Jim Leonhard Puns

He is a successful assistant from a successful Big 10 team. He would hopefully bring some of that Wisconsin toughness and discipline to this football program.

https://twitter.com/TomOatesWSJ/status/1358066887876345856?s=19

Both brought some awesome schemes to the 608.

From Vrabel's first press conference, his vision for the defense has always been about front multiplicity and disguising the defensive front to allow for exotic blitzes from different defenders. I heavily re-watched the all-22 perspective of the Bengals game this past year, and Vrabel/Bowen called up many pressure packages; double A gap, stunts, nickel blitzes, etc. They would actually get solid enough pressure (except for fucking Vic Beasley who I swear could not win a rep one-on-one against the Bengals 3rd string tackle or whatever), however, when you play an extremely smart player like Joe Burrow, the coverage on the back end has to be somewhat tight. However, you had players out of position. Players with poor spacing in their zones. On one rep, Rashaan dropped way back and knocked Tyler Boyd off his route. Good, right? Well, Rashaan dropped wayyyyy too far back in coverage, leaving a hole wide open in the middle of the field. Boyd got his balance back, Burrow identified it, and the Bengals got another huge gain. Defense has to be synergistic between pressure and coverage, and an innovative coach in promoting this principle is Wisconsin's DC, Jim Leonhard (who also was a solid safety in the NFL for a number of years, so he has some pedigree).

Wisconsin, despite being a "bigger" school, does not really get recruits to the level that we see from schools like Ohio State; since 2011 by my count, the only players drafted in the first round were the Watt brothers in their respective years. After that, you have players drafted on days 2-3, or go completely undrafted. When you have players that face a higher talent gap to the extent that Wisconsin does when they have to go against teams like Ohio State every year is stellar coaching. Since hiring Leonhard in 2017 (after another great defensive coach in Justin Wilcox went to Cal), the lowest Wisconsin has finished in terms of total defense in the whole country is tenth, just last season. This twitter post shows a brief glimpse into what Leonhard does on defense that is creative, and I think his philosophy blends very well into what Vrabel wants with his team. As more and more college-inspired offensive schemes hit the NFL, his knowledge of dealing with a poster child of that movement in Ohio State may be valuable against teams that progressively get younger and more modern.

Thi

Do you think he sticks around until a CFP appearance (we're right there, and I'm confident we'll get over the hump known as Ohio State very soon) or takes a HC job? I know the players love him, and I know he's going to be a very hot commodity after the season, I just would hate to see him leave before we at least make an appearance. Things seem to be clicking at the right time and I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the CFP Mertz's junior year, at the latest. Just don't wanna see a sudden change in the defense when he has them performing at Aranda levels, if not better.

Note: I support the man in whatever decision he makes.

One of my favorites from the Rex era, you would always hear how great of a football mind the guy has, but man is killing in Wisconsin this year. Some quick stats on where they rank in the entire country going in to today before shutting out Michigan State:

Scoring defense: No. 1

Total defense: No. 1

Passing defense: No. 1

3rd down defense: No. 1

Rushing defense: No. 2

Defensive TDs: No. 2

Red zone defense: No. 4

Sacks: No. 8

And probably most impressively, they have scored the same number of touchdowns on defense as they've allowed through their first 6 games (4).

Looks like he has a very promising coaching career ahead of him, who knows maybe he'll end up on an NFL sideline one day, and if he does hoepfully its in green and white.

I looked all over google but couldn’t locate one. Wanted to buy one because he was a childhood favorite of mine in 08.

Guys. Guys.

I'm really fucking hungover. You remember Jim Leohard. He was dope af. So that's all the effort for today.

I think he's a solid recruiter what do you guys think?