For new Wisconsin defensive coordinator Bret Bielema, improving the Badger defense for the 2004-05 season (and beyond) isn’t so much a task of getting his players to develop their skills as it is getting them to start using them.

When addressing the issue of the team’s oft-maligned secondary, for instance, Bielema insists that the problem in the past couple of seasons hasn’t been that the team hasn’t had enough talent or skill or determination at the position of defensive back but has simply been that the team hasn’t been playing a system designed to use the players’ individual talents, skills and determinations in an effective manner.

“There are some guys back there that obviously have a lot of talent,” Bielema said. “There are some guys back there that have already proven themselves — take Jimmy Leonhard: he’s already having a great career here at Wisconsin … I think we’re going to try to take the skills that he’s already exploiting and try to use them on a whole other level. We’re going to try to ride the things that these guys already do best more and shape the unit around those things.”

When shaping the unit, one of the things Bielema says he wants to make sure is addressed fully is the defensive backfield missing tackles and allowing yards after tackles.

“That’s the really big thing,” Bielema said. “We’ve talked about it a lot already — finishing everything off. Anything that we can do to put ourselves in a better position as a group to make those tackles this season, we’re doing it.”

Bielema only witnessed the Badgers’ tackling woes from afar last season but says that it was the first thing he targeted when he came to Madison.

“Last year — I heard about it and I saw some things on film — we started it off one way and finished it off in another way — the wrong way — bottom line,” he said. “We lost a couple of things during the course of the season, and those things came back and hurt us in big games.”

Cornerback Scott Starks, who will be a senior next season and will be counted on to be a leader in the unit’s turnaround, says he’s already seeing positive results from the changes Bielema has started to make this spring.

“I’ve been trying to learn some of the new stuff and get the new terminology down. It’s been going pretty good for me and for backfield as a whole so far,” Starks said. “Every small little change that he’s made has been for the better.”

Starks has a chance to be a shutdown corner for the Badgers this season. If he is able to play to his potential, Bielema sees him becoming one of the best defensive backs in the Big Ten.

“Starks is playing really good football,” Bielema said. “He was playing really well at the end of last year and he’s done some things this spring already that have impressed me. He’s got the ability to do some things in coverage. He can run, cover, play man, play zone.”

When asked what type of talent he saw in Starks, Bielema threw around a name that would have saliva pouring from the mouth of almost any college football fan — a former Jim Thorpe award-winning name.

“Coming from K-State, I’ve been around some pretty good players,” Bielema said. “Terrance Newman was a highly drafted corner a couple years back. I think we’re talking about the same types of skills that he has.”

If Starks is able to translate his skill and potential into the kind of success that Terrance Newman had on the field, he and Jim Leonhard, a first-team All-American pick by ESPN.com in 2003, should make for mighty tandem in the Badger secondary. But Bielema believes that the unit should be much deeper than its two senior stars.

“Because of some of the injuries we’ve had this spring, we’ve gotten a good look at the twos. (Senior Robert) Brooks has done a great job. He’s strong all around — he’s done some good things going in on the run game as well as dropping back into pass coverage situations,” Bielema said. “And then we’ve also got some good guys in (senior) Brett Bell and (junior Levonne) Rowan. Brett’s done a lot of great things this spring. There are a lot of guys on the defense who we think are ready to step it up.”

With three seniors (Leonhard, Starks and Brooks) and a pair of juniors (Bell and Rowan) at the top of the depth chart, the Badgers’ secondary will boast a lot of experience in the fall, giving Bielema a lot of experienced options. When asked if he thought his upperclassmen were ready for leadership roles, Bielema chose his words carefully.

“We think,” Bielema started before cutting himself off abruptly. “Well, I’ll just say we suspect they’re ready to step into leadership roles.”

Starks confirmed his coach’s suspicions and sees the unit’s experience as a potential strong point.

“We’ve got a lot more experience back there,” Starks said. “On the defense as a whole, we’ve got a lot of seniors out there — a lot of people that have played a lot of football. We just got to go out there and play up to our expectations and be consistent.”

“We have just as much talent, if not more,” he continued. “Last year we had some great linebackers, the D-line always came to play and the defensive backfield wasn’t bad. We got a lot of the same people back and the only difference is they got a little more experience, so we should be OK.”

If Starks and some of his teammates can step up, play to their talent levels and become leaders for Bielema’s defense in 2004, the secondary could go from being one of the team’s weaknesses to being its greatest strength. This is a prospect that has Starks and a lot of others pretty excited.

“Me, Jimmy L. and Levonne and Brooks, I mean, we’ve got a lot of depth over there,” Starks said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball. We should be one of the best defensive backfields in the (Big) Ten. I mean, that’s our goal. You always want to shoot high, and that’s what we’re shooting for, to be the best in the (Big) Ten. I think with the experience that we have back there, we have a good chance to be that.”