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One of the mantras for the University of Wisconsin football team this season has been “next man in,” meaning the backups must be ready to fill in if a starter gets injured.

But for reserve safety Aubrey Pleasant, it was almost “next man out.” As in transferring out of the university.

Pleasant, a redshirt junior, started all 13 games a year ago at strong safety. But he was replaced by then-freshman Jay Valai in the team’s Outback Bowl game against Tennessee.

The bowl game solidified Valai’s spot as a starter while it planted thoughts of transferring into Pleasant’s head.

“I just wanted to weigh my options, to see whether staying here at Wisconsin or leaving to go to another program was best for me and my family,” said Pleasant, a Flint, Mich., native. “I just sat down with myself and my father and coach [Bielema], and we just weighed the pros and cons.”

The pros eventually outweighed the cons for Pleasant, and he decided to stay at UW. The decision wasn’t an easy one, but in defensive backs coach Kerry Cooks’ opinion, it was ultimately the right one.

“We had a great conversation back in the spring,” Cooks said. “I sat down and explained the situation to him and gave it to him from a coach’s eyes — areas where he can improve and areas where he played well. I told him that the worst thing he could do because he’s got that much experience is to go somewhere else, not be patient and wait it out.”

Pleasant’s father, Garner, also weighed in on the situation, balancing both sides of the argument with his son. At the same time, Aubrey acknowledged that his dad left the decision up to him.

“He said it’s my life. I need to live with it,” Pleasant said. “My parents said they’d be behind me 100 percent, no matter which decision I made. But at the same time, he was a realist and he told me the pros and cons of both situations.”

Pleasant missed most of the 2006 season due to injury and took a medical redshirt. If he transferred to another Football Bowl Subdivision school, he would have had to sit out another year due to NCAA regulations, something that didn’t appeal to him.

“I just felt like that wasn’t a very good option because I felt like I wanted to come back this year and use it as an opportunity to get better and get some on the field and game experience with that,” Pleasant said. “I didn’t feel like sitting out another year would be too productive for me. The only option I had was to go to a smaller school.”

Again, that was not an option he preferred. Ultimately, the academics at Wisconsin played a big part in the sociology major’s decision to finish what he started.

“This is a very, very tough and a very good academic university. I felt like me studying hard and taking caring of my business for these past few years, what’s the use?” Pleasant said. “Because if I transferred, I’d have had to play a division lower. I just felt that the quality of this university and the quality of this degree, it’s better to stay here than to go somewhere else.”

“I think the biggest thing that he realized was he had already gotten started here,” Cooks said. “I don’t think that it had to do with him sitting out a year or anything. He just realized that he was comfortable here, he enjoyed it here and it wasn’t like he was not going to play for us.”

Learning a new trade

Pleasant came to Wisconsin as both a linebacker and running back. In his senior season at Montrose High School, he rushed for 1,264 yards and 18 touchdowns on offense, while making 113 tackles on defense.

Yet, he didn’t see a snap in the defensive backfield before becoming a Badger.

“Last year was his first year ever to play college safety,” Cooks said. “He had to understand the move that we made to put Valai in front of him was just based on giving a guy who’s played that position, who’s comfortable with that position, who we saw grow through the season. And obviously the Tennessee game, Jay went in and did a heck of a job and carried that on through the spring.”

“Last year I was learning how to play and learning the plays at the same time,” Pleasant said. “I wasn’t able to react and play as fast as I could.”

Valai came from Colleyville Heritage High School in Euless, Texas, with experience under his belt at defensive back. Ranked as one of the top 60 cornerbacks in the nation when he came to UW, it didn’t take Valai long before his time to start came.

“Jay Valai came in knowing how to play safety, but Jay needed to understand what we were doing defensively before he could progress,” Cooks said. “That’s the transition. When you’ve got a guy who’s playing a position he’s never played versus a guy that that’s all he’s done all his life, you kind of go with your heart and say, ‘OK, this guy’s got some things, some little nuances from playing the position that you can’t teach.’

“Those are the things that AP’s learned throughout this year.”

Pleasant has also learned from the competition that has grown between him and Valai. Although Pleasant lost out on his spot to Valai, he doesn’t hold any grudges against his fellow safety.

“There wasn’t any hostility between the two of us,” Pleasant said. “Actually, we worked pretty well in just trying to make each other better. I can sit here and say that me competing against Jay Valai has made me a better player, and I’m pretty sure he can say the same.”

Valai knows the time he and Pleasant spent battling it out in practice has indeed made both of them better.

“That’s what made me into the player I’m going to be — competition,” Valai said. “Aubrey’s pushing me; I’m pushing him. It puts a lot of pressure on you, puts that fire under you either way. You’ve got to get ready to play football. I think that competition makes you a better football player. … I know he got better off it, too.”