Former Bill Jim Leonhard leaving Wisconsin Coaching Squad

[BisonMan]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35200158/jim-leonhard-leave-wisconsin-staff-bowl-game

 

Took over as interim HC this year after the team fired the incumbent after leading the team to a poor record. Leonhard turned the team around to make a Bowl game. Players lobbied for him to get the gig permanently but the school went another direction. They wanted him to return in his previous roll as DC and he told them to pound sand. The starting QB wanted him as well. We Leonhard didn't get the HC job, the QB entered the transfer portal.

 

Sound like Leonhard is potentially a sought after commodity for a HC job in Division I football. 

 

Good for him. Smart player and looks like a good coach. 

[BuffaloBill]

Stupid move by the university 

[Mr. WEO]

Fickell is a much bigger get than a coordinator already on the team who coached a handful of games.   He has a legit coaching pedigree and he was COTY in 2021 in Cincy.  

 

Leonard had no chance.  

 

And where does their former QB expect to be transported to in the portal with his anemic 2000 yards, 19/10 TD/int stuff?

Edited December 7, 2022 by Mr. WEO

[PromoTheRobot]

Please have him take over at UB.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

12 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

Fickell is a much bigger get than a coordinator already on the team who coached a handful of games.   He has a legit coaching pedigree and he was COTY in 2021 in Cincy.  

 

Leonard had no chance.  

 

And where does their former QB expect to be transported in the portal with his anemic 2000 pads, 19/10 TD/int stuff?

Agreed. Leonard was solid. But Fickell is a huge upgrade. Fickell should be the coach at Ohio State over Day, TBH.

[Freddie's Dead]

Jim Leonhard was one of the smartest football players ever to play in Buffalo.  UW ***** up by not making him the HC.  He proved that he deserved the job by getting them to a bowl game.  I hope the bad karma comes back to bite them in the ass.

[MJS]

I really liked him here as a player. I could see him rising through the ranks and becoming a hot coaching candidate in the NFL one day.

[BADOLBILZ]

 

He was the only guy who could make Rex Ryan's complicated defense work.

 

Would be most interesting to see what he could do as a DC in the NFL.

[NORWOODS FOOT]

2 hours ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Fickell should be the coach at Ohio State over Day, TBH.

 

As a long time Ohio State fan, I agree.

[DCofNC]

Is he still in playing shape? Maybe he can help at FS for the stretch run.

Edited December 8, 2022 by DCofNC

[uticaclub]

1 hour ago, NORWOODS FOOT said:

 

As a long time Ohio State fan, I agree.

I dont have a lot of skin in the college game. I though Day has been doing a good job, losing to Michigan 2 times in a row is tough but it took Harbaugh like 8 years to beat Ohio State. You guys probably know more than I do.

[NORWOODS FOOT]

17 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

I dont have a lot of skin in the college game. I though Day has been doing a good job, losing to Michigan 2 times in a row is tough but it took Harbaugh like 8 years to beat Ohio State. You guys probably know more than I do.

 

The team just doesn't play with the edge that they had with Tressel and Meyer. Team feels like it did when John Cooper was the coach: tons of talent but wilted under pressure.

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Id bring him here in a heartbeat 

 

 

[JimBob2232]

He will land on his feet somewhere.  Maybe even HC at Purdue.  Bright future ahead for him

[teef]

Was he the ninja?

[Mr. WEO]

12 hours ago, Freddie's Dead said:

Jim Leonhard was one of the smartest football players ever to play in Buffalo.  UW ***** up by not making him the HC.  He proved that he deserved the job by getting them to a bowl game.  I hope the bad karma comes back to bite them in the ass.

 

Why would they take him over a guy with Fickell's history/pedigree?

[JoPoy88]

14 hours ago, BisonMan said:

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35200158/jim-leonhard-leave-wisconsin-staff-bowl-game

 

Took over as interim HC this year after the team fired the incumbent after leading the team to a poor record. Leonhard turned the team around to make a Bowl game. Players lobbied for him to get the gig permanently but the school went another direction. They wanted him to return in his previous roll as DC and he told them to pound sand. The starting QB wanted him as well. We Leonhard didn't get the HC job, the QB entered the transfer portal.

 

Sound like Leonhard is potentially a sought after commodity for a HC job in Division I football. 

 

Good for him. Smart player and looks like a good coach. 

absolutely good for him - he deserved the HC job.

[ProcessTruster]

he'll probably be back , once he proves his recruiting and coaching chops at a lesser D1 program for a few years.  

