At the conclusion of the 2023 NFL Draft, Mike Tomlin considered Wisconsin a "stylistic match" for what the Steelers do on their defensive line.
And, it leads to why Keeanu Benton and Nick Herbig became fourth and fifth former Badgers to join Tomlin's defense to begin the 2023 season.
One would have to backtrack to 2006, when Tomlin was the defensive coordinator of the Vikings, and current Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar coached the defensive line for that same team.
On that 2006 Vikings roster was a defensive tackle who spent the last eight seasons at Wisconsin, including the last two as the Badgers' defensive line coach, constantly in the ears of Benton and Herbig on a daily basis.
His name is Ross Kolodziej. He is the man responsible for helping Benton and Herbig develop into the second- and fourth-round picks and the newest faces on the Steelers' defense.
As Benton and Herbig begin their respective careers as Steelers with this weekend's rookie minicamp, those "stylistic" differences can be the main differences in carrying Benton and Herbig to the next level with respect to their own games.
"Seeing coach Dunbar for one day, I feel like that's kind of where Coach K gets his coaching style from," Benton said after Friday's practice on the South Side. "He's a guy who's going to come out there, he's going to help you out, he's also going to put them cleats on, put them gloves on and show you what he can do, as well. I feel like it was a good thing just feeding off of that energy. If practice was a little dead, there was always somebody who was going to bring it, whether it was me or the players or coach. I felt like that was a great combination."
There is no secret of what Tomlin called an "infatuation" with drafting siblings in recent memory, which contributes to the paper trail leading towards Herbig.
But the line to Benton and Herbig is rooted in "Coach K."
It also helps that Benton was the Robin to Herbig's Batman at Wisconsin. The duo combined for 25.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks along Kolodziej's line last season, in the coach's second as the Badgers' defensive line coach.
"Oh, 100 percent," Herbig said regarding the matching styles. "The theme at Wisconsin was 'smart, tough, and dependable,' and I think that relates here. You've got to be smart, you've got to be tough and dependable. I think coach Tomlin has built a great culture here, great tradition, and I couldn't be happier to be a Steeler."
Kolodziej, 44, was a seventh-round pick of the Giants in 2001 who developed a six-year NFL career with the Giants, Cardinals, and Vikings. He played three additional seasons in the United Football League before hanging up the cleats and taking control of a whistle as a graduate assistant for Wisconsin in 2012.
After a stint as Pitt's strength and conditioning coach under Paul Chryst in 2013 and 2014, Kolodziej moved up to Wisconsin along with Chryst and remained there through the end of the 2022 season.
He spent 2015 through 2020 as the Badgers' strength and conditioning coach before being promoted to defensive line coach prior to the start of the 2021 season. He joined Stanford's staff to the same position in December, under incoming had coach Troy Taylor.
So, yes, Kolodziej was T.J. Watt and Isaiahh Loudermilk's strength coach, and he transitioned into becoming Benton and Herbig's defensive line coach.
"I've been very fortunate for -- especially with coach Dunbar, he's always picked up the phone whenever I call over the course of my career when I was transitioning as a player and getting into coaching," Kolodziej told me this week. "It's mirrored it in a lot of ways, starting in the weight room and then transitioning to a position coach, and so I'm very thankful for them for always picking up the phone and being willing to answer a lot of questions, and any time I'd ever see them, especially at Pitt, coach Tomlin would pop in and talk shop."
Of course, Tomlin's last stop before becoming the Steelers' head coach was in Minnesota in 2006, when Kolodziej was in his second-to-last season as a 28-year-old defensive tackle backing up Pro Bowlers Kevin Williams and Pat Williams. Tomlin would reunite with Dunbar in 2018, when Dunbar took over as the Steelers' defensive line coach.
Loudermilk was the first Kolodziej defensive line export to be drafted, though numerous linebackers came through the pipeline to the NFL from the time Kolodziej began at Wisconsin. In addition to Watt, this includes longtime veteran and former Steeler Joe Schobert and 2022 third-rounder Leo Chenal, among others.
"Yeah, he's hard-nosed, man," Herbig said of Kolodziej. "He was gritty. Coach K, man, that guy came out with cleats on every day and he's doing the drills with us. He's definitely showed us a perfect example of what it would be like."
Kolodziej said Benton always had the frame from the start of his college career, when he arrived as a 290-pound, three-star prospect in the class of 2019.
"He put in a ton of work refining his body composition, adding lean mass and getting stronger every year in the weight room," Kolodziej said. "He's done a tremendous job developing his body, developing the mindset. ... He really sees the big picture. He is just starting to scratch the surface. He is still a young man, especially in the age of the COVID sixth-and-seventh-year seniors (in college football). He's a true fourth-year guy, so he still has another few years, in my opinion, to continue to grow and mature even more."
Kolodziej compared Herbig to Schobert in our conversation, just based on Herbig's Football I.Q. and how Herbig's skillset translates for someone "savvy" who can navigate on the edge or behind the line of scrimmage. Herbig was a four-star recruit who put on 25 pounds over his three seasons at Wisconsin.
Kolodziej added the 2022 Associated Press third-team All-American Herbig earned his keep at Wisconsin.
"Incredibly driven," Kolodziej added. "Over my time at Wisconsin, you'd be hard pressed to find a defensive guy who was more driven upstairs, mining the coaches for information, watching film on his own, always working his craft. Obviously taking advantage of his older brother (Steelers offensive lineman Nate Herbig) and the relationships and the contact that he had at the next level. When you spend a lot of time training with (longtime Eagles tackle) Lane Johnson, picking his brain, what he was working on to develop his skills as a pass rusher. Just an incredibly intrinsically motivated individual that really is always looking forward to winning."
The teachings that Kolodziej absorbed from Tomlin and Dunbar have carried into the college level have clearly stuck with the two former Badgers, and the Steelers are set to benefit from a 17-year, full-circle concept.
"These are guys that it's bigger than football with," Kolodziej said of his former coaches. "Don't get me wrong, football is the centerpiece, but they've always been great teachers, and a lot of the sayings, 'the standard is the standard' and 'the secret is there is no secret,' those all came down from coach Tomlin, and continue to say and use with my guys. Same thing with coach Dunbar. A lot of the sayings coaches would've had in the D-Line room in terms of 'assignment, alignment, and technique' and 'run and pass progression,' those are all things that we're all just standing on in terms of guys that I've been coaching. ... There's obviously the system behind it, but also the persons behind it, too. How they interact or just in terms of how they coached. All those guys there are very fortunate to have incredible coaches."
