[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]On several occasions, Dave Doeren has brought his two sons — Jacob, 6, and Luke, 4 — down toward the locker room and into his office after practices. The 34-year-old UW linebackers coach and his wife, Sara, just welcomed their third child, Connor, last week.

It's a good thing that Doeren has so much familiarity with young kids. He's going to need it this season at Wisconsin.

Not to imply that any Badgers will be wearing Pampers this year, but the unit will undeniably need a lot of guidance and leadership in 2006. After all, Doeren is dealing with one of the most inexperienced units on the UW spring football team.

There are nine underclassmen linebackers for the spring of 2006, joined by two seniors and one junior. Four players from that latter group earned their first letter in 2005 and combined for 44 tackles, but the other five have yet to make a tackle for UW.

However, despite its young age, the linebacking crew has emerged as one of the more solid units on the practice field in April as the team works out in preparation for the 2006 season.

"It's encouraging, they're getting better. There are some things we need to continue to work on, but each day those guys come out and play with a good attitude," Doeren said. "I'm very confident, they're a good group of guys that work hard and want to play well."

One reason why the linebackers have had so much success comes in the form of the 6-2, 236-pound wrecking ball known as Mark Zalewski. The senior placed third on the Badgers in tackles (83) and led the team in tackles for a loss (12.5) in 2005.

"Zalewski's obviously a veteran guy, he's been around a long time, and he plays like that, he's been improving," said UW defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz. "When you have a linebacker that asserts himself as a leader vocally and makes plays, the guy [is just] like the quarterback because everybody looks to him.

"They see him making plays, coming downhill and attacking the line, being aggressive, that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the defense."

As one of two fifth-year senior linebackers, and the only one entering his fourth year on the field, Zalewski has become the obvious leader not just of Doeren's troops, but of the entire UW defense.

"He's the heart of the defense, he plays fast and he makes his presence known [when] he hits people," Doeren said. "When he's in there, you know he's in there."

Hankwitz added, "I think it's invaluable when you have a linebacker like that."

That is especially true considering the Badgers lost emotional firecracker Dontez Sanders to graduation. Sanders started all 13 games at weak-side linebacker while leading Wisconsin with 95 tackles last season and was often the motivational sparkplug for the team. But that doesn't stop Zalewski from having the utmost confidence in Sanders' potential replacements.

"He's a guy that got everyone excited, he was one of the leaders on the defense," Zalewski said. "It always hurts to lose a guy like that, but I think these new linebackers have come in and they're not worried about who we lost, they're just worried about who they are and they just keep working and … getting better themselves."

Among the four returning first-time letterwinners is Jonathan Casillas, who has been playing weak-side in place of Sanders throughout the spring.

Most fans will remember Casillas as the true freshman who blocked Justin Kucek's punt on Oct. 15 of last season, setting into the motion the "Minnesota Miracle" as the Badgers defeated Minnesota 38-34 in shocking fashion.

Sophomore strong-side linebacker DeAndre Levy, who is currently nursing a groin injury, has joined Casillas in seeing a consistent amount of play alongside Zalewski, which could be pointing early signs to the trio as Wisconsin's starting three in the fall.

"I've been real impressed with the way that DeAndre Levy and Jonathan Casillas have come on," Hankwitz said. "They were young guys that played more and more as the year went along, they both played quite a bit in the Auburn game, and I see them playing with more confidence. They've been able to assert themselves a little bit."

Casillas, nonetheless, dismissed any talk that he's close to being penciled in as a starter.

"I don't think so. We have athletes with a lot of talent at the linebacker position," he said. "I think it's up for grabs. I don't think anything is solidified yet, everybody's still working."

Other possible suitors for a spot in the Badger starting 11 come August include Jammar Crane, Elijah Hodge, Paul Joran, Joshua Neal, and O'Brien Schofield. Each player has shown development on the practice field in attempting to elevate their status with the coaching staff.

"They're getting better, we're harping every day to make that improvement in your game, whatever you did wrong the day before to focus on that and make it right the next day," Doeren said. "If you can do that 15 times, then you've gotten a lot better. We're doing that, we're making strides."

Casillas feels that this season's defense should improve upon the unit that shut down Auburn's high-powered offense in the Capital One Bowl in Wisconsin's 2005 finale just three and a half months ago.

"Last year, we were good, but I think this year, our whole total defense is faster, and I think we should be better," Casillas said. "We should be compared to the defense two years ago. I think we're going to be fast, flying around and making plays this year."

Should the Badgers' defense live up to any such comparison, Wisconsin would likely prosper next season. The 2004 Wisconsin defense finished in the top 10 nationally in scoring and total defense, and limited opponents to just over nine points per game during a 9-0 start to the season.

But to this point, the younger players haven't been too worried about living up to anything. According to Doeren, they haven't even talked about the Spring Game at all, which is coming up just three days from now.

"They're excited to play football, it's very evident," Doeren said. "I haven't heard them say anything about that game in particular, but they're [just] excited about playing football."