 

 

 

[gusbuf]

As a Badger alum who literally watched every game Leonhard played in and more recently, coached in, I have to give my two cents on this.  First off, Jim Leonhard is a brilliant DC.  His defenses were always at the top of the Big Ten and more often than not, top 10 nationally.  This was with mainly 3-star recruits, with just a sprinkling of a few 4-star recruits thrown in.  Wisconsin didn't get the 4 and 5-star recruits.  Paul Chryst and his staff were not the best recruiters.  But they were good at getting hard nosed kids who would run through a brick wall for the opportunity to be a Badger, and there are a number of productive active NFL players now who recently played in Leonhard's D, especially at LB (Watt, Biegel, Van Ginkel, Sanborn, Cichy, Chenal, Connelly, et al).  But big picture, the program HAD to move away from an internal promotion.  They needed new blood and a new direction.  As much as I loved JL, it was time to move on from the Alvarez era (JL played for BA, Paul Chryst coached with BA on his staff).  AD Chris McIntosh, a former Barry Alvarez academic all-American OL, took over last year.  He made the right choice and went and hired, arguably, the best HC available.  Fickell will have the Badgers back atop the Big Ten West in two years, and will have them legit challenging OSU and UM for the Big Ten title.  There is always the fear he moves on to bigger and better things, but that is the price a program pays when their HC is successful, and there are bigger, better things out there (back to OSU).  If he is with the Badgers for 4 or 5 seasons and then OSU decides they had enough of Day and make a move for Fickell, so be it.  It means the Badgers under Fickell were really, really good.  

Jim Leonhard is a fantastic DC and deserves a shot as a HC at some university.  He will probably get it too.  Or, at the very least, he could move to eth NFL as a DC.  He turned down the Packers once already to stay at Wisconsin.  

I will say, though, that Wisconsin did Leonhard a bit dirty with their hiring decision.  All signs pointed to Leonhard being hired. However, losing to your two biggest rivals in the same season - Minnesota and Iowa - is not a good look.  Fickell seems like a great person and his coaching record speaks for itself.  Haven't been this excited about the Badger football program since Russell Wilson transferred to Wisconsin from NC State back in 2011.  
 

If Leslie Frazier gets a HC opportunity after this season, the Bills would be wise to at least interview Jim Leonhard.  Heck, he played for the Bills, so there is already that connection.

[SoCal Deek]

2 minutes ago, gusbuf said:

As a Badger alum who literally watched every game Leonhard played in and more recently, coached in, I have to give my two cents on this.  First off, Jim Leonhard is a brilliant DC.  His defenses were always at the top of the Big Ten and more often than not, top 10 nationally.  This was with mainly 3-star recruits, with just a sprinkling of a few 4-star recruits thrown in.  Wisconsin didn't get the 4 and 5-star recruits.  Paul Chryst and his staff were not the best recruiters.  But they were good at getting hard nosed kids who would run through a brick wall for the opportunity to be a Badger, and there are a number of productive active NFL players now who recently played in Leonhard's D, especially at LB (Watt, Biegel, Van Ginkel, Sanborn, Cichy, Chenal, Connelly, et al).  But big picture, the program HAD to move away from an internal promotion.  They needed new blood and a new direction.  As much as I loved JL, it was time to move on from the Alvarez era (JL played for BA, Paul Chryst coached with BA on his staff).  AD Chris McIntosh, a former Barry Alvarez academic all-American OL, took over last year.  He made the right choice and went and hired, arguably, the best HC available.  Fickell will have the Badgers back atop the Big Ten West in two years, and will have them legit challenging OSU and UM for the Big Ten title.  There is always the fear he moves on to bigger and better things, but that is the price a program pays when their HC is successful, and there are bigger, better things out there (back to OSU).  If he is with the Badgers for 4 or 5 seasons and then OSU decides they had enough of Day and make a move for Fickell, so be it.  It means the Badgers under Fickell were really, really good.  

Jim Leonhard is a fantastic DC and deserves a shot as a HC at some university.  He will probably get it too.  Or, at the very least, he could move to eth NFL as a DC.  He turned down the Packers once already to stay at Wisconsin.  

I will say, though, that Wisconsin did Leonhard a bit dirty with their hiring decision.  All signs pointed to Leonhard being hired. However, losing to your two biggest rivals in the same season - Minnesota and Iowa - is not a good look.  Fickell seems like a great person and his coaching record speaks for itself.  Haven't been this excited about the Badger football program since Russell Wilson transferred to Wisconsin from NC State back in 2011.  
 

If Leslie Frazier gets a HC opportunity after this season, the Bills would be wise to at least interview Jim Leonhard.  Heck, he played for the Bills, so there is already that connection.

I only have two things to say to that. 

 

ILL….INI! 😉