Safety Austin Brown has grown into an indispensable player for Wisconsin Badgers football and he made a huge leap in 2024 not just by mastering his role but also for being versatile.
AB played a lot of nickel role last season due to defensive necessity. He played 12 games in 2024 and started in eight. He finished with 51 tackles (30 solo), 12 stops, and four pressures. He had a total of 459 total defensive snaps.
Safeties coach Jack Cooper raves about his maturity throughout the years.
“I think a lot of it comes from a maturity standpoint and really taking the big picture parts of the game, football IQ, understanding big picture offensive stuff, and just taking it to the next dimension,” he said as quoted by Badger Notes.
“It’s not only good enough to know what I’m doing, but also to know what the opponent’s going to do to me, so I’ve been really proud of him in his maturity that way.”
Austin Brown will still be a safety
Brown can be effective in other role. Will the team continue to exploit that?
“Yeah, we’ve always had conversations about Austin obviously, was the best nickel in our roster last year,” Cooper told Badger 247.
“It’s always, you know, we’re always going over things, and in case we need it, we’ll rep him there, and see how we get through Platteville.”
However, safety is still the priority.
“But we like him at the safety spot right now. He’s just, he’s got a knack for what we are doing schematically, and he’s always ready to go back. It’s not that you don’t have to know as much as nickel. There’s probably a little more technicality from a technique standpoint, but he’s, you know, the dialogue is always open with Austin. To be able to swing, whatever is best for our program.”
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