MADISON, WIS. -- Wisconsin knew its safety room would need to replace key production with Scott Nelson and Collin Wilder, starters in 2021, preparing for the NFL. Three Badgers -- John Torchio, Travian Blaylock and Hunter Wohler -- immediately became the next pieces to the puzzle deep in the defensive secondary.

Blaylock, however, injured his right leg two weeks ago during a spring practice, and when he returns remains to be seen. Who will emerge at a thin position -- outside of Torchio and Wohler -- will be a storyline heading into fall camp.

Defensive coordinator and safeties coach Jim Leonhard spoke to reporters on Monday inside the McClain Center about his room, and more broadly about his defense. BadgerBlitz.com captured his full session. Questions and answers are lightly edited for clarity.

RELATED: Al Johnson on returning to Wisconsin, coaching running backs | Ross Kolodziej on Keeanu Benton's leadership, Wisconsin defensive line | Bill Sheridan on on taking over Wisconsin's ILB room, depth chart | Bobby Engram on on Graham Mertz, Badgers' quarterbacks, tight ends | Hank Poteat on on Wisconsin's transfer cornerbacks, Alexander Smith | Bob Bostad on taking over the offensive line once again, position changes | Chris Haering on taking over Wisconsin's tight ends group, injuries | Bobby April III on Wisconsin's outside linebacker room depth, Nick Herbig | Alvis Whitted on Wisconsin's wide receivers: 'It's a good room right now' |

Question about Wohler. If I remember back in your day, you said that playing a lot of special teams your freshman helped prepare you to play a lot on defense in your second year. Do you see any comparisons between what Hunter went through last year versus what he might get this year?

“Yeah, for sure. A great way to learn the speed of the game at the college level is on special teams, and Hunter was one of our best special teams players all season last year, because you take a lot of thinking away. There's a little bit less thinking, a little bit less scheme and more just play fast, play physical, have some football IQ and awareness. And to me, once you play some special teams and you learn how fast you can diagnose things and how fast and physical you play, like that's the answer, a lot of times that's what translates on to defense. And then you're just going, how fast can I make this defense the same? How fast can I make it into my physical skills in my eyes and my recognition and get out of the scheme, kind of slowing you down.

“So it was about halfway through the year, you definitely felt that click in him and just saw day in and day out, the play speed, the production that he was having in practice just jumped through the roof. You can just feel that with guys a lot coming off a special teams. That's what you hope happens is they take what they've learned and just learn how to play faster on defense and it definitely worked for him.”

Now that you've had a few weeks, just what have been your general impressions on the way your defense has performed and where specifically do you think y'all need to get better heading into fall?

"I like the group. It's a really fun group to coach. Very hungry, very motivated, athletic talent. We have a lot of things that we need when the fall comes around. I think you're seeing a group of guys rise above the rest as far as the consistency, consistency and playmaking. There's guys that are starting to separate, and then there's a huge group that is in the ball game. They're close, and once again those little things of when does it click, to play more consistent. They're doing some things that would really, really be good and help us, and they're doing some things that could get us beat. There's a big number of guys in that category right now, but it's been a fun spring.

"I think the coaches -- a lot of coaching. Guys are putting it out there. They're playing hard. They're playing physical, they're not always playing smart. Just like any young team, it allows you to coach. We talk every day, they still need us, but it's a really fun group. There's no question about that, and looking forward to wrapping this week up the right way and hopefully, a couple more guys take that next step."

You said some guys separated themselves. Anybody in particular has kind of stood out and really impressed ya?

"Upfront, I look at even a guy like Keeanu (Benton). He took a huge jump this spring, just consistency and physicality. What he's playing with. There's a large group of guys I kind of see in that had smaller roles or maybe just role players last year. You look at Rodas (Johnson), you look at James Thompson, Isaac Townsend.

"Anytime you do this, I get mad because you start leaving names off the list, but those guys come into my mind where you're just seeing them play so much more physical and consistent than they were last season.

