Lucas: Strong bond between linebackers translates onto field
April 18, 2023 | Football, Mike Lucas
Njongmeta and Turner entering second season together as starters
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. – Maema Njongmeta had a story worth retelling. As a high school junior, he was recruited by numerous Power Five schools, including Michigan State, whose linebackers coach was Mike Tressel, now Wisconsin's first-year defensive coordinator and Njongmeta's position coach.
At the time of his recruitment, there were other things going on. "I was getting a 'C' in Calculus," Njongmeta said. "My dad was like, 'If you finish with a C, I'm walking you into your coach's office and you're taking your cleats off.' He was serious. He meant it. I ended up finishing with a B-minus."
Thus, he got to keep playing football. Recently, he revisited that memory with his father and admitted to "almost tearing up" because of the impact his parents, Leo and Lynda, have had in setting high educational standards – both have their PhDs – while fueling his appetite for academics.
"They grew up in West Africa (Cameroon) and they didn't have a lot," he said. "But education has taken my family so far. They really didn't want me to play football. They wanted me to get an education. The fact I've been able to do both means the world to them – means the world to me."
Maema Njongmeta, 22, will graduate in Finance from the UW in May.
Leo Njongmeta, an associate EHS director and global biosafety officer at AbbVie Inc., got his Bachelor of Science degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, his master's from the University of Ibadan, also in Nigeria and his PhD from the University of Liverpool in England.
Nenge Lynda Njongmeta, a group leader in quality innovation at The Kraft Heinz Company, followed a similar path by attending Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Ibadan before her journey took her to Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.
As a Fulbright Scholar, she earned her PhD in Food, Science and Technology from Texas A&M.
The Njongmeta's moved to the United States in 2004.
"I didn't start playing football until my freshman year of high school," Maema Njongmeta said.
Today, as the result of his late start, he opined, "In my mind, I'm behind. I'm playing catch-up."
It has been his reasoning, in part, for usually being the last player off the practice field.
"I just need to catch-up on reps," he said. "It has gotten me this far, why stop now?"
Last spring, in particular, he started to be more "fervent" about his post-practice routine. "It was when I was third string," said Njongmeta who had concluded, "There are some things fundamentally wrong with my game that I just wasn't good at. At the time, it was tackling."
The extra work paid off. Last season, Njongmeta was UW's leading tackler with 95 (quite the jump considering he had four tackles in six games combined in 2021). In addition, he had the second-best PFF defensive grade among Big Ten linebackers, trailing only Iowa's Jack Campbell, an All-American.
As fate would have it, he's now playing for Tressel. "I love his coaching style," Njongmeta said. "He's passionate, super intelligent, super direct and to the point. He's going to tell you how it is. When I messed up some calls, he said, 'Hey, man, you're not doing us a favor by doing what you just did.'
"He was being hard on me by letting me know, 'I know what you've got in you.'" Do better.
How is a Tressel-coordinated defense different? "We still have our base from last year and we still have some nickel calls. But there is a variability in this defense," Njongmeta said.
"The way our calls can be mixed and matched is really interesting."
Trusting the defense is part of this spring's on-going transition. "Is trust a good word for me?" posed Njongmeta. "I think it's a critical word. Defense is all trust actually. You can play really well when you know, 'I don't have to know more than my job because I trust other people to do theirs.'"
Njongmeta pondered another word, connectivity. "That's a huge word, that's one of my favorite words," he said. "It's just the idea of not only connectivity but connection – being able to do it together. Yeah, everyone has their 1/11th (of the defense). But you need to be able to play off each other.
"You need to be able to talk. You need to be able to hold each other accountable.
"And you can only do that if there's a certain connectivity on defense."
Njongmeta has a nicely developing connection with his inside linebacker partner, Jordan Turner. "When Jordan came on a (recruiting) visit, he stayed with me in the dorms," he related. "We sort of knew each other then and we started getting to know each other playing-wise with the scout team."
While replicating the opponent's defense in practice, they got a feel for their games. "We learned how to play together, how to practice off each other," Turner said. "He was kind of on the same page. We were always third or fourth team. And we were both working our way up to try and play."
In 2022, Turner was UW's second-leading tackler with 68. In the Guaranteed Rate Bowl win over Oklahoma State, he had a team-high eight tackles and was named the game's Defensive MVP. Looking ahead to 2023, Turner said, "Now it's our second year starting together, but it feels like forever."
