MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — After Bobby April III surveyed the competitive strength, balance and depth of his position group — "Our weakest link is not very far from our strongest link" — the Wisconsin assistant coach put everybody on high alert in his outside linebackers room for the start of spring ball.

"I love the group — I do — and I see really big things ahead and a ton of great competition," he said, eager to get the most out of all 15 practices through the end of April. "The great thing I like, if anybody sleeps on a day or doesn't bring it that day, there's an opportunity for a guy to pass him up.

"I don't know if I could say that the first two years that I was here," volunteered April, who joined the UW staff in 2018. "But I can say that going into this spring that if you miss a day, whatever it may be, there's a shot that the dude behind you takes your job."

Spring drills commenced Tuesday at Camp Randall and April had advice for all his dudes.

"The big thing that I tell these guys is, 'You've got to be loud on tape,'" he said, reminding them that their actions will speak for themselves. "That means being around the ball, that means hand signals, that means running past guys to get to a ballcarrier. Whatever that is. Just be loud on tape.

"And you'd better be loud in the meeting room. Meaning that you'd better be talking to each other and building each other up because, when it comes to the tape time, that's going to be the one who plays. And if you're not building a guy up, that tape will never be loud for you."

Summing up his room, collectively, and the potential for players to move up and down the depth chart from practice to practice, the 39-year-old April concluded, "These guys are ultra-competitive, for sure. But humble enough to help the next guy to them, too."

Meanwhile, no one has to be reminded COVID forced the cancelation of spring practice in 2020.

"It's really the nuts and bolts of your foundation," he said. "You're not only missing out on practice, you're missing out on meeting time. I could tell a big difference, at least for my position group, from having a spring ball and an opportunity to work together and getting to know each other as a unit."

As far as that connection last season, he conceded, "It just wasn't there as it has been in the past. And it wasn't the guys. It was the lack of a spring — really the lack of getting to know each other. That's a big part of this understanding of who you're playing with and how to play off them.

"You can only get so much (from Zoom meetings). Everyone is in their own little location and separated. I do think the players play best when they've got support from the group, from the room. And we didn't have that. No one in the country did. We're a developmental squad and that hurt."

In response to what his linebackers didn't have a year ago, April has formulated a strategy.

"We're going to start from scratch this spring," he said. "For instance, we're going to go all the way down to technique-based drills — from footwork to hand placement — and really get back to the fundamentals of football, of teaching high football IQ, and things of that nature.

"I think if I would have had a spring last year, I would have been more into schematics.

"Whereas this year is going to be the A's, B's and C's of the position."

• • • •

For starters, B is for Burks.

April is delighted to welcome back Noah Burks, who opted to return for a sixth year. Since redshirting as a true freshman in 2016, he is the elder statesman in the room. Burks, who will turn 24 in June, has appeared in games in each of the past four seasons and 42 overall.

"He's got to earn that right to be a starter again," April said of Burks, a Carmel, Indiana, native who has started 20 straight games. "But he comes with great integrity as a kid … as a man. Being probably the oldest player on the team, it's advantage for us to have him in our room.

"I kind of lean on him with ideas that I have. I bounce stuff off him all the time. I'm pretty sure the younger guys lean on him for advice in different situations that he may have already been in. It's a true asset. I'm excited that he's back and I'm looking forward to him growing, too."

Complementing Burks and garnering most of the headlines was another seven-game starter, Nick Herbig, a true freshman from Kauai, Hawaii, and a product of Saint Louis School, a heavyweight prep program. Herbig, the third-leading tackler, tied for the team lead with six TFLs.

An early enrollee, Herbig went back home to train after classes went online last spring.

"When he finally got back up here and we were able to do football," April said, "it was kind of weird because we only did two days of stuff with him, but you could see that he had something special to him. And by the time that we got to (training) camp, he worked his tail off."

April rattled off some one-liners on Herbig:

"It was very surprising (his production), but that's who we thought Nick was … He's a go-getter. He's not going to be held back because of adversity … Last year, he played with straight natural ability (because of his sound technique) … He's going to be such a better player coming out of spring."

At that, in 2020, April purposely stuck to the basics with Herbig. Really basic stuff.

"It was literally, 'Hey, there's the ball … go play.

"Here's about 20 things you've got to get done. Make sure you're on point. Good luck, man.'

"Where now I can really diagnose little things that we have to improve on as opposed to getting straight to the schematics of the game when you've got to get ready to play in two weeks … As a coach, I didn't get an opportunity to really dial in on him … Now we can really focus on the small details."

Although Herbig, a 4-star, was more of a national recruit — choosing UW over Oklahoma, UCLA, USC, Stanford, et al — Aaron Witt, a true freshman from Winona, Minnesota, was a big regional catch. A 3-star, he signed with the Badgers after decommitting from the Gophers and Iowa.

"He really didn't play anything outside of D-end, he always had his hand down, so you really didn't know what you were going to get until maybe later in his career," April said of Witt, who played in just four Big Ten games but had two TFLs, including a strip sack against Wake Forest in the bowl.

