Wisconsin Football 2022- The Jim Leonhard Show ends, the Luke Fickell era begins

[CheezWizHed]

3 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

I came across some information on that recently.  The number of transfers that find a new school is only somewhere around 50%. Your original team can, but has no obligation, to take you back as I understand it.  Seems like it is a risk for certain players

That makes sense honestly.  As a hiring manager, I often look at the work history of someone.  If they have a long string of 1-2 year jobs, it certainly is a red-flag to hire them and expect them to stay.

Unless the kid is clearly better than what you have... why would you bother with someone who has a history of jumping ship? A one time swap isn't a red flag, but someone changing multiple times or for no particular reason - i.e. coach change - might be.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, Samurai Bucky said:

This also isn't entirely true. I had one daughter transfer from La Crosse to Milwaukee for nursing and not all nursing related credits transferred.  I also know other students that had the same issue transferring from Oshkosh to Green Bay for example.

There are parameters around the transfer, but I think it is easier than it was.  It depends on the field of study, and how much of a money grab is involved.

They must have changed something then since the early 2000’s.  Transferring from one UW school to another was easy and all classes transferred.  It was essentially if you take a class at UW-whatever it would transfer to any of the other UW schools just as if you took it at the school you are transferring to.

[homer]

8 minutes ago, nate82 said:

They must have changed something then since the early 2000’s.  Transferring from one UW school to another was easy and all classes transferred.  It was essentially if you take a class at UW-whatever it would transfer to any of the other UW schools just as if you took it at the school you are transferring to.

Might depend on how far along you are in your major. 

[nate82]

22 minutes ago, homer said:

Might depend on how far along you are in your major. 

I was in year three of mine.  Maybe it is because mine was a BS in Finance and Accounting.  Maybe nursing or others that have specialized fields are different.  ?‍♂️?

[Brewcrew82]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

I thought I heard that UW-Whitewater's coach was retiring.  I'm not sure if that should be blue or not... DIII program, but a long term winning program.

Yeah. I wouldn't exactly be shocked if he did that. But if he didn't want to take "a step down", Packers' D-Coordinator would be it. I think he would transform our underperforming defense. 

[UpandIn]

35 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Yeah. I wouldn't exactly be shocked if he did that. But if he didn't want to take "a step down", Packers' D-Coordinator would be it. I think he would transform our underperforming defense. 

I'd be stunned. There's absolutely nothing wrong with D3 of course, but you're talking about a guy who's turned down some premiere jobs.

The number of people on Twitter who think Packers fans only want him because he's a UW guy is amazing though. 

[JosephC]

Jeff Brohm heading to Louisville, his alma mater.  As expected, media is already mentioning Leonhard for that job.  Wouldn't be that much of a surprise if he ended up there, Purdue has gotten a good look at his abilities.  Badgers with a long winning streak against Purdue, Aiden O'Connell with a pitiful 2 TD/6 INT performance against Wisconsin in the last two games.

[HarryDoyle]

Not that I would necessarily be against it, but I'm not as excited as most about a potential Leonhard to Green Bay scenario. He is a Mike Pettine disciple after all.

[CheezWizHed]

41 minutes ago, UpandIn said:

I'd be stunned. There's absolutely nothing wrong with D3 of course, but you're talking about a guy who's turned down some premiere jobs.

The number of people on Twitter who think Packers fans only want him because he's a UW guy is amazing though. 

Depends on what drives him.  NFL and D1 HC jobs are high pressure, long hours, and stressful.  Maybe he is more driven to develop students than be in the spot light.  Not everyone is out for fame and $$$ (and he is probably pretty set from his playing days). 

[homer]

 

 

 

[homer]

Kind of an exciting change...hope they can recruit to that offense. 

[JosephC]

Mertz is probably really, really bumming right now.  This would have been a great offense for him to fit right into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgQ0kmHz268

 

[LouisEly]

18 hours ago, yourout said:

And hopefully coaching in Green Bay starting late January

Pure speculation, but it would not surprise me at all if Leonhard was leaning toward staying at UW but then the Packers called late last week after that defensive debacle at Philly and said that they will have a few openings after the season.

The fact that Leonhard is staying on to coach through the bowl game strongly suggests that he isn't going to another D1 college program in any capacity because they would want him on staff right away to start recruiting and mining the portal.  Whitewater is a possibility, but I would put money on the Packers first, then him starting a football camp in Madison where he doesn't have to travel at all, then UW-Whitewater. 

[Brewcrew82]

39 minutes ago, homer said:

 

 

 

Home run OC hire in addition to our homerun HC hire. 

[homer]

 

 

[yourout]

Putting together an impressive coaching staff.

[homer]

2 minutes ago, yourout said:

Putting together an impressive coaching staff.

We shall see. Ole Miss fans don't seem to like Longo. He had AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, and Dawson Knox and didn't score all that many TDs. Granted the QB was Shea Patterson. 

[SomewhereInTime]

8 hours ago, RedStickBrew said:

I came across some information on that recently.  The number of transfers that find a new school is only somewhere around 50%. Your original team can, but has no obligation, to take you back as I understand it.  Seems like it is a risk for certain players

Yep, that is the often under reported downside of the transfer portal for players.  Or transferring down to FCS or D2 or D3.  I knew a teammate that had that happen.  Had a Wisconsin scholarship as a 4 star recruit, two years later could not win out a starting spot in D3 (After he had transferred to FCS and left that program too).  Transfer portal doesn't work for a lot of guys.

