Jim Leonhard's next Wisconsin game will be his last, at least for the time being.
The Badgers' now-former interim head coach has chosen not to remain on Luke Fickell's staff, announcing Tuesday night he will leave the team after serving as defensive coordinator in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 27.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Saturday that Leonhard was expected to return, but Fickell cast doubt on that Sunday. And now we see Fickell had good reason for doubt.
“That’s not easy. There’s a lot of things we all have to be able to get over. It takes a special person in some ways to get over a lot of those things," Fickell said last week. Fickell himself ascended to the interim head coaching role at Ohio State then remained on as an assistant on a new staff, but he re-joined a group led by an offensive-minded head coach in Urban Meyer.
Fickell himself is a former defensive coordinator, and he's expected to defensive coordinator Mike Tressel and co-coordinator Colin Hitschler (a safeties coach, like Leonhard) along from Cincinnati. Working Leonhard into that braintrust was always going to be a tall order.
On Wisconsin! pic.twitter.com/lkgkPWmrO1
— Jim Leonhard (@jimleonhard) December 7, 2022
Leonhard is a living legend in Madison: a 5-foot-8 walk-on who became a three-time All-American, a standout defensive coordinator and, briefly, the Badgers' head coach.
But he has also only been a Badgers coach. Following the completion of his decade-long NFL career, Leonhard joined his alma mater's staff in 2016, rose to defensive coordinator the following year, and has remained in Madison ever since.
So, moving on now makes professional sense for the 40-year-old coach.
He coached four top-20 yards per play units in five seasons running the defense, and led the nation's No. 1 yards per play defense as recently as 2021.
The market for Leonhard's services should be a robust one, and his career prospects will take off further from there if he's able to duplicate his Wisconsin success outside the Motherland.