It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Wisconsin’s football program, to say the least. Paul Chryst is no longer the head coach, having been fired by athletic director Chris McIntosh, which provides an opportunity for interim coach Jim Leonhard to prove he can earn the full-time job. And while the Badgers’ offense is showing signs of life, they’re now down to just two healthy scholarship quarterbacks on the roster following the transfer news of Deacon Hill.
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You had questions for the Badgers mailbag. Ahead of Saturday’s game at Michigan State, here are the answers:
Are you surprised by the announcement of Deacon Hill entering the portal? Was the belief internally that he was QB1 in the post-(Graham) Mertz era? — Jacob S.
Have you heard anything about QB recruiting? Looks like they were involved with a few, but (Ryan) Browne recently committed to Purdue and now with Hill transferring we’re low on QB depth. — Rob D.
Given how sparse the QB depth is now, and the fact that none of UW’s prime 2023 QB targets committed to the Badgers (the staff is now scrambling for the remaining leftovers within that class), wouldn’t you expect them to go get one (if not two) transfer QBs this winter? One fairly experienced QB to be Mertz’s true backup, and one developmental guy to essentially take Hill’s place in the pecking order. — Craig S.
I’m combining these three questions into one answer because they all relate to Wisconsin’s quarterback situation. I am not surprised in the slightest that Deacon Hill is entering the transfer portal. I had heard even before the transfer that this was going to be the likely outcome. Hill was passed on the depth chart early this season by true freshman Myles Burkett, who appears to possess the tools to be next in line after Mertz.
Wisconsin’s second half against New Mexico State in Week 3 should have told you all you needed to know about the pecking order. Burkett played a total of 18 snaps and helped to lead three scoring drives while completing 4-of -5 passes for 84 yards. Hill played just three snaps in that game on a series that went three-and-out and ended with him being sacked.
I asked Hill in August during the team’s local media day whether it was difficult for him to stay patient behind starter Graham Mertz and backup Chase Wolf.
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“Sometimes it can suck,” Hill said. “I’m not going to lie. But it’s all part of the process, so I’m not like too worried. I’m still learning. I finally have a good feel for the playbook, so I’m excited for this fall to start. At points it can be really frustrating, but most of the time it’s just part of it so I just kind of keep going, keep driving every day.”
3 years of eligibility remaining. Thank you Madison🤍 pic.twitter.com/qTCACZoOho
— Deacon Pe’a Hill (@dhillsb10) October 9, 2022
It’s also important to consider that when Hill committed to Wisconsin, he did so because quarterbacks coach Jon Budmayr evaluated and identified him. But Budmayr hasn’t been with the program since January 2021, when he left for Colorado State, and Hill now no longer had the head coach who recruited him. According to ESPN, if a head coach is fired during the season, “student-athletes have an immediate 30-day period to permissibly enter the transfer portal regardless of their sport’s transfer window.”
Wisconsin offensive tackle Logan Brown followed Hill into the transfer portal Wednesday, but Leonhard said that was the result of him being dismissed from the program due to an internal incident.
New NCAA rules during the offseason created transfer windows that allowed players to enter the portal only during a 45-day stretch from the day after the College Football Playoff field is announced, as well as from May 1-15.
“I have a ton of respect for Deacon,” Leonhard said. “This is a little bit the new normal is kids have to weigh what they think their future is, where they stand, what the communication has been with the staff. You get one opportunity to play college football. You’d like guys to continue to push and trust the process and trust the decision they made to come here. But sometimes it gets to a point where they feel like they have to move on. We’ll do everything we can to support Deacon. I think he’s got a ton of talent. I think he’s going to be a great quarterback at this level. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen here.”
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So now on to the future for Wisconsin at quarterback. Hill’s departure leaves Wisconsin with three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster this season with Mertz, Wolf and Burkett. When I talked to Wolf, a fifth-year senior, before preseason camp, he anticipated this being his last season. But that was before he suffered a torn meniscus in his knee that may cause him to miss the entire season. Either way, Wisconsin’s quarterback depth is hurting not just in this season, but next season as well.
Wisconsin is in a real bind with its quarterback recruiting. The Badgers offered scholarships to five quarterbacks in the 2023 class and missed on all of them: Dante Moore (committed to Oregon), JJ Kohl (Iowa State), Avery Johnson (Kansas State), Brayden Dorman (Arizona) and Lincoln Kienholz (Washington).
Ryan Browne was one of the top quarterback targets that didn’t yet have a Wisconsin offer, but he committed to Purdue last week. Parker Leise and Cole LaCrue are among the program’s top targets that are still on the board. Of course, a midseason firing of the head coach isn’t likely to help Wisconsin’s recruiting situation because prospects will be uncertain about which coaches will be there next season.
