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Jim Leonhard addresses Wisconsin’s coaching search, hopes for ‘decisions sooner than later’
By Eric Woods
Published:
Jim Leonhard is now 2-1 as Wisconsin’s interim head coach. Coming off a big win at home against Purdue, his Badgers seem to have life again after the firing of Paul Chryst.
However, there is still massive uncertainty for the program in terms of who will be the next coach. Leonhard is in the running for the job, and he thinks that the program needs to act quickly in order to stay on track for recruiting. He has a point, why would recruits want to go to a school with no head coach?
Leonhard joined SiriusXM’s “Big Ten This Morning” to discuss the vacancy:
“There needs to be decisions sooner than later, hopefully, to help with the uncertainty and not fall behind in recruiting or just your team,” Leonhard told host Matt Schick per Adam Rittenberg with ESPN. “[Players are] all questioning and wondering what the future is going to hold for them. It’s getting closer to those times.”
The Chryst era was off to a great start, but the program under him failed to adapt to the new age of NIL in recruiting. In his interview, Leonhard said that “the program needs to adapt,” but not at the cost of the program’s values.
Only time will tell if Leonhard will be the next Badger head coach. For now, he will just focus on winning games with his team.