Wisconsin Football: Hank Poteat on Wisconsin's transfer cornerbacks, Alexander Smith

Hank Poteat has quite the task in his cornerbacks room to start 2022. Gone are multi-year starters Faion Hicks and Caesar Williams, both of whom helped anchor Wisconsin's secondary. Dean Engram transitioned over to wide receiver as well, and the Badgers will need to continue the standard without its top three players at the position from a year ago.

Poteat, entering his second year as UW's cornerbacks coach, hopes to replace part of that production with three key transfers -- Justin Clark (Toledo), Jay Shaw (UCLA), and Cedrick Dort, Jr. (Kentucky). Combine those veteran players with a returning Alexander Smith -- who appears to have made significant strides -- and this group appears to be reloading rather than rebuilding this spring.

BadgerBlitz.com obtained audio of Poteat's full session with the media on Wednesday as seen below. Questions and answers are lightly edited for clarity.

We talked to (defensive coordinator) Jim Leonhard early on in the spring about adding the three senior corners, and we talked about the need to use the portal and make sure you guys got good fits. I'm just curious what you've seen specifically from those three guys so far? I know it’s early still in the spring.

“What I've seen in the three transfers is just the veteran maturity, their presence of just understanding ball, playing in a lot of big games against a lot of good competition, and they really have a feel for the game, feel for situations. So those are some of the things that we were looking for, just having some veteran guys. Just have a mix, because we have a lot of young DBs, a lot of young corners. So just having a good mix of veteran guys that some of the younger guys can learn, they can help prepare them for their time.”

I'm sure it's a delicate balance when you're bringing new guys in and you've already got guys in the program who are working to earn a spot. What kinds of conversations did you have with guys like Alex (Smith) or Semar (Melvin), people who had played and maybe thought they would have a bigger role or just wondering what's going on when you're bringing new guys in? How did you handle that?

“Well, I'm always transparent with all my players so every decision that I make, especially Alex -- Alex is the leader of my room. So I communicated with him throughout that whole process of bringing in new guys, and they understand that when four guys leave, you're bringing in four new guys. So some of the guys who left were veteran guys, so trying to just continue to have that balance within the room.

“But understanding that, even when you bring in new guys, they still have to earn their position, and I've been transparent with them as well. The guys who are here, you have to beat them out. Everybody in the room understands that, and I think just bringing in a whole bunch of new guys has actually elevated some of the younger guys’ game and allowed them to stay locked into the details and stay focused, and is really pushing everyone. It's creating a lot of competition, so I really like where everybody is heading in my room. So it's been good.”

Was it a situation where you knew this was a position you were gonna have to address in the portal because of the guys leaving? Or was it just a matter of, well, these guys are available, let's go after them when you saw the quality of players out there?

“It was more so knowing that we have a lot of young guys, and just having a balance of some veteran players. I just know how important it is to have guys in your room where you have a veteran leader.

“Yes, Alex is our leader, but just like I said, you're gonna continue to hear me say balance. And I think it's been good for us, and everybody has embraced the new guys. As the week's go on, they continue to get comfortable. It's as if they've been around for a year or so because I mean, I feel like I have a really close group.”

Hank, how would you describe your relationship with Justin Clark, guy from Toledo that you coached? And then what do you kind of see that he can bring to this room?

"Justin, so our relationship, I coached him for four years. I actually recruited him out of high school. Know his dad personally, so I feel like we’re pretty close. I mean, as much as you can player-coach. I just know how he works. I know how he thinks. I know how he prepares. I know the athlete that he is.

“One of his strengths is his attention to detail and awareness of game situation. He understands spacing, formations. He's a smart player outside of him just being a really good athlete. So I'm really excited to have him. He's a player that I trust because I've had him for a long time and I know him personally. I know some of the things that he can do to help this team.”

I'm guessing that prior relationship help make his decision easier, but I'm curious what kind of questions to those three guys have about you and the program?

“I don't know if Justin had any questions because he's known me for so long, and anytime he has an opportunity to leave a MAC school and have an opportunity to play at a Power Five school, Big Ten, really good program -- and all of them have dreams to go to the next level -- this was a no-brainer for him. Great opportunity.

"Cedric Dort, actually his mentor is one of my good friends. We were teammates in the NFL, Abe Elam. He has, it's called Elam Model, and he kind of mentors young men. He's also kind of like an agent, and he pretty much talked to me about him. Told me he had just entered the portal, and I trust his eval and stuff like that. Really good character kid, played a lot of ball in the SEC, so that was kind of my connection with him.

“Heard about Shaw through Faion. Faion Hicks told me about him. Knew a guy, knew he was about to enter the portal, and that's pretty much how I was able to get to know them.

"I don't know what the questions they have about me, but just still continuing to get to know them. Understand, especially to the two, Shaw and Cedrick, I don't really know them personally, but as time goes on, understanding what they like, what their strengths are. Some of the things that we can do to get better, but I just like their mentality.

“It's different when you’re recruiting high school kids, and then you have these conversations with kids out of the portal who've played a lot of ball. They're very mature, and again, I like the balance.”

What is Jay Shaw’s skill set from what you've seen? Obviously started, was a second-team all-Pac 12 last year. So he's got experience, but what has stood out to you so far on the field?

