MADISON - Jogging back to the locker room following a win over Northwestern, Nick Herbig was playing Youngboy, a popular rapper. Once in the locker room, Alex Smith suggested he play "Jimmy Cooks" by Drake.

The connection wasn't initially made but could be easily drawn to interim head coach Jim Leonhard.

"I was like, 'oh yeah, that’s a good song,' I didn’t even make that connection," quarterback Graham Mertz said.

The group was having fun again after a week that kicked off with a 24-point loss to division foe Illinois and a coaching change shortly after. Now the Badgers have an anthem after wins.

A few hours after Wisconsin's victory over Maryland, the team's Twitter account released a video that made the rounds.

Leonhard was jogging through a tunnel with "Jimmy Cooks" buzzing through the locker room. After the team's third win under Leonhard, he knew the drill.

"That's my cue," he said, before celebrating with the team.

"It's kind of our song now," Mertz said.

Leading into the game, Mertz was asked if it was a "Jimmy Cooks" week, to which he quickly responded, "oh, yeah. It always is."

On Oct. 27, Leonhard turned 40 years old. When asked if he can use that to his advantage, he jokingly said that he wouldn’t ever say “he’s that cool,” but tries to match the energy of high school and college kids. It’s clear that’s been working.

“It’s cool, man,” true freshman Myles Burkett said. “Having a young coach who is not afraid to come into the locker room and dance with us. To have cool little sparks of energy throughout practice, throughout the week, it’s cool because you can connect to that. To have our coach be a guy who he kinda acts like me or gets hype like us, it’s cool because it’s like, 'alright, I want to play for that guy.'”

As a quarterback, Burkett isn't necessarily one of the guys primarily coached by Leonhard, who holds the role of defensive coordinator as well. That said, Leonhard was always “in his corner.”

“He’s always been one of those guys that’s been in my corner since I got here,” Burkett said. “Even before I got here, he was encouraging me in my time in high school and in the spring when the reps weren’t coming my way or the attention, he’s always in my corner letting me know to keep working and stuff like that. Little hints of commitment were some of those things that kept me going, so definitely, we’re pretty close. His belief in me has been kind of a driving force.”

That connection with the players extends throughout the team. Primarily coaching the safeties, senior John Torchio said that Leonhard comes up to him before games asking how many picks he’ll have that day or letting him know he thinks he’ll intercept multiple passes. In the safety room, the group has a list of everyone’s interceptions on the board, which the group messes with one another about.

Mertz has some pretty good competition in practice against one of the best minds in college football. During practice, the two enjoy some healthy banter with one another.

“I remember there was a practice where he patted me on the shoulder and said I’ve got something for you today, 5,” Mertz said. “And sure enough, he had some blitz package for me with Herbie (Herbig) during two-minute work.”

Herbig, the secondary and the defense are used to seeing this side of Leonhard every day during practice. Now the public and team get to see Leonhard "in his element."

“Now the whole team gets to see Coach Leonhard in his element," Herbig said. "As a defense, we saw it every day. He always gets lit with us, he’s always talking trash, he’s always having fun, having a good time and now the whole team gets to experience that. It kind of lifts everyone’s spirits up. Kind of just gets them going in a positive way."

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