A number of Badgers took to social media on Wednesday upon word that Ross Kolodziej would transition from the program's strength and conditioning coach to lead Wisconsin's defensive line. Besides the expected questions of how he will adapt to the new role and its subsequent responsibilities, perhaps another one to ask the Stevens Point, Wis., native is if he actually saw some of the reactions?

"Well for one, I don't have a Twitter account yet," Kolodziej said on Thursday. "Obviously, I'm gonna need that for recruiting so I couldn't tell you, other than the many number of people that have reached out, kind of old school phone calls and text messages and some emails.

“But, yeah, it's been all positive. It fires me up, it excites me. Like I said, I'm really excited about the opportunity and the challenge.”

Kolodziej, who started 45 games on the defensive line at UW, becomes yet another former Badger to oversee a position group he previously played for within the football program. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard also holds secondary coach duties after claiming All-American honors at safety during his time in cardinal and white. Former guard Joe Rudolph leads the offensive line in addition to his offensive coordinator duties, while former signal caller Jon Budmayr currently coaches the quarterbacks.

BadgerBlitz.com presents a few takeaways from Kolodziej's availability with reporters via Zoom on Thursday.

Kolodziej said he did not "care what path or avenue" he took when looking for a chance to get into the coaching profession. He spoke about one of his mentors, Karl Dunbar -- his former position coach when he played for the Minnesota Vikings -- and how the current Pittsburgh Steelers assistant worked at LSU as a strength and conditioning coach before Les Miles hired him to work with the defensive line at Oklahoma State in 2002.

“It's been done many times, and again, within guys that I would consider mentors," Kolodziej said. "When I had the opportunity to come back here, finished my degree, Ben Herbert just got the head strength job. He offered me the opportunity in turn, so as I was finishing my playing career, the offseason I spent interning in the weight room. That was my opportunity to coach so I took full advantage of it. Then I got the opportunity to GA upstairs on the football side here, took advantage of that opportunity.

"When I got offered the job to go to Pitt as an assistant strength coach, again, I'm just trying to take advantage of opportunities to do the best I can in this profession and for the people that I work for. That's the players and the coaches around me. So when Coach Leonhard comes to you, Coach (Paul) Chryst says, ‘Hey, I think this would be a really great role for you. It's going to make us better,’ it's going to help me to continue to grow and develop, that excites me. That fires me up.

"Again, I might be naive, but to me, coaching is coaching, teaching is teaching and I don't see it as these two separate baskets of 'It’s only strength, it's only football.' They're interrelated.”

Kolodziej spent the last six seasons at Wisconsin as the head strength and conditioning coach before accepting the defensive line role. Having that experience of previously being in that position could be beneficial, and he believes "it's huge, personally, because you understand physiology."

"You probably have a little bit better grasp of biomechanics and how certain muscles work, and so same thing," Kolodziej said. "Stance as it relates to angle, step, strike, hand position, which rotation is going to help activate the largest muscle groups.

“Then I think even in terms of how you prep and structure your reps and sets, energy systems. If we’re trying to be as explosive and powerful as we can, we wouldn’t train like a marathon runner. So we want a little bit more sprinter mentality, if you will, or a thrower mentality. I think there's some areas that certainly crossover well and can really help you as a coach, designing practice, designing your individual periods, not just from a drill, skill perspective, but also from a physiological perspective.”