MADISON - Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard met with the media ahead of Wisconsin's season opener against Illinois State on Saturday,

Reporters got their first chance to speak with Leonhard following the release of Wisconsin's initial depth chart. Leonhard touched on the starting tandem at inside linebacker, C.J. Goetz holding onto the starting role opposite Nick Herbig and the depth at defensive end, among other topics.

Senior cornerback Alexander Smith, who had missed all of fall camp dealing with a hamstring injury on his right leg, did not appear on the initial injury report. According to Leonhard, his status for Week 1 will be a "game-time decision."

During fall camp, Leonhard mentioned they wanted to play it safe with Smith, given he was dealing with a hamstring injury. It appears that will be the case up until the season.

"We’ve got a number of guys that have been nicked up during camp that are going to be game-time decisions, Alex being one of them," Leonhard said. "We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us and certain injuries you don’t want a setback. I think there are a couple of guys that are going to be game-time decisions. They’ve missed a significant portion of camp and as they’re working back in, we’re going to be smart with them."

Smith figures to play a significant role in the secondary. In the spring, Leonhard referred to him as the leader of the cornerback room and praised his development.

When looking through the first depth chart that was released this week, one of the notable takeaways was a starting tandem of Maema Njongmeta and Jordan Turner at inside linebacker. The two had been a part of a consistent competition with Tate Grass and Jake Chaney for the starting roles.

"First off, the competition was awesome," Leonhard told reporters Tuesday morning. "I would say the growth from the beginning of spring to the end of camp was really fun to watch. Just watching that group grow and battle each other every day."

With new position coach Mark D'onofrio getting his first look at the room during fall camp, there was a heavy rotation throughout the entire period. Along with the four players mentioned earlier, redshirt freshman Bryan Sanborn saw a decent amount of reps during camp as well. Throughout August, the duo that ran with the first team was dependent on who performed best the day before.

"It was kind of make it, take it," Leonhard said. "Whoever graded out best the day before, you’re going with the 1s, if you didn’t, let’s go take it back. They really bought into that and I think played off each other really well. The competition was high every day, and to me, Jordan and Maema, just the consistency with what they did.

"They all made plays, they all had their moments where they played extremely physical and made plays out in space. I think the consistency during camp gave them a little bit of an edge, but all four of those guys are going to get significant snaps here during the first couple of weeks and we’ll kind of roll with the hot hand in certain situations. But really love the way that they competed and grew from really the beginning of spring until now."

Throughout fall camp, someone who consistently stood out was junior defensive end Rodas Johnson. During practices open to the media, the fourth-year lineman blew up some runs and got in the backfield. Johnson is set to take on a starting role alongside Isaiah Mullens as Wisconsin looks to replace the production Matt Henningsen provided at the position.

"He’s a guy that’s high energy, high motor," Leonhard said. "He’s going to be productive because of how hard he plays. His only weakness is a little bit of the consistency and sometimes not trying to do too much. Sometimes doing your job is all you need to do.

"He’s absolutely becoming consistent in his technique and he flashes every day. He shows you something every day that gives you something to be excited about. If he can eliminate some things here and there, he’ll be on the field a ton."

The issue for Leonhard at that position is the depth behind a top three of Johnson, Mullens and James Thompson Jr. UW exited fall camp in relatively good shape health-wise, but not without losing a pair of key pieces in Isaac Townsend and Mike Jarvis. Jarvis is out for the season while Townsend is listed as out for Week 1; both are dealing with left leg injuries.

Townsend saw reps with the second team during the spring and Jarvis flashed at times. Townsend was out for the duration of fall camp. The injuries leave Cade McDonald and Ben Barten in more prominent roles.

"I think we’re a little uncomfortable with the depth when you lose some guys that you anticipated being contributors at those positions," Leonhard said. "We feel great about the top end and the experience that they have and kind of the roles that you anticipate them filling. After that, there’s a ton of competition.

"There are guys that have flashed during camp but the consistency is not at a level where you want that player playing 30, 40, 50 snaps. If they’re in there rotationally and giving guys a blow, you feel good about it. If they’re out there too often, they have things that they would have to clean up for sure.

"That’s the fun part about college football. Faces change and guys develop at different rates. When is that moment that it all clicks for them and they take huge strides? Excited for the work that they’re putting in. Coach K (Kolodziej) has done an awesome job getting that group where it currently is, and we’re trying to build a little bit of flexibility with the nose position being able to bounce out to different spots as well."