[UpandIn]

6 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

Depends on what drives him.  NFL and D1 HC jobs are high pressure, long hours, and stressful.  Maybe he is more driven to develop students than be in the spot light.  Not everyone is out for fame and $$$ (and he is probably pretty set from his playing days). 

Well...he'd previously said the only job he'd consider leaving Wisconsin for(when he was the UW DC) was the Packers DC job. Presumably he doesn't want to totally uproot his family, but I also think he's pretty ambitious and he's only 38.

 

I'd guess he ends up at Nebraska, but he's also been nothing if not unpredictable. The GB job seemed obvious. It also seemed obvious to bail on UW, but he took days to weigh it despite being "blindsided" by the Fickell hire. He still put the time in to talk to the players and put them at ease after meeting with Fickell. I guess that just shows his loyalty to the program...which if he wants to coach one day, WW probably isn't the best next step. 

But sure, he could just want a quit life. He was pretty open about wanting that UW job though. And $ matters for most people. It's clearly not his driving force, but that'd be a pretty steep haircut for him. The GB DC makes 1.5. UWW HC is around 100K(though I'm sure they'd dig quite a bit deeper if he was serious). Leonhard earned ~9M in the NFL. That's a lot of money, but when you could still do what you love and make well over a Million a year. 

I've also got a pretty good rooting interest here though. 

[UpandIn]

3 hours ago, homer said:

We shall see. Ole Miss fans don't seem to like Longo. He had AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, and Dawson Knox and didn't score all that many TDs. Granted the QB was Shea Patterson. 

College fans don't like any of their coaches unless they're winning a title...and especially in the SEC, you need to win. 

So that's not all that telling to me. They didn't like Getsy either, did they?

I'm not saying he is a good coach. I don't watch nearly enough UNC, Ole Miss to know what their scheme was(I did watch them quite a bit when the two Miss teams were ranked #1). 

What fan bases don't want their HCs fired? 'Bama doesn't want College Jesus fired(though it's trending that way after this unmitigated disaster of a season in which they finished out of the CFP). 

Kirby is safe in UGA. 

And all the others are on the hot seat. 

Oh, Heupel probably bought himself maybe a year or two. 

 

You can win a National Title, have a down year when you graduate your entire team and then get fired and still made to finish out the year like Ed Orgeron down at LSU. The SEC is ruthless. 

[UpandIn]

7 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Not that I would necessarily be against it, but I'm not as excited as most about a potential Leonhard to Green Bay scenario. He is a Mike Pettine disciple after all.

This is a common refrain, but it's also kinda silly. He's also a Rex Ryan guy who learned defense from Buddy Ryan who coached the two most dominant defenses in the 80s, the Bears and those Eagles teams. 

You're simply talking about a starting point. They really run the 3-4 and that's about it. I don't love the 4-3 and think Minnesota wasted a guy like Barr who was projected to be an elite edge rusher...better than Mack by some and in the same class, but I loved about Zimmer was you never knew where the rush was coming from. He'd mug the A gaps with Barr and Kendricks and they'd peal off and send Harrison Smith they'd come up the A gaps and leave the OTs on an island...whatever.

But that's the same thing Leonhard does that Pettine and Barry don't. The 49ers..the Buccs, they do.

Who are the stars in the NFL from Wisconsin under Leonhard? Chenel is miscast as a 4-3 LBer in KC and hasn't played. Sandborn is a stud...but that's about it. Yet he had the #1 defense over a 5 year period in all of CFB. And yes, he got the doors blown off by OSU a few times. He also beat Michigan by dominating them defensively despite them having 4-5 stars all through their WRer depth chart(and TE). 

He's more aggressive but he's not stupid. So I'd say a better, smarter Greg Williams. Greg Williams without the ego is who he reminds me of. 

 

You're mostly just going to get another re-tread or a unproven hire. Maybe a guy like Vic Fangio...who is a good DC. You're basically dealing with a ideology that is bend but don't break. His cover 6 scheme is great at eliminating the top WRers, but it's also not new and the deep crossing routes that have been killing us this year.

AND...Fangio also has ties to Pettine. These guys all work together. But Leonhard has been running his own team with NFL principles for a while now...and the gap between the schemes in the NFL and the top FBS schools narrows with each year. 

 

Also, Leonhard is going to get the most of our our DBs...at the very least. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

7 hours ago, JosephC said:

Mertz is probably really, really bumming right now.  This would have been a great offense for him to fit right into.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgQ0kmHz268

 

He CAN decide to stay, even though he's in the portal. I'm not predicting he will, just sayin'.

One of the backup UNC QBs is going to be visiting UW. Jacolby Criswell. I think he only played in 2-3 games this past year.

[homer]

Well here's one guy that entered the portal and then went back to the original school:

 

[homer]

3 minutes ago, homer said:

Well here's one guy that entered the portal and then went back to the original school:

 

Guess Jack Cichy didn't like him...?

 

[CheezWizHed]

46 minutes ago, homer said:

Well here's one guy that entered the portal and then went back to the original school:

 

Commits to MN... then thumbs nose at them = instant fan favorite! ?