[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Joe Stellmacher can still remember the feeling. There he lay on the Memorial Stadium turf on Sept. 27, 2003, unable to move his right leg after taking a friendly-fire hit from teammate Alex Lewis.

"It was a kickoff," Stellmacher said. "I was containing it, and Alex Lewis came flying in there. He was diving for the ball carrier. He missed the ball carrier and hit my leg. My leg was planted in the ground."

That hit from Lewis put a damper on Stellmacher's career at Wisconsin just as it was getting going. A redshirt freshman who had originally come to Madison as a walk-on, he pushed his way up the depth chart and, after making six tackles in the team's home-opening win against Akron, cracked the starting lineup against UNLV.

Just two games later, though, Lewis crashed into the hard-nosed strong safety's right side, ending his season immediately. A few hours later, Lewis was carrying Stellmacher onto the team flight back to Madison.

"My whole leg was pretty numb," Stellmacher said. "I had never broken a bone prior to that, so it was something I had never felt before."

That broken leg did more than just end his season, however. Stellmacher played sporadically last season as a reserve defensive back and on special teams, and says this year's fall camp was when he finally felt back up to his previous speed.

"Just playing again, I was like, 'Yeah, I think I'm back. I think I've got that extra step back that I probably didn't have last year,'" Stellmacher said.

And despite the injury, the Berlin, Wis., native never lost hope. After all, he had gone through too many hours of hard work to even get to Wisconsin — even after a celebrated high school career.

Berlin's best

Growing up, Stellmacher excelled in nearly everything he tried. He was a first-team all-conference performer in basketball and baseball. His American Legion baseball team won the Wisconsin state championship in 2001. But he was always destined to do more in football.

The son of Berlin High head coach Steve Stellmacher, Joe grew up around the game, serving as the team's water boy in his childhood. The younger Stellmacher's football maturation continued as he grew older, and father and son got to experience a dream together: working as head coach and star player for Berlin High.

"He's been my No. 1 fan all growing up," Stellmacher said of his dad. "He was my high school coach, did a tremendous job teaching me the game growing up and then, when I came here, he's always my No. 1 fan, him and my mom. They're at every one of my games, giving me so much support, and I probably couldn't do this without them."

Not surprisingly, Stellmacher is a classic "heady" football player. He often finds himself around the ball (his 42 tackles rank third on the team despite missing Wisconsin's loss at Northwestern and not starting in two other contests) — something that can be traced back to the years he spent on the sidelines next to his father.

"It's probably just from being around the game since I was 5, 6 years old, a little water boy on my dad's high school teams," Stellmacher said. "Playing under him and just watching tape all through high school. I don't know if it's innate ability or if it's just learned, I don't know. But it's probably just from being around football all my life."

Back to the future

That headiness has allowed Stellmacher to regain the starting spot he once held two seasons ago. And, for a young and relatively inexperienced Wisconsin defense, he has emerged as a leader. Defensive coordinator Bret Bielema went as far as to compare Stellmacher's leadership skills to those of another former Badger walk-on made good: Jimmy Leonhard.

"He's not too far off from where [Leonhard] was a year ago," Bielema said. "Jimmy was a guy last year that knew how to get people in the right place, do certain things and get people to adjust during the course of the play, and I think that's what Joe's been able to do."

Stellmacher's experience — though he only started briefly in 2003 — is a rarity in the Wisconsin defensive backfield. Bielema has relied heavily on a pair of redshirt freshmen — cornerbacks Allen Langford and Jack Ikegwuonu — throughout the season, and free safety Roderick Rogers entered this year having never started a game, and played only sparingly in his first two years. Needless to say, that experience combined with Stellmacher's natural feel for the game has paid major dividends for Rogers, who has done nothing but improve as the season has worn on. And Rogers is grateful for the chance to line up alongside a hard-nosed player like Stellmacher.

"Joe is a very competitive guy," Rogers said. "I liked him from the first time I met him. He's always going to compete, always going to do his job. He's always going to play hard."

That mentality has also endeared him to the UW coaching staff.

"[Stellmacher] understands where kids are supposed to be not only at his own position, but all the positions around him," Bielema said. "You'll see him constantly moving his arms, pointing, directing traffic, how they adjust to things during the course of the game. He's really done a good job for us as the year's come along. Now that's confidence that he has."

Stellmacher will now carry that confidence back to Memorial Stadium this Saturday. And, despite returning to the site of the biggest setback of his career, he's not worried. In his words, "It's [a] coincidence that it happened there."

"Hopefully nothing happens," Stellmacher said with a grin. "One bad memory from Champaign."