“I like his mentality. So everybody, for the most part, when you hear me talk, and you'll hear my players talk, they're always talking about dog mentality, because that's something that I preach. As I'm watching his tape, before he even came to Wisconsin, I saw the mentality. I saw how he was in your face. I saw how he played with a lot of confidence. He has great feet.

"You want to have that type of player in your room because it's contagious. You know, him challenging receivers, challenging players within the room, and everybody's just gravitating to that mentality outside of me actually preaching it. So I love that part of him of just being aggressive and competing, and just having confidence about himself.

“You could see it on the tape. You can see when someone's just an athlete, but sometimes a guy who's just a great athlete, some of them's not always confident, but you can see that through him. So I love that about him."

Do you know how Shaw and Faion knew each other. What that familiarity was?

“No, I think it might have been someone, a mutual friend or someone that he knows. But he was the one who told me about him.”

You mentioned Alex earlier being the leader in your room because he's the most experienced guy who was here last year. How did you want him to respond to bringing in three senior corners and what have you seen from him so far in practice?

“I've seen his game elevate to the next level. He's playing fast. He's playing smart. He's probably my smartest DB. He can play every position in the secondary. He's getting reps at nickel, corner, safety, because he can absorb that information. He's very coachable when I see him out here. Individual drills, he's actually taking that drill and applying it into real ball.

“So I've just seen his game continue to elevate, and he's really helping bringing some of the younger guys along, but I feel like me being transparent with him about the moves that I'm making allowed us to continue to develop a stronger relationship. Because I'm never keeping anything from my guys, and he's another guy who's a competitor, but I feel like the new guys have really helped push him.”

Beyond the four guys who have experience, are there some of the guys in the second tier right now that have made jumps from last season and could potentially push them in your eyes?

“My whole room I feel like has gotten better. Rico Hallman, he's playing well this spring, Amaun Williams, who's a walk-on, who continues to play well and make plays. He's actually leading the room in takeaways. Max Lofy was kinda like a tweener last year. He was like a nickel safety, because we needed some help, some bodies over there, and he's transitioned back to nickel corner. He's continuing to elevate his game. Really good athlete, has great feet, and we just continue to work on his tempo, his control. Just being able to control himself because he's so fast and so athletic, and once he can control himself, he's gonna play even faster. So I really like him.

“Who else am I missing? Al (Ashford III), he's actually getting better. He had his best practice last practice, yesterday. So a lot of the guys again, some of the new guys are really helping to push guys, and every week, again, I'm letting them know where they are.

“I had this thing that I did last week. I had every one of my players who came in to watch film with me, I wrote down all the corners’ names on the board, and I said, 'List your top five based off of practice.' And for the most part, all of them were saying the same guys. So that let you know that again, I'm putting everything out there. Guys know where they are. They're hearing it, and they're holding themselves accountable and they're being honest. If they know that they haven't been playing to that level, they're not putting their name. So again, at the end of the day when things are happening, we all are on the same page. It’s worked well for us.”

Who would you say are your top slot guys you're evaluating? Obviously you guys are rotating through a number of different players at all these spots. It seemed like Justin has gotten some, Alex, you mentioned Max. Who would you say right now are kind of in the mix to fulfill that role, since you need guys to step into that routinely?

"Well the guys that’s in it, just like you said, a lot of them are rolling through. I wanted all of them to learn the nickel position -- because that's the corner position and then at times, mixing and matching in certain defenses, allowing them to have that nickel skill set so you ain’t always just playing man. So we want all of them to be able to learn a position, but as the practices go on, yes, there are guys who are starting to separate themselves.

"So I'm looking at, you got Clark, Max Lofy, I moved Amaun Williams in there. He's playing well in there. I feel like his skill set fits what we do at nickel. Rico, he potentially can be a nickel, and like I said, you had Alex play both positions last season. I have a lot of different options. It's still early, but I think a lot of those guys are doing pretty well.”

Hank, last year, Jimmy played a lot of safeties I think five guys, pretty much rotated through. They’re a little thin right now because of injuries. You mentioned Alex can play pretty much any position. If something happened where they're short on bodies at safety, is he a guy, and you could say to Jim, "Hey, if you need a body, you can play him because he can we can trust him there?"

“Absolutely. That was one of the reasons why we had him take some safety reps because he can do it mentally. He can see formations, he can communicate it. So that will be an option, but right now, he's my starting corner. When I brought the guys in, I said, 'This is your job to win. I mean, you have it,' and he's continued to elevate his game so that's where he'll be.”

What do you think you'll miss most from Dean (Engram) from the cornerback position? What have been kind of your early thoughts of him as a wide receiver, kind of trying to stop him now in practice and being on the other side?

“My early thoughts to him as a receiver?”

Yeah.

“He's taking the same skill set that he had as a DB. He has really, really good feet. He's very competitive, which he was when he was a DB. I gave him the nickname ‘Scrap’ because he's real scrappy, and I think he's bringing that mentality over to his room with the wide receivers. But it's still a lot of things he has to work on because it's a new position, but because of his work ethic, and passion and drive, I think he's gonna continue to elevate.”

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