"On the outside unit, Darryl Peterson's a guy we really love. More and more reps, right? We're pushing him -- field reps, boundary reps, kind of everything and throwing things on him and he's playing more consistent even with a huge kind of workload. Kaden Johnson is another guy that you just see, kind of was rising as the season went on, and now a big spring for him of getting a number of reps.

"Inside 'backers, we kind of took the approach of clean slate, new coach. We set it up the first three weeks were they pretty consistently played with the same guys, the same groups. Just create some consistency, and now last week was the first one we really started juggling kind of who's playing Mike, who's playing Will, who's playing together. And the plan was to do that the last two weeks of practice and then once again, see who is relying on somebody else to communicate and who really knows it, and who's flexible in what they do. A number of those guys have stepped up.

"Jordan Turner once again, you forget how few of snaps on defense he kind of had, but plays fast plays physical. Tatum Grass, stepping up and kind of showing the maturity and the experience he has in that group. Jake Chaney, Maema (Njongmeta), Jake Ratzlaff, Bryan Sanborn, all those guys you're just seeing take the next step and it's a very young group. So excited to see kind of how they finish and what their confidence level is coming out of spring.

"On the back end, safeties, obviously were light on numbers. Trae (Blaylock) going down, he was having a huge, huge spring. Was so excited for him. 'Torch' (John Torchio) has played a lot of snaps. He's playing like a veteran right now. Hunter Wohler, we already talked about, spoke about kind of the jump he's taken. And outside of that, you get really young.

"You're down into the guys who're really, young walk-ons at that, and using a number of corners just to build some flexibility in their skill set, and we need it. So asking them to do a little bit more than maybe you'd like at times, putting a little bit on the young corners' plates to learn some more.

"And then the corners. I think the competition's been amazing. I think everyone has significantly raised the level of play in a number of guys. I think the most consistent guy is Alex Smith -- has been been unbelievable to watch as far as his consistency and just the jump that he took. Justin Clark, Jay Shaw, Ricardo Hallman, those guys have all come in here, and from day one, taken a huge step forward. Cedrick (Dort Jr.) is getting comfortable, I think, in the defense. Asking him to do some different things, and he's getting comfortable in what we're doing. Should hopefully just see him play faster.

"Max Lofy, ton of talent, ton of ability, just put him in a lot of spots. And then a young walk-on, Amaun Williams, has probably been one of the most consistent playmakers on defense, which is really, really cool to see a guy that's playing with confidence and just continuing to get better.

"So once again, I always hate to start throwing names out because I know there's two, three that I would have loved to mention, but (I'm) not that smart so I'm going to forget a couple."

What do you like about Justin Clark in the slot?

"Tremendous experience. He's really played a lot of football at the college level, both inside and outside. He knows who he is. He knows what his skill set is, and he can run. He has good length. He understands field spacing and formations so you're really seeing a veteran that has played a ton of snaps in the slot and just kind of what he sees and what he can communicate. It's really impressive in a new scheme.

"It's not like he's in the defense he was his whole career, so you're seeing him come in and spend a ton of time this offseason learning it, and you're seeing him apply it on the field. I think that's the No. 1 thing that he does."

How concerned are you about safety depth? I know it's only spring, but just when you try to plan ahead for the fall, is it a situation where you figure you might have to ride your top two or three guys if Travian is healthy? How do you build out a little bit more of that depth?

"I would say it's a huge concern. I like to play a lot of guys and let them play fast. Expect them to have huge roles on special teams and impact this game in a lot of different ways. I played five guys really a lot last year, and you'd say at least pretty consistently four in most games, so it's a big concern of mine to not have that depth. You're an injury away from being light, and that's where I know we have some flexibility within the corner group to help out, and if we need to use that, we will, but it's definitely concerning coming out of spring just with the depth at the position."

Owen Arnett's probably a guy who's gotten some more reps. Have you seen him handle that? What do you like what you've seen from him so far this spring?

"I just have loved his approach going back to last season. He's a guy who played linebacker in high school, so he really wasn't even playing the position until he got on campus and just always up in the offices, always working. Changing his body or changing how he moves, becoming more fluid. I think he's got ability. He's got a lot of twitch. He can run and he cares. He's physical.

