The story is like something that could have only been created in Hollywood. Undersized, small-town football hero goes to big-time football program, walks-on. He jumps from third string to starting at safety in the matter of two practices before the season. He makes key plays to seal victories all season and is finally recognized nationally by becoming a first-team All-American.
But this isn’t a movie; it’s a reality for Jim Leonhard, who was named a first-team All-American by CNNSI.com Monday. Leonhard, a sophomore walk-on, leads the nation with 10 interceptions and also paces the Big Ten with 24 pass breakups. The honor caps a simply unbelievable, and likely historic, season for Leonhard.
“I’ve never heard of a walk-on breaking school records, being named first-team All-Big Ten and certainly not making first-team All-American,” said head coach Barry Alvarez. “It may be unprecedented. It may have happened before, but I certainly haven’t heard of it.”
Leonhard, who does not yet have a scholarship, came to the Badgers from Tony, Wis. (pop. 114) after being a wishbone quarterback in high school. Standing only 5-foot-8, the gifted athlete slipped under the radars of major college programs and would have slipped past Wisconsin’s recruiters as well had it not been for his attending a camp for potential sleepers that Alvarez and staff hold in Madison each summer.
“We really didn’t know much about Jim until we had him in our summer football camp. It’s a long, drawn-out day. It’s normally very hot, kids are nervous. You truck them over, you have a bunch of meetings, they have dinner, and an hour and a half later we test them,” said Alvarez. “It’s really unfair to them that we’re testing them — vertical jump, 40-yard dash, etc. Normally you get a guy that runs a 4.6 he’ll run a 4.8 that day. Jimmy Leonhard ran a 4.4; now that got our attention.”
Coaches then knew that Leonhard had the athletic tools but still questioned whether his game skills would live up to his tremendous athletic ability. They got their answer later in the camp.
“Then you watch them in camp. He was a wishbone quarterback. But you saw the ball skills he had working with the defense,” said Alvarez. “It really jumped out at you. We kept him on our list as someone you want to recruit.”
Despite a good camp, UW did not offer Leonhard a scholarship but did continue to pursue him as a walk-on. A few months later, Leonhard was back in Madison, participating as a recruited walk-on.
“Unfortunately with numbers as they are … we always made it known to him that we wanted him … in the program,” said Alvarez. “We thought that he could be successful. So we stayed on top of him, and I don’t know how close we came to giving him a scholarship.”
Clearly the move paid off for both Wisconsin and Leonhard this season. In addition to proving to be an outstanding player in the secondary, Leonhard also set a new UW record for punt-return yards in a season, with 438. Leonhard rarely called for any fair catches when fielding punts this season and generally made at least one player miss on returns.
In his last two games of the season, Leonhard returned a punt 37-yards for a touchdown to keep Wisconsin in the game against Michigan and intercepted two late passes against Minnesota to ensure the Badgers of taking back the axe from the Gophers.
Is there anyone more deserving? Not according to Alvarez.
“I don’t know how he could have played any better than he did or make more of an impact on a team in as many as ways as he did. He just had a phenomenal year. Go back to the first game. First pass thrown he intercepts, the last pass that they attempt he breaks up, which wins the game. Starting with that game all the way through: scoring a touchdown in the Michigan game to swing the momentum to us giving us a chance … It just goes on and on. It’s just unbelievable what he’s done.”
