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Jim Leonhard adds 3rd former Wisconsin Badger to his new Buffalo Bills coaching staff

Most of Jim Leonhard's defensive coaching staff on the Buffalo Bills consists of former Wisconsin Badgers players and coaches.
Lorin Cox|
Jim Leonhard is filling his Buffalo Bills coaching staff with former Wisconsin Badgers players and coaches
Jim Leonhard is filling his Buffalo Bills coaching staff with former Wisconsin Badgers players and coaches | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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The Buffalo Bills defense is starting to look like Wisconsin Badgers East.

New defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard will clearly put a Badgers-spin on the scheme they put on the field, but now his coaching staff is filling up with coaches who either played or coached at Wisconsin previously.

The latest UW connection he brought in is Terrance Jamison, who was most recently co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Illinois.

Jamison's path from Wisconsin to Buffalo

Beyond the obvious Bret Bielema connection on the Illinois staff, Jamison played defensive line for the Badgers from 2005-2007 under Bieleman's tutiledge.

He came in right after Leonhard finished his playing career and left for the NFL.

Jamison began his coaching career as a student assistant on the Wisconsin staff, eventually becoming a defensive quality control coach in 2011 and then a graduate assistant in 2012.

He helped out with the defensive line as an assistant, working with J.J. Watt in 2010.

He went on to coach for a number of colleges around the country before reuniting with Bielema on the Illini staff in 2021, where he remained until now leaving for Buffalo.

Related: Jim Leonhard shares what he learned from his time as Wisconsin Badgers interim head coach

Jamison joins two other former Badgers as assisstant coaches on Leonhard's Bills staff.

He also brought in former Wisconsin defensive back Jay Valai to be the cornerbacks coach in Buffalo.

Valai also came directly from the college ranks to join Leonhard in the pros.

The same was true for new Bills outside linebackers coach Bobby April. He had just agreed to be the new rush ends coach at Minnesota under PJ Fleck, but Leonhard stole him for the NFL.

April was previously Wisconsin's outside linebackers coach from 2018-2022 under Leonhard, coaching future NFL players like Andrew Van Ginkel, Zack Baun and Nick Herbig.

Buffalo still has a vacancy for their safeties coach position. Don't be surprised if the defensive coordinator dips back into his college connections to fill that role too.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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