Why is that? "We're close, we're talking the same language," he said, confirming that he feels like he knows Njongmeta so well that he tends to anticipate what he's going to do before he does it on the field. "And he knows what I'm about to do, too. I like that."
What about off the field? What's the relationship like between Njongmeta, the fifth-year senior from Buffalo Grove, Ill. and Turner, the redshirt junior from Farmington, Michigan? "We're kind of opposites," Turner said. "I'm an introvert and Maema is the extrovert. He's always talking."
Njongmeta endorsed that message. "Jordan is quiet. Sometimes he doesn't want to talk and that's all right," he said. "I kind of want to talk all the time. I'm more of a social butterfly than he is. But he also knows how to have a good time and can be social."
As starting linebackers and defensive leaders, Njongmeta went on, "We know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We know in certain moments, 'This is where Maema is strong and Jordan is weak or Jordan is strong and Maema is weak.' We support each other in those moments."
As such, Turner came into the spring with detailed objectives. "I've been trying to build myself up and my technique and I've tried to eliminate the bad habits that I created over the past season," he said. "I was way too high with my body position when the play started, and I've been trying to stay low."
Besides focusing on improving his fundamentals at linebacker, he also volunteered, "I want to do a better job of leading the defense and the team – always keeping them up, always keeping them on their toes – and I'm learning that part." In this case, he has tapped into Tressel's experience.
"He has affected me a lot," Turner said. "He's the person who has been helping me get better, constantly pushing me with the little stuff that will change my game for the better of the team. I love the way he's pushing us … the whole linebacker room … the whole defense.
"When you're playing in his defense, you feel free. And you feel like you're prepared."
Tressel has created a buzz phrase for the defense: Madtown Mayhem.
"We wanted to have an identity," he said. "This is certainly Madtown … the defense swarms."
That is the Mayhem. Or it was in 2012 when Michigan State edged Wisconsin, 16-13, in overtime at Camp Randall and the Spartans defense – led by linebackers Max Bullough and Denicos Allen – held the Badgers to 19 net rushing yards. UW running back Montee Ball had 22 carries for 46 yards.
Tressel, who was then coaching the MSU linebackers for head coach Mark Dantonio, recalled how one of Wisconsin's tailbacks – Ball – spoke with Le'Veon Bell after the game and conceded, "Wow, I thought you guys had 100 guys out there all day." Said Tressel, "I sort of embrace that."
Elaborating, he added, "We want offenses to feel like there's 100 guys out there at all times.
"That is the way we're swarming the ball. That is the type of effort and attitude we have.
"It's mayhem."
But there are guard rails involved. This spring, Tressel was quizzed on grooming splash playmakers and said. "We can be destructive, splash playmakers … yes. What we can't have is a guy trying to be those guys. You can't go in and try to be a splash playmaker because then you start guessing.
"We talk about it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great. When you're trying to be a splash playmaker what happens is you end up being occasionally great. You have to let it come to you. If you're consistently good, those plays are going to come."
That teaching point may come up when Turner returns home next month to host a youth football skills clinic (third through eighth grade) at his alma mater, Farmington High School. The one-day camp will take place on May 13 and run from 10 a.m. to noon.
"I'm excited to give back to the kids in my community," said Turner, grinning.
There are also plans for another backpack giveaway, he noted. Last August, Turner partnered with The Road Home Dane County" to provide backpacks with school supplies to children who had moved from homelessness into housing. The Families Moving Forward event was a success.
So much so he wants to do it again in late July or August. "It makes me feel great," he admitted.
The inspiration behind Turner's commitment to community service, especially the backpack project, has been his mother, Carol Turner, a UW graduate in business and finance. His dad Lennie Turner, a Purdue grad, has been instrumental, too, in motivating Jordan to give back to others.
Plus, they've both raised the bar on the importance of education. Jordan Turner, a personal finance major, is within 19 credits of graduating. This summer, he has an internship with the Oakbridge Branch of Northwestern Mutual. "A degree," he said, "means a lot to me." As it does for Njongmeta.
In supporting their sons, especially academically, it's not surprising that Carol and Lennie Turner and Leo and Lynda Njongmeta have much common ground. "That's another way we're similar," Maema said. "Our parents love each other. They get along super well." Connectivity. A story worth telling.
