MADISON - With experience coaching defensive backs at eight different programs, Paul Haynes, Wisconsin’s new cornerbacks coach, has a refined taste. He’s seen a wide variety of shapes, sizes and talent levels. With all that experience comes preference, and Haynes certainly has a few.

High on his list of priorities are the things you can’t teach, things scouting camps can’t measure numerically.

“The big thing when you’re looking at cornerbacks is a kid that’s competitive. Body types and all that, a lotta people like the tall guys, short guys,” Haynes offered.

“To me it's more about the intangibles a little bit more than size. Again, you don’t want a whole room (that’s) the same size, but I think the biggest piece is the competitive drive, and of course (being) a good kid and things like that. But those are the things I look for a little more than how fast he is, how tall he is, how much he weighs.”

Most of the Badgers’ current cornerbacks stand under six feet tall. In fact, on the current roster, redshirt sophomore Al Ashoford III is the only corner who even hits the six-foot mark. Wisconsin, however, is about to receive an influx of length at defensive back in their 2023 recruiting class, highlighted by the lanky 6-foot-3 Amare Snowden and 6-foot-2 Braedyn Moore.

The 2023 recruiting class will be vital to replenish Wisconsin’s cornerbacks, and with the lack of experience at the position behind Alexander Smith and Ricardo Hallman, a blue-chipper like Snowden could compete for playing time immediately.

“I think they’re tough, competitive kids,” Haynes said of the incoming class of corners. “I love how they work and I love how they compete.”

Aware of the opportunity to make an early impact, the 2023 corners are pressing to get on Haynes’ good side.

“They’re pleasers, of course, kids are pleasers,” Haynes added. “So they are trying to do every single thing that I say, and they’re trying to do it with a serious mentality. I told them, ‘man, we gotta lighten up.’ I mean, our guys are just stiff some of the time. I’m like ‘guys, lighten up, just chill out, breathe a little bit.’”

Wisconsin plucks corners from all over the country. The current roster has corners from Florida, New Jersey, Texas and California, just to name a few. The Badgers’ Florida pipeline is particularly strong with defensive backs. But Haynes knows no matter where you come from, there are certain qualities that a corner in the Big Ten must possess.

“I think you have to be a smart kid, but I think competing is the biggest. I tell the guys all the time…Everybody does a good job of stopping the run (in the Big Ten). This is a conference that you’ve gotta stop the run, because if you don’t stop the run you don’t have a chance. But the games are won with explosive pass plays, and that’s where it comes down to us. We’ve gotta make sure we do a great job of not giving up explosive pass plays.”

In recent years under Jim Leonhard, Wisconsin’s defenses have sought versatility in the secondary. Corners that could play both the slot and boundary were coveted. Last season, there was lots of rotation in the secondary and experimentation with players at different spots. Haynes appreciates the flexibility that a versatile corner can provide, but prefers players that can hold down specific spots in the secondary.

“Yeah, I’m a little bit different in that way. Our corner will also play nickel and nickel will play corner, but I think when you have a field corner that plays field corner, boundary corner that plays boundary corner, it’s different. Now, we’ll train everybody in the spring to do a little of both, and try to find out who the best guys are competitively, but once we figure out who is who, we’d like them to master that position.”

Last season’s cornerback group was injured from the jump, with Smith missing all of fall camp and not playing until week seven. That situation required Hank Poteat to be flexible in who played where. Haynes, it seems, will look to avoid that in 2023. Speaking of Smith, Haynes likes what he sees in his elder statesman of the room.

“I think he’s a great leader. He’s kinda like my assistant coach, a little bit,” Haynes raved.

“There’s a lot of times where he’ll text the group, we’ve got a group text and I sit there and start reading it, and it’s just him getting those guys together. ‘We’re gonna do this on this day, we’re gonna do this on this day, I’m over here working out — anyone else wanna come over’…He’s an awesome leader to get the guys together because we’ve got some experience but we’re still a young group, too. He’s done a great job with that.”

Overall, the group Haynes is set to inherit is rather young and inexperienced. But they seem to fit the mold of what he’s looking for, as does the incoming class of freshmen. The Badgers have plenty of talent to work with in the cornerback room. Now, it’s up to Haynes to mold it into the lockdown unit Wisconsin is accustomed to.

_________________________________________________

*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