This is the kind of situation in which Wisconsin would benefit substantially from the transfer portal. Assuming Wolf leaves and Wisconsin doesn’t land a 2023 prospect, then two transfers have to be on the table. Even with a 2023 addition, a transfer would make sense. We won’t know which players will be available until the portal opens on Dec. 5. One question is: Would a transfer be willing to come in as a potential backup if Mertz is set to enter his fourth year as the starter? Perhaps the Badgers could find a transfer who could challenge Mertz.
Wisconsin offensive coordinator Bobby Engram was asked this week whether Hill’s transfer would change the program’s recruiting strategy with either high school prospects or transfer portal players. “I think we have the board and what we’re doing for ’23, ’24 and ’25,” Engram said. “But I have not sat down and talked to Jim. I haven’t sat and talked to Mickey (Turner) and Casey (Rabach) and Billy (Lewis) and all of those guys in our recruiting department. That’ll be a decision that we’ll have to make together. We just haven’t sat down and discussed it yet, so I can’t give you an answer on that.”
Leonhard offered an expansive answer this week on what Wisconsin’s approach to the transfer portal needs to be for the program to have success.
“The transfer portal is only growing,” Leonhard said. “It is going to continue to be a part of the recruiting process and roster building in college football. You need talent. You need experience, but you need to find that balance of how are you going to recruit your players and develop and give them time and not constantly try to jump over younger players in that process? So a lot of conversations on what’s the right thing to do. We have to trust our ability to develop our players and that if you get the right ones in there, they’re going to put in the work and grow. …
“I think there will be examples where it works very well and there’s going to be examples that maybe you go back and think that you needed to handle it a different way. Just like recruiting out of high school, it’s not going to be perfect. There’s going to be misses. It’s our job as coaches really to do the research and find out who the kids are. What’s their commitment level? Do they see this as just a step before they get another opportunity or is it truly they want to buy into the team, buy into the culture, the leadership that you’re going to ask?
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“Experience is great if it’s passed on. But if they’re going to come in here and just, ‘I’m going to put my time in in order to give myself one more chance at an opportunity or two more years to move on to the next thing,’ that’s not going to be a great culture and has the ability to separate a locker room. I think it puts more on the coaches to identify just like out of high school the kids that truly are about everything your culture fits. And obviously there is a talent component. You need to create depth at positions where you need it, which unfortunately is every single one right now.”
QB Deacon Hill announced Sunday he plans to transfer. (Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
Is it unreasonable to expect Wisconsin to average top-25 recruiting classes? I understand some of the program’s disadvantages, but Wisconsin also has a lot to offer. — Ryan B.
I wouldn’t expect Wisconsin to average a top-25 recruiting class every year for a few different reasons. First, the Badgers have broken into the top 25 just once during the entire online rankings era, when they finished 16th in 2021. If we take the five-year average from 2018-22, Wisconsin’s recruiting classes ranked 32.2. That includes the program’s three best recruiting classes from 2019-21, with a pair of classes in the 40s sandwiched around them (which has been typical of the program in a lot of other seasons).
Here is the average 247Sports Composite recruiting ranking, not including transfers, of every Big Ten team from 2018-22 as a means of comparison:
- Ohio State: 5.4
- Penn State: 12
- Michigan: 12.4
- Nebraska: 24.2
- Maryland: 31
- Wisconsin: 32.2
- Iowa: 33.8
- Michigan State: 35
- Minnesota: 41.6
- Purdue: 44.4
- Indiana: 44.6
- Rutgers: 50.6
- Northwestern: 50.8
- Illinois: 62.6
As you can see, only four Big Ten programs averaged a top-25 recruiting class during that stretch: Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Nebraska. A lot of these other programs are pretty similar to Wisconsin. Now, that doesn’t mean the Badgers can’t have another great recruiting year and wind up in the top 25. Purdue had a top-25 class in 2019, Iowa and Maryland had one in 2021 and Indiana and Michigan State cracked the top 25 in 2022.
You are correct that Wisconsin has a lot to offer as a university and as a football program. But recruiting often comes back to the access to talent located within close proximity of the school. Wisconsin often is at the mercy of how many quality players are in the state. Wisconsin’s top two prospects in the 2020 class were four-star in-state offensive linemen Jack Nelson and Trey Wedig. Tight end Cole Dakovich and wide receiver Chimere Dike were other in-state signees who ranked among the top seven players in Wisconsin’s class.
Wisconsin’s record-setting 2021 class featured three four-star players from the state with offensive lineman JP Benzschawel, safety Hunter Wohler and running back Braelon Allen. Wisconsin offered just one prospect from the state in 2023 with running back Nate White, who committed to the Badgers. That class ranks No. 55.
In the end, I’m not sure it makes much of a difference whether Wisconsin ranks 25th or 35th every year in terms of how that translates to the total number of wins in a given season. That may mean the difference between having an extra four-star or a couple of high-three-star prospects. I think where college football programs really separate themselves is by having consistent top-15 or top-10 recruiting classes like the Alabamas, Georgias and Ohio States of the world.
