohio State with Fickell and at Michigan State with Tressel.

D-line coach Greg Scruggs was part of Cincy's playoff run under Fickell. Outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell and Tressel were college teammates and roommates and coached together at Wartburg and Ohio State. "We have a lot of comfort in the (meeting) room," Hitschler observed.

That extends to quality control coach Mike Caputo, a former Badger safety. The hard-nosed Caputo was a three-year starter and the leading tackler in 2014. "He brings a lot to the table," Hitschler said. "He knows the scheme inside and out from the previous regime and that has helped a lot."

Hitschler has a connection to another former Badger, another Mike – Mike Samuel, who quarterbacked Wisconsin to the 1998 Big Ten championship and a win over UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Samuel was a product of Penn Charter High School in Philadelphia. So was Hitschler.

After his playing career, Samuel was an assistant coach at Penn Charter. "He coached me my last three years," said Hitschler, a starting offensive lineman. "He was the key to Matt Ryan's development. He was a great coach … When he was playing here (UW), we were always rooting for him."

From Penn Charter, Hitschler went to Penn, a family tradition. He and older brother Rob wrestled there as third generation Hitschlers. Fickell's brother, Mike, was also a Penn wrestler, and an All-American. Although they weren't teammates, Fickell was an important contact for Hitschler.

"I knew I wanted to be in football coaching," Hitschler said, "so I developed a relationship with Mike and Mike set me up with Luke. Throughout the years when I was at other places, Luke and I had been in contact but nothing really worked perfectly until our staff got fired at South Alabama."

It was not the first time that Hitschler experienced the vagaries of the business. His first step on the coaching path was as a training camp assistant, primarily in football operations, with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009. The following year, he was a player personnel assistant with the Chiefs.

"They say you're not a coach until you're fired," he noted. "Actually the first time it happened was with Kansas City. When we were in the lockout, they dismissed a bunch of the younger staff and I was one of them.

"It's the best job in the world. And sometimes it's the craziest industry in the world."

What Hitschler has learned at his various stops is that the coaching profession teaches perseverance – "You have to uproot your family and it's not necessarily any fault of your own," he said – and appreciation for what you have when you have it. No matter the task or level of competition.

At South Alabama, he was a graduate assistant and a director of football operations before getting an on-field coaching position. At Cincinnati, he was a quality control assistant and a senior defensive analyst before taking over the safeties for Fickell, who rewards those who pay their dues.

"Luke is an elite developer of coaches," Hitschler said. "He makes you work and earn things. With every task you do successfully, he gives you another, more challenging one. He helps you develop in a lot of ways as far as relationships with players or technique or fundamentals or scheme.

"All those things you develop because we do a lot of things as a staff together."

Hitschler's family won't join him in Madison until March. "That part is tough until it happens but it has given us more time to hang out with the guys," he said. "There's no doubt the culture of the team is a working culture and when you're around those guys, growing as a group, there's nothing more fun.

"That's why we all do it." That's why he appreciates his current mailing address given some of his earliest ones at Salve Regina University (Newport, R.I.) and Widener University (Chester, Pa.). From those D-3 programs, he moved into the Sun Belt Conference at Arkansas State and South Alabama.

"I tell people all the time that coaching at the lower levels, you learn so much," he said, citing the value of multi-tasking. "You're the equipment guy to recruiting. You're writing reports after the game. You're involved in the media. You're doing everything. It's, 'Do whatever you can do.'"

In sum, it's just another story of what hard work can do.