"We had the feeling, 'Yeah, this guy can do it.' But as a true entry freshman (he) was awesome.

"He's wired different, too. I kind of like finding guys like that. They're trustworthy where they can babysit your kid, but you can also take them to a fight and you know they're going to scrap for you. He was a great surprise. Big things are ahead for that guy."

April believes that C.J. Goetz, a redshirt junior from Muskego, is built the same way. So much so that he proposed, "If you're going to pick a guy to go into the ring, you're going to grab him and Aaron Witt … He's a strong sucker, now. He's probably the strongest guy in the room."

Coming into the spring, April noted that Goetz "has leaned out" at about 241 pounds.

"We recruited him as an inside linebacker and I didn't know much about him because I had just gotten on staff and he had already signed," said April, sharing his back story. "Right before fall camp, we needed some help at the D-line spot, and he was big body that we could move into that position."

But he couldn't bulk up enough to hold his ground as an inside technique.

"One day, we were doing some punt drills," April remembered, "and he came off the edge like a bandit, and I go, 'Holy smokes, who's that guy?' From that point on, I was begging Coach Nokes (Inoke Breckterfield) to let me take him. Fortunately enough, he's been able to make that transition."

April added Goetz hit all of his benchmarks during winter conditioning. He wasn't alone.

"Spencer Lytle is another guy who has done a great job in the weight room, he's hit three maxes already which is impressive as heck," April said of the redshirt sophomore from Redondo Beach, California. "He's got a personal trainer that he worked with back home and he came back in great shape."

Lytle got into five games last season. The same number as Marty Strey, a redshirt junior from Sun Prairie. Said April, "Marty has really done a good job on special teams. He made the travel squad last year which was a goal of his. He just needs to keep developing. He's a great kid."

Another outside linebacker in that development phase is Kaden Johnson, a highly touted freshman from St. Paul, Minnesota, and Minnehaha Academy. He grew up playing hoops and football with Jalen Suggs, the first-year centerpiece of Gonzaga's basketball team.

"The second day of fall camp, he sprained an ankle, and he was never really able to climb out of that hole," said April. "I'm looking forward to seeing him this spring. This offseason is huge for him, just body-type wise, to get that muscular lean build and show confidence in himself that he can do this."

One of the most intriguing prospects in April's room is an early enrollee, T.J. Bollers, a 259-pound freshman from Tiffin, Iowa. To get him, the Badgers beat out the Hawkeyes — Bollers lives 10 minutes from Kinnick Stadium and his dad, Trevor, played fullback for Hayden Fry — and Alabama.

"Looking at T.J., I truly believe that he's a guy who's hungry, he's got a maturity level that is beyond his years," April said. "This spring is going to be a huge benefit for him to increase his football IQ and really open up the box of things that we do that he hasn't done before.

"In high school (Clear Creek Amana) his senior year, he played offensive tackle half the season due to injuries and then on the other side, he played defensive end and sometimes the 3-technique. For him to stand up and drop into coverage now and understand the terms that we're doing is huge.

"He's going to grow. He's wired to be great."

April is looking forward to when two of Bollers' classmates arrive this summer. One is Ayo Adebogun from Thiensville ("One of the twitchiest, fast-paced guys you'll ever see") and the other is Darryl Peterson from Akron, Ohio ("He's got elite pass rush skills").

Bollers, Adebogun and Peterson offer versatility, April pointed out.

"They all have their own different aspects of things that they're really good at," he said. "It kind of fits into what we do at that outside 'backer spot. We're basically playing 0 to 9 technique and you've got to be able to play anything on the field at any given time."

Including two players rehabbing from injuries (Izayah Green-May and Riley Nowakowski), April wants to get a feel for how all the pieces fit together and play off each other. The same can be said of the coaching staff with the additions of Ross Kolodziej (D-line) and Hank Poteat (cornerbacks).

"Ross has been great, he has brought a different energy and I appreciate how he comes to work; he comes in wanting to learn," April said. "I forgot that he was even the strength coach, he's done such a great job, it's like, 'Man, it's like you've been here the whole time as the D-line coach.'"

On Poteat, he said, "I know the guys respect the heck out of him. Just to have another voice in that room is a huge benefit for Coach Leonhard, too, where it's going to allow him a little more time to look at some schemes as opposed to having to coach five guys (in the secondary) on the field."

Jim Leonhard will continue to coach the safeties while coordinating the defense.

Besides connecting the outside linebackers with the inside linebackers — coached by Bob Bostad — April has used Leonhard as a resource for his own personal growth as an assistant, one who served six seasons in the NFL before finding a home with the Badgers.

"It's kind of crazy to think that four years is the longest I've been on any team," April confided. "Every day, Jim teaches me a ton of football. Seeing how he used to see things as a player. Seeing how he sees it now as a coach. Seeing it from the back end to the front.

"I've grown more as a coach in this stint than any program I've ever been at. It ain't even close."

And he's now passing on that knowledge to his 'backers, his dudes.