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Having said that, Wisconsin should expect to do better in most years than its 2023 class. Again, that goes back to not having hardly any high-level FBS talent in the state. But Wisconsin also didn’t close on some key out-of-state players who took campus visits, including cornerback Braeden Marshall, linebacker Tackett Curtis, defensive lineman My’Keil Gardner, quarterback Lincoln Kienholz and athlete Kahlil Tate. For Wisconsin to consistently crack the top 25, it must have a strong in-state class and take advantage of the select high-level out-of-state players that have the Badgers in their top group.
Were Maema Njongmeta and Jordan Turner actually hurt or were they benched for poor performance? Same for Tyler Beach. — Michael B.
They were all actually hurt. Leonhard said after the Northwestern game that Njongmeta broke his right hand and required surgery last week. He noted Turner was “beat up throughout the course of the week” and wasn’t able to practice much. Leonhard’s candor when it comes to injuries has been refreshing, and he has no reason to make something up like that when he speaks to reporters.
I had an opportunity to talk to Njongmeta this week, and he said he suffered the injury during the Illinois game two Saturdays ago. He ended up playing 61 defensive snaps in the game, according to Pro Football Focus.
“Illinois was a challenge,” said Njongmeta, who had a flexible removable splint over the hand. “But I think you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for the boys. The team needed me in that moment. I didn’t even know it was broken. I was just like, ‘Damn, this hurts. But I’ve just got to keep playing.’”
Njongmeta underwent surgery that following Monday, missed practice Tuesday and returned by Wednesday. He played 34 snaps against Northwestern. Tatum Grass and Jake Chaney earned the starts at inside linebacker in place of Njongmeta and Turner, who did not play in the game.
Jim Leonhard won his first game as interim coach 42-7. (Jamie Sabau / USA Today)
Just a comment: How much better are the questions, how much more football-related are they, now that Chryst’s status has been resolved? — Gary K.
There’s no denying Paul Chryst wasn’t the most dynamic personality when it came to presenting himself to reporters during interview sessions. I think Chryst did his best to provide answers to questions, but I often found myself either paraphrasing what he said in stories or not using the quotes at all simply because they didn’t add much color or significant detail that would enhance the story for a reader. If you’ve watched a news conference with Leonhard, you understand how different things are.
With Leonhard, I wind up with so many insightful comments that I have to figure out what I don’t want to include in a story. I think the biggest difference is that reporters are able to press Leonhard on specifics. Why did something work or why didn’t it? Right off the bat, I’ve noticed that Leonhard is willing to divulge injury details of players. He said after the Northwestern game that Njongmeta broke his right hand the previous week. He was asked on Monday about running back Chez Mellusi’s injury status, and this is what he said:
“Chez injured his wrist in the game,” Leonhard said. “Will definitely be out this week. Probably more by the week evaluation of seeing how long-term the injury is going to be. But he’s definitely going to be out this week.”
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I don’t know whether the specific injury updates will continue, but it is something that has stood out so far. Leonhard also provided refreshing clarity Thursday morning on offensive tackle Logan Brown being dismissed from the program due to an internal incident. Brown announced he was entering the transfer portal Wednesday night.
Leonhard clearly has a vast understanding of defensive schemes, so you can ask him about that, but he also speaks knowledgeably on the offense. He gave a 396-word answer Monday on what Wisconsin’s approach is to handling players in the transfer portal and getting them to buy into the Badgers’ system and culture (an answer I largely used in a question earlier in this mailbag). He offered specific details on what he has changed with the team’s schedule in his first week as interim coach and why he believed those changes would be effective.
Leonhard has been impressive in the way he has handled his media responsibilities. Ultimately, he’ll be judged on how he helps the program progress over seven regular season games, but those interview sessions are an important part of being the head coach. He’s a good talker to begin with, and he acknowledged he had practice during his 10-year NFL career.
“I guess (I’m) fortunate to have plenty of experience in some big media markets to where usually you’d get a lot of requests when things are really good or really bad,” Leonhard said. “When things are status quo, it’s pretty comfortable. I’m fortunate to have been through some unique situations from a media standpoint.”
How much of this was an improvement from the Badgers, and how much of it was playing Northwestern? Has there been any indication of what Jim Leonhard might need to do over the rest of the season to get the head coaching job? — Christopher D.
I think it’s pretty obvious Wisconsin’s 42-7 victory against Northwestern was the product of the Badgers making significant improvements and the Wildcats simply not being a particularly good football team this season. Northwestern has lost five consecutive games, four of them at home, including to FCS school Southern Illinois.