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. – Maema Njongmeta had a story worth retelling. As a high school junior, he was recruited by numerous Power Five schools, including Michigan State, whose linebackers coach was Mike Tressel, now Wisconsin's first-year defensive coordinator and Njongmeta's position coach.
At the time of his recruitment, there were other things going on. "I was getting a 'C' in Calculus," Njongmeta said. "My dad was like, 'If you finish with a C, I'm walking you into your coach's office and you're taking your cleats off.' He was serious. He meant it. I ended up finishing with a B-minus."
Thus, he got to keep playing football. Recently, he revisited that memory with his father and admitted to "almost tearing up" because of the impact his parents, Leo and Lynda, have had in setting high educational standards – both have their PhDs – while fueling his appetite for academics.
"They grew up in West Africa (Cameroon) and they didn't have a lot," he said. "But education has taken my family so far. They really didn't want me to play football. They wanted me to get an education. The fact I've been able to do both means the world to them – means the world to me."
Maema Njongmeta, 22, will graduate in Finance from the UW in May.
Leo Njongmeta, an associate EHS director and global biosafety officer at AbbVie Inc., got his Bachelor of Science degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, his master's from the University of Ibadan, also in Nigeria and his PhD from the University of Liverpool in England.
Nenge Lynda Njongmeta, a group leader in quality innovation at The Kraft Heinz Company, followed a similar path by attending Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Ibadan before her journey took her to Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.
As a Fulbright Scholar, she earned her PhD in Food, Science and Technology from Texas A&M.
The Njongmeta's moved to the United States in 2004.
"I didn't start playing football until my freshman year of high school," Maema Njongmeta said.
Today, as the result of his late start, he opined, "In my mind, I'm behind. I'm playing catch-up."
It has been his reasoning, in part, for usually being the last player off the practice field.
"I just need to catch-up on reps," he said. "It has gotten me this far, why stop now?"
Last spring, in particular, he started to be more "fervent" about his post-practice routine. "It was when I was third string," said Njongmeta who had concluded, "There are some things fundamentally wrong with my game that I just wasn't good at. At the time, it was tackling."
The extra work paid off. Last season, Njongmeta was UW's leading tackler with 95 (quite the jump considering he had four tackles in six games combined in 2021). In addition, he had the second-best PFF defensive grade among Big Ten linebackers, trailing only Iowa's Jack Campbell, an All-American.
As fate would have it, he's now playing for Tressel. "I love his coaching style," Njongmeta said. "He's passionate, super intelligent, super direct and to the point. He's going to tell you how it is. When I messed up some calls, he said, 'Hey, man, you're not doing us a favor by doing what you just did.'
"He was being hard on me by letting me know, 'I know what you've got in you.'" Do better.
How is a Tressel-coordinated defense different? "We still have our base from last year and we still have some nickel calls. But there is a variability in this defense," Njongmeta said.
"The way our calls can be mixed and matched is really interesting."
Trusting the defense is part of this spring's on-going transition. "Is trust a good word for me?" posed Njongmeta. "I think it's a critical word. Defense is all trust actually. You can play really well when you know, 'I don't have to know more than my job because I trust other people to do theirs.'"
Njongmeta pondered another word, connectivity. "That's a huge word, that's one of my favorite words," he said. "It's just the idea of not only connectivity but connection – being able to do it together. Yeah, everyone has their 1/11th (of the defense). But you need to be able to play off each other.
"You need to be able to talk. You need to be able to hold each other accountable.
"And you can only do that if there's a certain connectivity on defense."
Njongmeta has a nicely developing connection with his inside linebacker partner, Jordan Turner. "When Jordan came on a (recruiting) visit, he stayed with me in the dorms," he related. "We sort of knew each other then and we started getting to know each other playing-wise with the scout team."
While replicating the opponent's defense in practice, they got a feel for their games. "We learned how to play together, how to practice off each other," Turner said. "He was kind of on the same page. We were always third or fourth team. And we were both working our way up to try and play."
In 2022, Turner was UW's second-leading tackler with 68. In the Guaranteed Rate Bowl win over Oklahoma State, he had a team-high eight tackles and was named the game's Defensive MVP. Looking ahead to 2023, Turner said, "Now it's our second year starting together, but it feels like forever."