When pointing out true freshmen who can see the field right away, it appears safety Austin Brown has left an impression and will see the field in his first year. Leonhard referred to the former three-star recruit as someone who is physically ready for the college game.

"One true freshman that excites us just with his ability is Austin Brown," Leonhard said. "Great size, great speed. Kind of look at him similar to Hunter (Wohler) from last year where physically, they’re ready. They’re ready to compete and probably starting out more in that special teams role, learning the speed of the game. We have depth at the position and you just kind of roll from there. How quickly can they hit their stride? He’d be a guy that I would anticipate seeing on the field in different situations."

In fall camp, Brown saw the field often. In practices open to reporters, there were multiple instances where he ran with the second-team defense at safety and rotated with Preston Zachman and Titus Toler.

In Leonhard's defense, he often likes to deploy a nickel defense with a slot corner and as many as six defensive backs on the field at one time. During the spring, transfer Justin Clark often held down the role as the nickel corner, but he went on to miss the final two weeks of spring camp. Heading into the season, Cedric Dort will start the year as the top defensive back in the slot.

"We knew coming out of the spring that we knew it was a position we wanted to rep him at and get him more comfortable in," Leonhard said. "He hadn’t done it much in the past and just thought technically it fit his skillset really well. So we knew coming into camp, it was going to happen for him at times and, obviously, Justin being out for a significant amount of time, he got a lot of reps there.

"I think it gives us a ton of flexibility with the amount of guys that can play in the slot that we can really help them in their matchup - kind of who they match up with well and feature them in different ways that maybe they haven’t put on tape yet."

Throughout fall camp, there was a heavy rotation at corner with as many as seven players getting reps at the position. Both along the outside and slot corner, the rotation was a mix of Jay Shaw, Ricardo Hallman, Semar Melvin, Avyonne Jones, Dort and Clark.

"With the injuries there kind of had to mix and match, but that group was really fun, really competitive as well," Leonhard noted. "Very similar to the inside backer room where they know there are significant roles open and I thought the entire group raised the level and the competition.

"There are some situations where the consistency, with some of our zone concepts. I would say more so, there is some separation in guys, but we have a group that wants to go play man. They want to go challenge and be aggressive, so any time you have that as a starting point, I feel really good as a coordinator and we’ll detail up the rest of it as we go."

A season ago, Nick Herbig and Noah Burks took the majority of the snaps at outside linebacker. Heading into the fall, position coach Bobby April and Leonhard should have as many as five guys - Herbig, Darryl Peterson, C.J. Goetz, T.J. Bollers and Kaden Johnson - who can provide quality reps at the outside linebacker.

The question coming into fall camp: Who would start opposite Herbig? With Peterson pushing him, Goetz was able to hold onto the role and run with the starting group.

"C.J. is continuing to get more explosive, continuing to be more consistent in some of the coverage things," Leonhard said. "He’s physical, he can get downhill, he can get after the quarterback, so just a little bit of the space play where he’s been up and he’s been continuing to improve."

During the spring, Peterson was given multiple responsibilities, playing the field and boundary. That carried on into fall camp.

"D.P. gets hurt a little bit because we play him field and boundary, so he splits his reps and job responsibilities within the same calls at times," Leonhard added. "That tandem right there at the boundary is going to be huge. I think they’re going to be able to go really hard and split reps and go on and off and hopefully be consistently aggressive and physical and get after the passer.

"I think that’s huge for us to have that duo to the boundary, and C.J. has done enough to hold D.P. But once again, similar to a lot of positions, they’re going to get a lot of snaps and in big moments, we’re going to ride the guy who has been hot and the most productive."

Wisconsin's talent at the position extends beyond the top three, with Johnson and Bollers flashing at times.

"They’re improving every day, every week, going from spring to fall and what they’re doing, their time is coming," Leonhard said. "They’re going to get on the field. They’re going to be productive players for us. Sometimes when you have guys like Nick come in and win a starting job, it feels like the next guy should do that, well that’s not the norm.

"The patience level, it’s hard. These guys see young players playing sometimes and get frustrated. Just trusting your process and trusting the work that you’re putting in is going to put you position that when you’re on the field, you’re ready for it."

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @pete_brey12, @seamus_rohrer

*Like us on Facebook