BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Just for grins, Wisconsin safety D'Cota Dixon was asked if his 33-year-old position coach could put on the pads and still hold his own in the secondary against all-comers.
"He can break (on the ball) — he's still got that twitch muscle, that fast twitch," Dixon said. "I think if he really wanted to play, he could. Honestly, I think he would be fine."
Jim Leonhard might respectfully disagree.
"I played as long as I wanted to," said Leonhard, who retired at the end of the 2014 season after a 10-year NFL career with the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns.
"Mentally, I wasn't at the point where I wanted to physically train to get there anymore. I was burned out to some degree and knew that I needed a break and I chose to get out. Very few people get the chance to walk away when they want to.
"I'm just ready to coach these guys now."
And they're delighted to be tutored by the former Badgers walk-on and All-American.
"Anything that man says, I try to absorb like a sponge," said safety Leo Musso.
"Coach Leonhard is very patient and very smart," Dixon said. "He has helped us all improve."
Patience will be necessary. The Badgers face a sizeable rebuilding challenge in the secondary with the loss of three starters, including both safeties, Michael Caputo and Tanner McEvoy.
"You're really as good as your secondary; I try to impart that all the time," Leonhard said. "If your secondary plays well, you've got a chance to win every game.
"If your secondary doesn't play well, it's going to be a fight, no matter who you play. That's just the way this game works. We're going to have to rely on each other."
At cornerback, Sojourn Shelton is the catalyst with 37 career starts. Derrick Tindal and Natrell Jamerson have both played in nickel schemes. Titus Booker, a redshirt freshman, is also in the mix.
At safety, there are more questions than any other position group. As a result, the discussion revolves around the "sum of its parts" more than any individual standout or proven contributor.
"It's one of those things," said Musso, a fifth-year senior from Waunakee, "where we have a lot of guys with playing experience. But we've not really been heard of.
"We're going to have to use that as a chip on our shoulder a little bit and make sure our presence is felt. We've got guys who are eager to show what they've got."
Musso and Dixon have been the No. 1 group during the first week of the preseason training camp. Joe Ferguson and Arrington Warren-Farrer have been the backups.
Leonhard has been working with that core group since March. But he hasn't ruled out the freshmen from impacting the two-deep, whether it's Eric Burrell, Seth Currens or Patrick Johnson.
Leonhard isn't about to shut the door on anyone. If you can play, he'll find a spot.
"Best man goes on the field," Dixon echoed.
Leonhard would be the first to admit that he also has some high standards.
"Fall camp is all about finding guys who are going to help you win on Saturdays," Leonhard said. "Our guys understand the situation as far as it being a pretty open competition.
"You're always formulating opinions in trying to figure out guys' strengths and how it works together as a unit. But you have to keep an open mind. There's a lot of growth that happens from the beginning of spring ball until that ball is snapped up in Lambeau (against LSU on Sept. 3).
"We have more talent than a lot of people understand. It's our job to go out there and prove it, right? You just can't talk about it. And that's the approach our guys have.
"We're going to go out there and earn everything that we get this year."
Dixon has a modest goal: to stay healthy. Or, rather, to get healthy.
As a true freshman, he played in three games before going to the sideline with a shoulder injury. Last year, he appeared in nine games before succumbing to a groin injury.
A subsequent infection laid him up for the spring.
"For me, it's all about my health," said Dixon, a junior from Oak Hill, Florida. "That's my biggest thing. Once I have that situated, I believe that I'll be able to fully do what this team needs."
The 197-pound Dixon is a safety with a linebacker's mentality.
"I like to hit; yeah, I do," he said. "I'm aggressive. Sometimes, I'm a little bit too aggressive."
Wisconsin tight end Troy Fumagalli can attest to Dixon's hitting ability.
"I see that aggressive downhill runner who's not afraid to put his head in there," Fumagalli said. "He's also aggressive coming up and playing man-to-man on tight ends.
"That's what I've noticed. Even on blitz drills, he flies; he comes off hot."
Fumagalli has filed away notes on the other safeties, too.
"Leo (Musso) is just a natural athlete," he said. "Joe (Ferguson) is smart, trustworthy. He knows what he's doing. They definitely need (Farrar) to continue to grow to be a complete unit."
The safeties, as a whole, see themselves as potential playmakers.
"We're one of those groups that people put a question mark on," Musso conceded. "But we're definitely not going to be one of the weak links."
"We're confident in our abilities and we know what we can do at the end of the day."
That came to fruition for Dixon in the 2015 opener. After Caputo was knocked out of the game against Alabama, an untested Dixon took over and responded with nine tackles.
"Obviously, I wasn't expecting to play the full game," said Dixon, who had only seven stops the rest of the season following Caputo's return. "But there were a lot of things I learned from it."
All of the safeties are in the learning mode. And what better teacher to have than Leonhard?
"The one thing about Coach Leonhard is that you'd never catch him out of position (as a player)," Dixon said. "You'd never catch him not knowing what to do.
"He was flawless and I'm striving to push my game to that level. Sometimes, we'll watch film of him playing (in the NFL) and it's amazing to see because he just simplified the game so much."
Leonhard was hired to replace Daronte' Jones, who's now with the Miami Dolphins. One of Jones' favorite sayings has stuck with Dixon: "Football is just a game complicated by men."
That's in concert with Leonhard's teaching points and emphasis on simplicity.
"He's probably the smartest person I've ever talked to," Dixon said, "as far as identifying formations, knowing what to expect and looking at the down-and-distance, things like that."
But once the ball was in the air, Leonhard attacked it.
"We were just talking about that the other night," Dixon said. "He had 11 interceptions one year (during the 2002 season at Wisconsin). That's like a dream come true for any DB."
Leonhard had 21 career interceptions, tying Jamar Fletcher for the school record.
"That's a coach that you want to play for," Dixon said. "That's somebody you want to put your heart on the line for. He's a great coach. I love having him here."
