Is it time to crown Wisconsin as “Linebacker U”? Would you chalk up the success of the Badger defense to the LBs and Leonhard, or is there someone I’m missing?Ģ. I hope Kind of… breaks down the badger secondary tomorrow, because frankly I’m tired of talking about this shit.ġ.

ILB: Jordan Turner (RS So – 6’1”, 222#, Farmington, MI) – 3*ĭoes it get old? Probably not.ILB: Tate Grass (RS Jr – 6’3”, 220#, Holmen) – walk-on.

(And guess what? They almost always do it.) Might as well meet the latest crop: The down linemen plug gaps or engage, hopefully, a pair of offensive linemen, leaving a seemingly endless conga of scrappy, undersized, gym-rat, student-of-the-game, coach’s kid, first-in-the-gym-last-out linebackers to scrape with the play, beat pulling guards, or just hit the right gaps. Hell, it’s the first highlight of the 2021 Wisconsin-Purdue game: Whether operating out of a 3-4 alignment against standard formations (read: the Big Ten) or a 2-4-5 hybrid against Purdue and everyone else, you can find clip after clip of what makes the Wisconsin Badgers defense special. Frankly it’s nauseating, and I’m tired of talking about it. Wisconsin had the third-best third-down efficiency and the fourth-best passing efficiency defense in the country, 27 fewer first downs allowed than anyone else, 14 fewer rushing yards per game than anyone else, and an eye-popping first-almost-across-the-board defensive line rate by Football Outsiders’ metrics in 2021.

It’s a worthwhile comparison and, if anything, insulting to Leonhard. Leonhard–as any biography is obligated to note, from the village of Tony, population 113–is now up to almost a million in total compensation at Wisconsin, and at this point there’s seemingly nothing else out there unless a plum head coaching job opens up – almost a Brent Venables kind of situation, perhaps. If he was going to stay a defensive coordinator, Jim Leonhard wanted to stay put in Madison.

Jim leonhard badgers