Wisconsin is now on its fourth safeties coach in as many years. Jack Cooper, who rose through the ranks in Madison from senior defensive analyst to assistant secondary coach to now safeties coach, was made available to the media for the first time Tuesday. There was plenty to discuss, from the departure of stud safety Hunter Wohler to the incoming transfers and much more.

BadgerBlitz.com has compiled the key takeaways:

As mentioned, Cooper worked his way up the ladder in Madison. He touched on how that's made the transition from Alex Grinch to himself easier.

"Definitely from a relationship standpoint, it's definitely helped. There's a lot of trust and belief that's been built in our room. And just some of the defensive stuff, the technique, scheme and things like that. There's things that are gonna be carried over from any of the safety coaches, really because that's what we believe in defensively.'

Wisconsin signed two safeties via the transfer portal, the most intriguing of which being D-III Bethel University transfer Matt Jung. Cooper offered his take on what Jung can bring to the table.

"He plays really fast, he plays really confident. He's a great communicator. You get on the phone with him, he's a super bright kid with what we believe is a super bright future, and he comes from a football background. Just his family and being around football up in Neenah. As far as his film and just intangibly everything he brings to the table, that was enough for us to, I wouldn't even say make a leap of faith. He's a really good player who we're gonna look to develop and make better and sharpen his game, but yeah, we've got a lot of belief in him."

Wisconsin safety Austin Brown has been a chess piece for the Badgers' secondary. In his career, he's played 258 snaps in the box, 164 snaps in the back end and 398 snaps in the slot. In what will be a collective effort to replace Wohler, he'll be a key factor.

"It's been a talking point. Obviously, we had Hunter graduate out, and he's gonna go play in the Senior Bowl next week. You gotta be able to replace production. There's always gonna be conversations about where to play Austin. I think it's still a moving point as we keep developing him, progressing the defense and (seeing) where he ends up. The good thing is he's played a lot of downs at a lot of positions. I know in '23 he played a lot more boundary safety, and in '24, by the way the roster was, he played more nickel. He gives us versatility to move him around. We'll see as we work through the offseason, the weight room, spring ball, kinda where he ends up."

Speaking of replacing Wohler, Preston Zachman's return will play a big role as well. Cooper was asked about how critical it is to have an experienced player like Zachman back for another year.

"It's great. It's great. (Zachman and Wohler have) their different ways to lead, but having Preston back and leadership, and he played 765 snaps or something like that. Preston has played a lot of ball, whether it's special teams, defense. So being able to have that experience and share that to other guys in the room is just huge because he's been through the adversity of a Big Ten schedule."

Cooper was asked a follow-up about said differences in their leadership styles.

"Hunter is definitely a little more loose and likes to have fun. Preston's gonna get in there and be to his business. Now, they're both about their business, but they've got different ways to lead. Hunter was very comfortable in a verbal type of role, with vocal type of leadership. Preston hasn't been that much of a vocal leader, but I know he does a lot of things behind the scenes in the locker room and he's been through a lot of things. At the end of the day, Preston has to be authentic to himself. It's not leadership if he's not Preston Zachman."

The other safety Wisconsin reeled in via the portal, Matthew Traynor of FCS Richmond, is also making a jump up to the Big Ten.

"Matt was a really productive kid at Richmond. CAA freshman of the year. We got a lot of good feedback from his coaches. I was in that league, the CAA, at Rhode Island. We saw a young guy that was hungry, that wanted to take a step to this level. And obviously his play on the field was impressive. He's an aggressive guy that wants to get downhill, wants to tackle and be physical in everything he does, and he's able to play the ball too. So we thought he brought some good versatility and we'll kinda see where he fits in the puzzle defensively."

"There's gotta be a growth mindset no matter what you do defensively, whether you're first in the country in pass defense or last in the country in pass defense. I think there's gotta be an emphasis on turnovers and ball disruption. You watch all these NFL Playoff games, the team that's won the turnover margin has also won the game. There's gotta be a huge emphasis of us hunting the ball and being purposeful when we tackle the ball, interceptions and things like that. I think those are some focuses going forward."

Wisconsin brings in four freshman safeties in the 2025 class, all of whom appear to have good positional fluidity. Cooper was asked about how he plans to incorporate the likes of Luke Emmerich, Grant Dean, Jaimier Scott and Remington Moss.

"Yeah, those freshman, it was their first day of school today. We're just trying to get them to class on time," he joked.

"Those freshmen, a lot of those kids have versatile skillsets. We'll kinda see how they are with Coach Brady (Collins). I think the biggest thing for them is hitting the ground running in the weight room, getting to class on time, being super organized — this is their first time away from home. But I do think a lot of those guys bring a versatile skillset, whether they end up playing corner, whether they end up playing nickel. I think the biggest thing is between Coach (Paul) Haynes, Coach (Mike) Tressel and myself, there's a lot of dialogue on how do we best use the guys in our program to win football games."

"You wanna see evidence of them playing football, you know? When they play football and there's production...it's a normal thing to call other colleges now and now check up on guys. A lot of those guys checked out, and there's a lot of positive reviews on those guys. So the emphasis of guys being able to play football, being through adversity. Production was definitely something that was talked about in the office, for sure."

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