But from Wisconsin’s perspective, the opponent matters less than the execution. And, for the first time in a few weeks, the execution was there, whether it was throwing for a school-record six touchdown passes, the offensive line giving quarterback Graham Mertz a clean pocket or the defense keeping plays in front of it.
Mertz was asked this week what went into playing cleaner football.
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“A lot of stuff that people don’t see,” Mertz said. “It’s extra meetings, it’s reps during practice. I’m a firm believer in how you do one thing is how you do everything. It’s how you go to class, how you pay attention in class, what you’re eating, your nutrition, your mobility, how you sleep. It’s all the little things that when you stack them up that’s what gives you that true confidence to go play your best ball. I think the team did a great job of that last week.”
As far as what Leonhard needs to do to earn the head-coaching job on a full-time basis, there has not been a plan laid out publicly. Wisconsin, through a school official, declined an interview request with The Athletic this week to discuss those details with athletic director Chris McIntosh. I wrote about Leonhard’s quest to have the interim tag removed on Wednesday. It’s hard to put a specific record on this, but I’d have to think going 5-2 would be plenty good given where the Badgers were five games into the season. Even going 4-3 would get Wisconsin into a bowl game for a 21st consecutive season.
The good news for Wisconsin is that the remainder of the schedule appears to be manageable. Michigan State has lost four consecutive games. The Big Ten West is as wide-open as it’s ever been (every team has at least one loss through three conference games). I don’t know that it’s reasonable to expect Wisconsin to run the table, but the Badgers have the talent to be in every game the rest of the way. And while the wins are important, so is Leonhard showing McIntosh that he has what it takes to leads a program in all areas. So far, so good for Leonhard.
I was wondering what you know about the play-calling process now vs. pre-Chryst firing. Was Engram calling plays but Chryst had veto power? Chryst calling plays with Engram just providing input? The Northwestern game showed the type of play-calling creativity and unpredictable nature that we’ve been begging for, for years. — Steve B.
We know that Chryst was involved in helping to shape the offensive game plan each week, but the extent of that involvement isn’t fully known. Bobby Engram spoke to reporters at his weekly in-season media availability on Tuesday and was asked plenty of questions of play calling, Chryst’s involvement and how much Leonhard has helped in his role as interim head coach. I’m posting the pertinent quotes from that session in a question-and-answer format so you can see what was asked and how Engram answered.
Q: How long did it take to put new wrinkles in for Northwestern or were those plays you had the whole season?
Engram: We always game plan, you have a little bit of new. But I think what we did was a lot of the familiar. Maybe some formations, some motions, some things like that. But we’ve been working on that stuff for quite a bit, and the guys went out and they executed really well. I was proud of our guys, just how they played the football game.
Q: You did more play-action Saturday. Was that something you had wanted to do or was it more game plan-specific?
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Engram: It’s something that we felt like we just kind of needed to do when we self-scouted, when we looked at the offense and what we’re doing well. You do it and you try and just give the guys the best chance of success and try and keep the defense off-balance.
Q: What did you like about the pistol formation?
Engram: It’s a different look, No. 1, for the defense. It allows the back to get downhill in a different way. You can still do your play-actions off of that. Just another way to throw a different look at the defense.
Q: How involved was Paul in the weekly game plan and how different was it last week and this week with him not here?
Engram: I think it’s different because he’s not here. But I think our offensive staff, that’s really what I want to put the attention on. Those guys did a great job. Everybody had their hand in it. We game-planned together and guys have great ideas. Ultimately, it’s up to me to package it and coordinate it and make sure we’re putting the guys in position.
But they’re all smart. They’re really good football coaches. They understand our team and our personnel. So we just try and put together the best plan to give our guys a chance to go out there and have success. And ultimately, it’s about winning. Each game is going to be a little bit different.
Q: Were you the primary play caller this year or was Paul giving his input?
Engram: I’ve called it all year. But I’ve always said I value his expertise and would lean on him and talk to him. And he mentored me to get into this opportunity to be able to call plays. So it was a tough deal. But we understand the business side of this sport. I thought our guys, our coaches, everybody in this building has done a great job of rallying and getting ready to go win a game.
Q: How much, if any, has Jim been involved with the offense because of his defensive knowledge? And what types of conversations have you had with him the last week-and-a-half?
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Engram: We put a play in and he told me if I didn’t call it, he was going to fire me (laughter). So I called it. Pretty smart guy. I bring him in and we talk about a coverage. What are they trying to do here? How can we take advantage of it?
We just talk ball. He loves ball. I love ball. We love coaching. We love these guys. We love being here. So we’ve just got to keep figuring out what that relationship looks like. But I’ve got a lot of respect for him, what he’s done. And, yeah, I bring him in and we talk a little bit of football and see how we can get an advantage offensively.
Q: Did the play work?
Engram: No, we missed it. It was open, but we missed it. I keep my job for another week.
(Top photo: Jamie Sabau / USA Today)
