MADISON, WIS. -- Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard could always count on Noah Burks being "that rock and consistent player." However, as spring ball carried on, and once August practices arrived, the assistant coach believed he began to see an uptick in his redshirt senior outside linebacker.
“Really going back as spring went on, and especially once you got to fall camp, you started to see a little bit more dynamic guy as far as playmaking ability," Leonhard told reporters on Monday. "He's always made big plays with consistency and eyes and physicality, and just more and more throughout camp going into the season, you started to see him win some of those one-on-one matchups.
"Win with speed, win with kind of his skill set more so than his strength and just being sound play in and play out, so excited to see what he can do."
Burks enters his sixth season at Wisconsin in 2021, and though he did not register a sack in Saturday's loss to Penn State, the Indiana native recorded three tackles, two of which went for losses.
The ability to get in the backfield appeared evident when rewatching the film. Pro Football Focus graded Burks with a 68.5 -- fourth best on the defense in that contest -- and tied for second on the team with inside linebackers Jack Sanborn and Mike Maskalunas with three pressures each, according to the service.
Burks played his 43rd game as a Badger last weekend, his 21st as a starter in Wisconsin's defense. He noted the objective set forth by outside linebackers coach Bobby April III.
“I think that there have always been just small, small flashes of me doing different things," Burks said on Tuesday. "You know, one of the problems with being the consistent player is that a lot of the time, I was just doing my job, but nothing more. I think coach April has really done a good job of challenging me, trying to take my job to the next level, and doing more with what I'm asked to do, or what I'm not asked to do.
“Instead of being just a consistent player, try being a consistent playmaker, and that's something that's been stressed to me and that I wanted to take the heart and something that I wanted to work on."
Examples of seeing his work come to fruition on Saturday included stopping Penn State's run game with what Burks described as "shock-shedding" and ridding himself of blocks. He believed that appeared evident a few times against the Nittany Lions where he displayed the ability to make tackles where he very well might not have in seasons prior.
Burks dove into the techniques utilized that allowed him to make those plays.
“It all starts with having an extension on your guy," Burks said. "We got to be able to play with length, and kind of stop the surge with what they're coming at us with. And then like, from a release standpoint, either ripping off into outside gaps or arm overing if we need to come back inside. Stuff that we just work all the time."
“And then sure enough, it shows up in the games, and it works. Like, ‘Oh, yeah, I told you to do that, and look what happened.’”
The sixth-year senior now holds 65 career tackles and 10 tackles for loss heading into Saturday's matchup against Eastern Michigan (6 p.m. CT, FS1). He also holds two big interceptions in his resume -- a 68-yard pick-six against Northwestern in 2019 and one against Wake Forest last December that he returned 41 yards to create Wisconsin's go-ahead scoring drive in the third quarter of the Duke's Mayo Bowl.
Pass rush continues to be an area Burks, who has three career sacks, works on. He stated he has "been happier with my get off, but I still feel like I have so much more to improve." The upperclassmen credited Leonhard and April for putting the players "in positions to make plays," according to Burks.
When rewatching the game film, one particular rep against Penn State stood out. On a 3rd-and-8 from the PSU eight-yard line in the second quarter, Burks ran a stunt from the right side of the offensive line all the way to the left side. That allowed him to run next to fellow starting outside linebacker Nick Herbig, who won on the inside against left tackle Rasheed Walker.
The duo forced enough pressure on Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford, who dumped it off to running back Noah Cain for an eventual three-yard loss.
Leonhard called out Burks winning one-on-ones with speed, as referenced above, and the 'backer noted the strides taken from spring ball through summer and fall camp.
“I feel like the progression on that just comes with just putting in the work, and on some stunts like that, it really also goes back to the details and making sure you're not taking too many steps," Burks said. "Because I don't want to run into any d-lineman or anything who are trying to work their stuff. It comes down to everyone.
“When we're working games and stuff, it's not just one person. We're working as a unit, and that's another thing that they're trying to get us to understand is when all four are out there, and we're all clicking together, that's when we're gonna generate the most pressure instead of trying to rely on one guy or two guys. It’s gonna come down to the whole entire front or whoever they're calling their number to go."
Leonhard alluded to Burks' performance in October 2019 against Ohio State as his "best game." In that contest, he recorded career highs in tackles (eight), tackles for loss (2.5) and sacks (1.5).
“For whatever reason, the week before that was the Illinois game, and I did a lot of really good things in that game at the point of attack, where I was just stoning some tackles," Burks said. "From that one, it just kind of carried over into the Ohio State game. You know, I feel like I just had a lot of instances where I was just in the right place. I felt like I was winning over the top from a pass rush perspective in that game, and even the timing was just there on that one.
“And, you know, sometimes it's really all it comes down to is just the timing of when you're gonna hit something. But yeah, I can't really think of anything specific. I wore a black elbow brace in that game, and for a while coach April was just like, ‘You got to wear that every game now.’ I didn't want to do that obviously, but we always joke about that."
Leonhard mentioned earlier this week the excitement to see Burks, as an experienced player going into his final season, "hopefully become [a] consistent playmaker for this defense," in his words. A potential emergence in that fashion could only bolster Wisconsin's already aggressive defense that seeks to create further pressure in the backfield for both opponents' respective run games and passing attacks.
Head coach Paul Chryst believes "'that's a good thing when you're consistent and solid," but also has seen early signs of more.
"That's certainly not a negative," Chryst said on Thursday. "But it's fun for me to see, and I think it's driven by confidence that Noah has and has gained over time and then trusting that, and cutting it loose.
"He's a good example to me of a guy that chose to come back, loves to play and chose to come back and wanting to take full advantage of that and cutting loose. Certainly, he's capable of being impactful, and it's not to say that he hasn't impacted before, right? When you talk about someone being consistent and solid, I think those are compliments, but he has also in the past, and yet thought he got off to a really good start this season of kind of being dynamic and impactful."
