Thank You, Jimmy Leonard!

A lot of Wisconsin Badger fans, probably found the news of Jimmy Leonard getting passed over for the head coaching spot, in favor of Luke Fickell, disappointing and hard to swallow.

After all, Leonard is Wisconsin through and through. And many felt the school owed loyalty to a guy who has been so loyal to the Badgers.

So Leonard's announcement that he will be leaving the staff after the bowl game against Oklahoma State is yet another blow.

But let's pause here, and give Jimmy Leonard the thanks and gratitude he deserves. AND wish him well in whatever endeavor lies ahead.

After all, he's given the Badgers seven great seasons,  several of them as coordinator of one of the best defenses on the college landscape. He stepped in admirably to fill the head coaching spot on an interim basis this season when Paul Chryst was let go. He posted a 4-3 record (could well have been 6-1!), got Wisconsin into a bowl game for the 21st straight season and did all he could to bring the Badgers back.

Leonard will no doubt have his choice of opportunities coming his way. Who knows, the Green Bay Packers may come calling again in lieu of the struggles D-Coordinator Joe Barry has had.

I don't think Leonard is done with Wisconsin, tho. Looking at my crystal ball, I see him returning to the program he loves at some point. Perhaps after getting some additional head coaching experience somewhere.

Now that the Green Bay Packers are the winningest franchise in the history of the National Football League with 787 wins, let's look at that a little deeper. In second place are the hated Chicago Bears (one game back). That was the eighth straight Packer win over Chicago, a franchise a shadow of what it was, and what it could be.

After all, Green Bay has only gone through, essentially, two quarterbacks (HOFer Brett Favre and future HOFer Aaron Rodgers) to Chicago's 37. And Rodgers, who shouted to the Soldier Field crowd last year "I still own you!" after leading the Packers to a victory, only solidified that ownership claim last week with that eighth straight victory.

Rodgers is now 25-5 against Da Bears. That's impressive.

Speaking of Luke Fickell, it seems he is starting off on the right foot at Wisconsin, taking time to court the state's high school football coaches.

That's a good thing. Let's get that Wall Around Wisconsin that Barry Alvarez erected in the early 1990s back in place. You know the WAW. the one that keeps the best of Wisconsin's high school players IN Wisconsin and wearing UW Badger uniforms.

There seems to have been a few cracks in that wall lately. Patching it up is in the best interests of the program.

Eight-Man Football Growing In Wisconsin

Amid enrollment issues and shrinking player pools, more and more Wisconsin high schools are opting for one of two choices when it comes to the football season.

One option would be to hook up with a neighboring school district and form a co-op team. I usually look over the long list of state football scores during the high school season (thank you, internet gods!) and have noticed many two-school, and even some three-school, co-ops. I've long thought that my alma mater, the Wautoma Hornets, and the up-the-road Wild Rose Wildcats would be a perfect co-op marriage.

The other option is one that is one that seems to be growing across the state, especially so among schools from the central part of Wisconsin north. That's eight-man football, a sport played by over 60 schools this past fall, with Wausau Newman Catholic winning the state title with a 54-0 thrashing of Belmont.

The eight-man game is played on an 80-yard field with five players on the offensive line -- two guards and a center with either two tight-ends on the outside or split out at wide receiver.

My college roomie, Beer Baron Darrell, notes that the eight-man format is very popular around his digs an hour north of Minoqua. Lots of small school districts, some struggling just to stay open.

With less student pools to pull from, and apparently a shrinking interest in playing football among school-age kids, the evolution of high school football seems to be upon us.

R.I.P to a friend. Saw in the UW-Oshkosh alumni news letter that Jay Van Thiel had passed at the age of 73. Jay was coach of the Oshkosh North girls' basketball team while I was covering sports in the Fox Valley. He was a good friend that I often stopped by to see when in the school, and someone I hung around with from time to time at state tournaments.

Good guy, and gone too soon.

The local media has been Johnny on the spot in reporting which UW Badger football players have entered the transfer portal or high school recruits who had de-committed from their scholarship -- all pretty much since the coaching changes.

Wisconsin fans would be just as interested, or more, in the number of Cincinnati Bearcats (new head coach Luke Fickell's old team) who have entered the transfer portal. Or recruits who have de-committed.

Also wondering how Fickell will recruit now that he's at a school with, let's face it, a pretty high academic bar.