Why is that? "We're close, we're talking the same language," he said, confirming that he feels like he knows Njongmeta so well that he tends to anticipate what he's going to do before he does it on the field. "And he knows what I'm about to do, too. I like that."
What about off the field? What's the relationship like between Njongmeta, the fifth-year senior from Buffalo Grove, Ill. and Turner, the redshirt junior from Farmington, Michigan? "We're kind of opposites," Turner said. "I'm an introvert and Maema is the extrovert. He's always talking."
Njongmeta endorsed that message. "Jordan is quiet. Sometimes he doesn't want to talk and that's all right," he said. "I kind of want to talk all the time. I'm more of a social butterfly than he is. But he also knows how to have a good time and can be social."
As starting linebackers and defensive leaders, Njongmeta went on, "We know each other's strengths and weaknesses. We know in certain moments, 'This is where Maema is strong and Jordan is weak or Jordan is strong and Maema is weak.' We support each other in those moments."
As such, Turner came into the spring with detailed objectives. "I've been trying to build myself up and my technique and I've tried to eliminate the bad habits that I created over the past season," he said. "I was way too high with my body position when the play started, and I've been trying to stay low."
Besides focusing on improving his fundamentals at linebacker, he also volunteered, "I want to do a better job of leading the defense and the team – always keeping them up, always keeping them on their toes – and I'm learning that part." In this case, he has tapped into Tressel's experience.
"He has affected me a lot," Turner said. "He's the person who has been helping me get better, constantly pushing me with the little stuff that will change my game for the better of the team. I love the way he's pushing us … the whole linebacker room … the whole defense.
"When you're playing in his defense, you feel free. And you feel like you're prepared."
Tressel has created a buzz phrase for the defense: Madtown Mayhem.
"We wanted to have an identity," he said. "This is certainly Madtown … the defense swarms."
That is the Mayhem. Or it was in 2012 when Michigan State edged Wisconsin, 16-13, in overtime at Camp Randall and the Spartans defense – led by linebackers Max Bullough and Denicos Allen – held the Badgers to 19 net rushing yards. UW running back Montee Ball had 22 carries for 46 yards.
Tressel, who was then coaching the MSU linebackers for head coach Mark Dantonio, recalled how one of Wisconsin's tailbacks – Ball – spoke with Le'Veon Bell after the game and conceded, "Wow, I thought you guys had 100 guys out there all day." Said Tressel, "I sort of embrace that."
Elaborating, he added, "We want offenses to feel like there's 100 guys out there at all times.
"That is the way we're swarming the ball. That is the type of effort and attitude we have.
"It's mayhem."
But there are guard rails involved. This spring, Tressel was quizzed on grooming splash playmakers and said. "We can be destructive, splash playmakers … yes. What we can't have is a guy trying to be those guys. You can't go in and try to be a splash playmaker because then you start guessing.
"We talk about it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great. When you're trying to be a splash playmaker what happens is you end up being occasionally great. You have to let it come to you. If you're consistently good, those plays are going to come."
That teaching point may come up when Turner returns home next month to host a youth football skills clinic (third through eighth grade) at his alma mater, Farmington High School. The one-day camp will take place on May 13 and run from 10 a.m. to noon.
"I'm excited to give back to the kids in my community," said Turner, grinning.
There are also plans for another backpack giveaway, he noted. Last August, Turner partnered with The Road Home Dane County" to provide backpacks with school supplies to children who had moved from homelessness into housing. The Families Moving Forward event was a success.
So much so he wants to do it again in late July or August. "It makes me feel great," he admitted.
The inspiration behind Turner's commitment to community service, especially the backpack project, has been his mother, Carol Turner, a UW graduate in business and finance. His dad Lennie Turner, a Purdue grad, has been instrumental, too, in motivating Jordan to give back to others.
Plus, they've both raised the bar on the importance of education. Jordan Turner, a personal finance major, is within 19 credits of graduating. This summer, he has an internship with the Oakbridge Branch of Northwestern Mutual. "A degree," he said, "means a lot to me." As it does for Njongmeta.
In supporting their sons, especially academically, it's not surprising that Carol and Lennie Turner and Leo and Lynda Njongmeta have much common ground. "That's another way we're similar," Maema said. "Our parents love each other. They get along super well." Connectivity. A story worth telling.
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