Jim Leonhard pushing a sense of urgency for final four games of the season.

Madison - The bye week was a welcomed sight for Wisconsin after eight consecutive games to open the 2022 season. That said, it came after the team put together its best performance of the season in 35-24 win over Purdue.

With that in mind, interim head coach Jim Leonhard's message this week was to have a sense of urgency and maintain the momentum over the final stretch.

"The biggest thing I’m asking of our guys here in this condensed four-game season is the urgency to be really high and go out there and attack this final stretch of our schedule," Leonhard said on Monday.

Players had the chance to sit back and relax for the first time this season in what has been a "roller coaster" year, in the words of Nick Herbig.

"I’m excited for this little run," Leonhard said. "Hopefully we can maintain the momentum that we had coming out of Purdue, and that was the message to the guys today was urgency.

"Sometimes when coming off a bye week, you have to be careful of walking through the beginning part of the week and feeling good about yourself. We’re going to push these guys to snap back into it and I think they responded well today just in a walk-through setting. The focus, the urgency was there, and we have to hit that every day."

Sitting at 4-4, a shot at a Big Ten title is no longer realistic, but the group hasn't lost steam and responded well. Continuing Wisconsin's 20-year bowl streak is also on the table.

"Looking forward to these last four weeks finishing strong," quarterback Graham Mertz said. "He (Leonhard) wants to win, we all want to win. Just to win, that's it. That's the goal is going 4-0."

"We're still attacking each week," cornerback Alex Smith said when asked if having a sense of urgency is tough with preseason goals out of reach. "We're trying to win games. That's why we play this sport. Not in competition for those titles but we still have to play ball."

That sense of urgency, or lack thereof in the beginning of the season, was part of what led to the slow start to the season with losses in three of the first five contests.

"You take that Ohio State, Illinois stretch, we had a lot of guys questioning things and maybe not believing or trusting what the plan is, or some of our really good players trying to do too much and try to overcome by doing a little too much," Leonhard said. "I think they’ve settled down."

A lack of attention to detail led to the team not executing as well as it would have liked, being out of position on plays or trying to come up with the big play as opposed to going with proper technique.

"I think some of it was youth," Leonhard added. "You’re a better athlete than the guy across from you. That’s not the case at this level. You have to be smarter than that. You have to be willing to put in the time to really learn how to dominate, learn how to control the play.

"That’s been my messaging from Day 1 moving forward and I think our guys have really bought into it, which has helped with the consistency and the buy in."

Despite being out of contention for a division title, the last month of the season might be one of the most important for the outlook of the program. Compete and play well, Leonhard likely gets the interim tag taken off and is named head coach. Play poorly and fail to compete over the final stretch, and athletic director Chris McIntosh is left with a more difficult decision to make.

That isn't lost on the players.

"I think he should get the job regardless of what happens," Herbig said. "But anything we can do as players to help - and I know that winning solves a lot of problems - it's going to help a lot, so I think it's very important of these next four games."