"So I'm excited for him. He's taken a huge jump from where he was. It's still just a pretty new position for him, so there's some mistakes that hopefully you're looking at in six months, nine months that that will be eliminated, because he's still not only adapting to the college game, but really playing a position that he doesn't have much experience at."

I don't want to make any assumptions, but regarding Blaylock, is he on track to return by the fall? Do you anticipate you'll have him available?

"I think we're hoping so. We don't quite know at this point so it's significant enough, we're trying to take care of him, but it's too early to tell what's going on in that situation."

You mentioned some corners you're looking at to give them flexibility, you flexibility. I think when we talked to Hank Poteat one day, he said that Alexander (Smith) is his best corner in terms of being able to do anything, and he said he could play safety if needed. But I know you love him at corner. Is he a guy, if you really are thin at safety that you would say, maybe he can help us out at safety?

"He's the one who's most ready, because he's done it in the past. He's played all of our nickel stuff, which you're about 90% of the way to playing safety there. So he understands our scheme. He made a huge point of learning all that young, early in his career, so impressive the knowledge he has of our defense, and I can just randomly throw him in there, doesn't matter what the coverage is.

"And a lot of these other guys, it's like, 'OK, you're gonna be in the post. You're gonna be here.' I can script a practice to help them and put them in positions to kind of gain some experience, but you know what's coming. I don't care with him. I can put him in there and just you put him in the first group and be a safety and he's gonna have very few MEs. He's gonna have very few mistakes. So he's the most ready for it, but obviously, he's had a huge camp.

"Justin, you'd say would be similar, I think, just because of his knowledge of football. He's been able to do everything we asked our nickels to do with just a lot of communication early. Working Avyonne Jones, a young guy coming in we recruited, saying could kind of go either way. So we're overloading him as a mid-year freshman right now to learn it. Al Ashford's got some reps in there, Cedrick, I've got some reps in there, so you're just trying to expose them to some different situations in the spring and kind of tee it up for the summer, some conversations that we'll have with that group and going into the fall."

You mentioned John Torchio playing like a veteran. We've seen throughout his career, his ability to make plays in the ball. Do you feel like that's something that's more instinctual, kind of natural to him? Or is that something he's learned throughout his career?

"I think he's always had a knack for it. He has very good instincts. Some guys really struggle with looking at the quarterback and kind of feeling timing and things like that. That's always been one of his strong suits, and it's fun to watch. He can push. He's missed some opportunities this spring. I'm all over him right now, but that's been what he's been really good at. He knows how to paint a picture to a quarterback and understand kind of route concepts and timing.

"It's fun, because not everyone has that kind of an initial knack. Some guys are more man coverage guys. Some guys are more tacklers and physical and blitzers and stuff like that. But the more guys you're gonna have on your team that have the ability to look at the quarterback and make things happen, the more turnovers you're gonna create."

He'll have to take kind of a leadership role with being so young in the safety room. How has he has kind of taken to that responsibility?

"It's been big and I think I saw it really starting day one of the winter program. You see guys step up all the time, or they waited. They kind of deferred to some of the older guys in the group. I think 'Torch' is one of them that I saw much more vocal with the entire team, the defense and with the position groups. That's the fun part of the offseason to me is you see who naturally kind of steps up into those roles, who feels comfortable enough to to step up.

"Last year I remember a guy like Jack Sanborn. He kind of just let an older group talk for a couple years and then realized, 'Man, it's my time,' and he's going to be more vocal. So I think there's a number of guys on our team, a number of guys on our defense that are stepping up into those roles, and then it's fun as coaches to help develop them that way."

Jim, where does Austin Brown fit into the equation? I know you can't know fully until he gets here, but is it the type of situation where freshmen could push because of the depth and trying to get him in earlier?

"Yeah, absolutely. I think physically he's very mature. Doing some great stuff even right now. Running track this spring, I think he ran a 10.8 (seconds ), one of the first meets out in the 100(-yard dash). so he's moving really well. He's strong. He can move.

