MADISON - Ovet 21 career games in two seasons, Madison Cone patrolled the defensive backfield as a designated cornerback, making two starts as a nickel back in 2018.
Now, the junior has found a new role with Wisconsin's safeties. But according to defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, Cone is still expected be a factor at his "old" position.
"We definitely think he's going to have a role at nickel. That was part of the reason for the move," Leonhard said on Wednesday. "His skillset fits really well in the slot and, obviously, the safeties, that's what they do in a lot of situations. It's going to provide us some flexibility and really help take his ability in the slot to another level."
Cone, 5-foot-9 and 182 pounds, explained that Wisconsin designates its safeties as "left" and "right" on the field, but he expects to play more of a true free safety role.
The third-year defensive back believes the safety and nickel back positions are alike.
“It’s pretty similar to playing nickel," Cone told BadgerBlitz.com on Wednesday. "I’m in on a lot of the calls they make and a lot of the checks, so it’s a couple things that are a little different. That’s kind of the stuff that I’ve focused on throughout this time between spring ball and fall camp of us just getting cleaned up with those different checks.
"Being back there, we’re kind of like the quarterbacks of the defense, so I’m going to have to be more vocal back there and more knowing of my responsibilities and even the guys around me because I can see everything."
UW officially noted the position change on the fall camp roster released on Tuesday, though Cone mentioned talks about safety started much earlier.
“It was something that me and Coach (Leonhard), we talked about towards the beginning of the spring," Cone said. "He just asked me if this was something that I’d be interested in.
"He’s really intrigued with the way I played the ball. One of the reasons he brought me up here was because of my ball skills, so he was just trying to talk to me about trying to get me in more situations where I can read the quarterback, and I can make more plays on the ball. That’s kind of how the whole conversation started."
During one spring practice open to the media, Cone appeared to work with the safety position group, but additional snaps were cut short due to injury.
“I was supposed to get more reps of it in the spring but I had a little hamstring injury that only allowed me to do a couple of practices," Cone said. "This camp is going to be big for me just kind of getting comfortable back there and finding my role with this group, but I’ll still be playing nickel."
Cone joins a position group that includes redshirt junior Eric Burrell, redshirt sophomore Scott Nelson, redshirt freshman Reggie Pearson and Houston transfer Collin Wilder. The cornerback position appears deep on paper as well with the likes of redshirt sophomore Faion Hicks, redshirt junior cornerback Caesar Williams, sophomore Rachad Wildgoose and redshirt sophomore Deron Harrell, among others.
The ensuing fall camp competition should help Wisconsin's defensive backs heading into 2019.
"This year we feel like we have the ability to change some games, to really be game changers in the backend, so that's the mentality we're going into camp with," Cone said. "We made a good amount of plays during the spring so we just got to pick up where we left off there, and we're expecting this to be a good year on the backend."
