year ago against Purdue, Wisconsin defensive back Scott Starks recovered a Kyle Orton fumble and returned it 40 yards for the winning touchdown with under three minutes to play. For the Badgers a year ago, such scenes were indicative of one of the top defenses in the country.
But a year later, Starks is gone along with much of the secondary and an entire defensive line that included star defensive end and current NFL player Erasmus James. What remains is a linebacker corps that has needed to usher the defense through transition. At the heart of it is 6’2″, 228-pound senior captain Mark Zalewski.
“I’m one of the veteran guys on the team,” said Zalewski, a native of Wausau, Wis. “I need to be a leader on the defense. I need to be a playmaker.”
Zalewski has led a defense that is holding its own in spite of its losses, currently ranked 29th in the country in scoring defense and 4th in the Big Ten in total defense.
The transition has not been easy. The Badgers gave up 42 points in their opener against Bowling Green but followed it up by shutting out Temple and surrendering only five points to North Carolina.
The linebackers have been a lynchpin for the defense, but Zalewski is quick to point out that the team as a whole has been holding down the fort.
“I think we came in knowing that we’re going to be counted on to be leaders on the defense,” Zalewski said. “But still we have a bunch of young guys going at different positions. They’ve stepped up this year and they’re making plays along with us.”
Zalewski has also had to deal with major changes other than the new personnel. As an outside linebacker last year he was moved to the middle this season, a change that he said took some getting used to.
“Playing outside, you only deal with plays on the left or plays on the right,” Zalewski said. “In the middle, if the ball goes either way, you have to play that.
“I get to run around a little bit more.”
Zalewski admitted that he had to come in and watch film to help him make the change. But he was originally brought to Wisconsin to play middle linebacker, so it did not take too long to relearn the position.
So far this season he has flourished at the spot, recording 33 tackles and trailing only fellow linebacker Dontez Sanders for most on the team. He is well ahead of his 55 tackle pace from last season and has made a habit of disrupting the opponent’s backfield, making eight tackles for a total loss of 25 yards.
Moving into the middle of the action seems natural for a player who has always craved contact.
“I love the big hit,” Zalewski told Madison’s Capital Times last year. “Coach (Bret Bielema) sometimes gets on me in practice because I could go for the interception, but I go for the big hit.”
Zalewski’s play has kept a defense that suffered numerous losses in the offseason afloat, which has also enabled the Badgers to start off 5-0, upsetting rival Michigan and breaking into the rankings in the process.
Wisconsin was far from a popular preseason choice, picked by some pundits to finish as low as eighth in the Big Ten. But this has only served as bulletin board material for the Badgers who now sit at No. 14 in the AP Top 25.
“A lot of media didn’t have us ranked very high, and we do have a lot of new starters on the defense,” Zalewski said. “But that kind of motivated us. We had a lot of talent on the team, there just weren’t any familiar names that people knew about. Coming in we wanted to show people that we still have a lot of playmakers.”
Now that the Badgers have cracked the rankings, Zalewski is not paying much attention. He and the rest of the defense know that, in order to keep moving up, they just need to keep proving themselves.
“We just let the media worry about where we’re ranked. It’s not a big concern for us.”
Reach David Kalan at [email protected]