"A little different situation than Hunter walking in with a four-year, three-year starter, got a really experienced group in front of them. Well, I think he's gonna have an opportunity to compete for sure, and I think physically, he's put himself in the position that he's not going to stick out. He's going to be a guy ready to physically compete. How fast can we get them there mentally, that'll be the big challenge, and can we get him playing fast? But it's a little bit different situation with the depth to where you say, it's much more real much more urgent than maybe it was last year for Hunter."

With the safety group and the numbers and having a go maybe to the cornerbacks to fill in there. How much do you have to balance trying to take a player out of position that maybe knows a defense -- or not necessarily out of position, but just from corners to safety -- and then maybe balancing that with looking at a transfer portal if you need to?

"I think that's a possibility. That is a real possibility at this point that we may have to look at that direction. Because it is. You're trying to balance out overall well being of the team and the defense. We know we have guys that can do it. Is that the right thing to do? That's going to be our conversations coming out of the spring. It's not going to be in this next class of high school kids. We have who we have. We talked about Austin.

"So it's a possibility. I think we're gonna have to look into and just decide if that's the right thing to do."

How quick can somebody adjust to that role? If you bring somebody in from the transfer portal, they haven't had a spring and jumping right in? How long does it take for them to be able to make an impact in that situation?

"Well, I think it leans on experience a little bit. It's hard to take a young guy that doesn't necessarily have the experience, whether it's in the Big Ten, or whether it's at the collegiate level. You look at some young guys that maybe you'd be interested in, you recruited out of high school or something but haven't played for a couple years. Well, it's hard to say they're gonna come in and be able to make an impact. You don't know. You don't know.

"So I think it limits who you could go after. They better be ready physically. They better be able to handle the adjustment to play in this defense. There's always going to be some question marks whether they are, but you have to trust, I think, who the kid is and the way they're wired and what they've done on the field up to this point."

You mentioned Darryl Peterson playing both field and boundary on the outside. How difficult is that because we haven't seen a ton of guys do that throughout the years? How much are you putting on his plate right now kind of picking both of those up?

"It changes a lot of responsibilities, and obviously, the field spacing is huge. Much tighter quarters into the boundary. Whereas to the field, whenever you're in coverage, mistakes become amplified because there's so much space to the field. So in spring, you're always trying to develop guys, just get them out of their comfort zone a little bit. We know what 'DP' can do going forward. We know what he does physically in the run game, in rushing the passer, and now it's just how much can we develop him in space and in coverage?

"We know what we have in Nick (Herbig). We know that the success that he has, and that's kind of his No. 2 role. And how many guys can you develop to feel confident that you can rotate and possibly move Nick around? You get some different matchups that you can create by moving guys around the field. So it's a big emphasis with that outside 'backer is how versatile can we make them, and it's been a fun spring to see those guys grow."

With Avyonne, you said you've overloaded him with kind of safety, corner reps. How as a true freshman has he adapted to that and what makes you confident that you can put him in those different spots and he can pick up on things?

"He was a corner (at a) big-time program, like high-level football down in Texas. Just had to do his job, do his role. Play corner, try to eliminate teams' best receiver and he did a great job of that. Well, the way he thinks, he's a football junkie a little bit. He likes to understand scheme and kind of the big picture.

"So as we recruited him, we felt like that leads to the ability to play nickel, the ability to play safety. I think he's figuring out the game, the speed of the game. He understands his ability and where he's at physically right now. You're loading him up with the communication and the adjustments of playing safety, being in the run fits a little bit more, being down in the box. That's stuff that he really hasn't done.

"And my challenge always to these freshmen, and especially the mid-years, I go just how fast can you just turn this tape on and start laughing at it because you realize like, 'Man, I just didn't know what I was doing. I was just kind of running around trying to make plays.' I don't care how much success they have early in their careers. That's what you want, like challenging yourself to just continue to learn it so you can play fast and play confident."

_________________________________________________

*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, @JakeKoco, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45

*Like us on Facebook