BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin cornerback Derrick Tindal was in mid-sentence and thought — extolling the importance of playing with confidence — when Chris Orr casually walked into his sight line.
"You just have to be yourself," Tindal said. "Like Chris Orr. Just bring the swag out."
That produced a wink and a nod from Orr, a sophomore linebacker with boundless energy. With Orr looking on, Tindal was asked to describe Orr's personality to someone who has never met him.
"Worst guy ever," he said with a straight face.
Just clowning.
"Naaaw, I'd describe him as energetic," he said. "Fun to play with on the field. Like a brother."
Orr began clowning Tindal by sniffing and feigning tears to reflect how moved he was.
"I'd describe DT as somebody that is athletic and quick," said Orr, turning serious. "You always know where he's going to be. On the field, you have no doubt that he'll make a big play."
Then he couldn't resist.
"As a person that boy Derrick is a clown," Orr teased. "Always has you laughing and smiling."
Their friendship, for sure, has grown stronger over the last year, they both agreed.
"When Chris got here, we connected," he said. "Real recognizes real."
That's what they say back home, explained Tindal, a Floridian (Fort Lauderdale).
Just don't bring up their regional differences, especially since Orr is a Texan (DeSoto).
Where is the best high school football played? You don't want to go there with them.
"We still got that going (between us)," Orr said. "That's more like a sibling rivalry."
"Everyone knows Florida is better," Tindal insisted.
"All I'm going to say is look at the numbers and we Texas boys" …
Orr's voice tailed off.
Tindal had stopped listening.
Orr walked away grinning.
• • • •
"When I first got here," Tindal said, "my mom and dad used to tell me, 'You're grown now. It's time (to be on your own).' But I didn't feel like that. I still needed my parents.
"College is a different thing and I really had to become a man."
That was painfully true after Tindal lost his mom, Regina Singletary, to cancer in early November of his freshman year (2014). He still thinks about her. "Every day," he said.
That's because there are constant reminders with everything that Tindal does.
"I say to myself a lot, 'I know that she'd be proud of me right now,'" he said. "I just think about that smile — the smile on her face when I committed and signed."
She had a favorite saying that now puts a smile on his face.
"When I was first going through high school, I used to be kind of bad," said Tindal, a product of Boyd Anderson in Broward County. "I wasn't too good of a person at a young age. But I grew out of it.
"But she'd always tell me, 'Derrick, I don't think you're too old to get a beating.' I'd always think about that — and still do — and I'll laugh."
To no one's surprise, Tindall struggled as a freshman. "I went through a lot of adversity," he said. "It was kind of hard for me to adjust being alone (without his mom). I had to deal with it."
Last season, he started to make his move up the depth chart by starting five of 12 games. He had a career-high eight tackles against Troy before being ejected in the third quarter for targeting.
Tindal came into this season with one target in mind: a starting position. And he has earned it opposite the lone returning starter in the secondary, Sojourn Shelton, who has 37 career starts.
"The coaches are now looking for me to do good things on the field," Tindal said. "I'm not out here playing for myself anymore. I'm playing for my teammates, my family and, most of all, my mom.
"And, so far, I feel like this has been my best (training) camp since I've been here. I'm more comfortable with my technique and with myself. I'm confident and ready."
He could not always say that the first two seasons when isolated in press-man coverage.
"I used to be timid at times to go up and press (receivers) in games," said Tindal. "I'd think, 'What if he's faster?' But you just have to be yourself. And, now, I use my techniques."
That's going to be critical against LSU's receiving corps, the tallest on average in the SEC. Six of the nine scholarship receivers are 6-foot-3 or taller. The leaders are 6-4 Malachi Dupre and 6-2 Travin Dural.
"I might be 5-11, but I feel like I'm 6-5 in my mind," Tindal said. "I respect their players. But when they go up for the ball, I have to stay with our techniques and fight through their hands.
"Coach Leonhard has been helping us a lot."
That would be first-year secondary coach Jim Leonhard, who knows something about fighting through the hands of taller receivers as a former college and pro safety.
Leonhard is 5-8.
But his height didn't stop him from becoming an All-American or playing 10 years in the NFL. He's now passing those lessons on to pupils like Tindal, who admires his coach for another reason.
Leonhard was a playmaker — he intercepted 21 passes during his UW career.
Play the technique and Leonhard has assured Tindal that he will have chances for picks. "I just have to be in the right spot and catch it," Tindal said. "Be swag out there." Orr taught him that.
