LOS ANGELES — The start of his next chapter came slow, linebacker Tackett Curtis spending much of January rehabbing from surgery to correct a sports hernia, trying to let lie the decision to leave USC and Southern California to head back east.
Fate works with heaps of irony, though. And one winter day, as Curtis sat for recovery work in Wisconsin’s football facility, the door opened to a direct reminder of that fresh past.
Stunned, Curtis called his dad a few minutes later.
“You ain’t gonna believe,” Curtis told his father Moses, “who I just saw.”
A short couple months after he’d put his $4.5-million Palos Verdes crib up for sale, a short couple months after he was fired midseason by longtime friend Lincoln Riley and went altogether off the grid, here was Alex Grinch, set to interview for Wisconsin’s safeties job and suddenly re-enter Curtis’ life.
They caught up for a few minutes, an ex-USC defensive coordinator who’d once flown to Many, Louisiana, to recruit Curtis, who had loved him as a coach despite a scheme he was trying to escape.
They’ve caught up plenty since, Curtis exiting USC and entering Wisconsin’s program as “damaged goods” – as his father described – and finding Grinch a familiar advocate to the Badgers’ staff while he worked his way back to game action.
On Sept. 7, Curtis played his first action in a Badgers jersey in a win over South Dakota, the sophomore racking up five tackles. In the postgame locker room, as Moses described, Curtis was named a player of the game, called up to speak by head coach Luke Fickell. As he stood, Grinch came up behind him, raining a heap of attaboys on his once-prized ‘backer.
“(Tackett) was like, ‘Man, it’s kinda weird – it kinda took me back to USC for a minute,’” Moses told the Southern California News Group.
He never liked to look back, a fearless young man who grew up flooring motorcycles through backcountry roads of Louisiana, a prized recruit who grew so beloved by USC’s staff in his true-freshman season that he started 2023 at middle linebacker. When things went sideways, despite the efforts of Riley and his staff to keep him put, Curtis headed for the portal in the winter. His mind was made up, not fully trusting in USC’s commitment to defense, not fully believing in Riley’s proclamations he’d get things right.
When Wisconsin (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) comes back to the Coliseum to take on USC (2-1, 1-0) on Saturday, though, Curtis – and Grinch – will have no choice but to look back, now on a fellow Big Ten journey 2,000 miles away from a Trojans defense that’s long since overhauled its philosophy and technique in their absence.
“It’s just, where he thought he could be developed and play in a scheme that was gon’ be suited toward him,” Moses said of his son’s decision to transfer. “And if he had stayed at USC, looks like it would’ve been a perfect fit.”
“But, at the time, he didn’t know. He had to place a bet, so to speak. And he went with the sure bet.”
There’s no lingering animosity, in the slightest, between any parties involved. Defensive lineman Jamil Muhammad called Grinch “a wonderful coach and an even better man” Wednesday, and Curtis a “really great person.” Riley wished Curtis the best Thursday, outside of his team’s success Saturday. Curtis smiled, as if remembering an old friend, when asked by Wisconsin media Wednesday about the return to USC.
But the what if from Curtis’ departure still lingers, once dubbed “Captain America” by his teammates at USC, a headhunter who almost assuredly would’ve found immediate development in a USC scheme under D’Anton Lynn that’s seen a complete transformation in linebacker play. But USC’s defense had collapsed in 2023, and quickly cleaned house in its defensive staff after the firing of Grinch, and suddenly Curtis was left with questions after a season-ending loss to UCLA.
“It was just a nasty situation,” Moses remembered. “And, for a young kid, you’re thinking, ‘Man, is this where I’m gonna be developed at?’”
Curtis had started for much of the season, racking up 40 tackles as a true freshman, but struggled in tackling angles and pass coverage in USC’s scheme and saw his snaps dip later into the fall. His faith waned, and Riley knew it. The coach met with Curtis “several times,” Moses recalled, even calling Curtis’ father and telling him the program would right the ship. But the list of familiar faces on staff had dwindled, and once linebackers coach Brian Odom was let go, Curtis became serious about transferring.
Riley, Moses recalled, simply wouldn’t take Curtis’ uncertainty for an answer. Wait, Riley emphasized to him in December. Just wait. I got somebody good coming.
And indeed, USC hired former North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz in mid-December. Entz, though, was still finishing out his program’s season with North Dakota, and hopped on a couple phone calls with Curtis – but never had the chance for in-person interaction. The clock ticked, quickly, on the close of the first portal window.
“He pretty much, finally just said, ‘Look, my mind’s kinda made up,’” Moses recalled.
Wisconsin, which had recruited Curtis out of high school, became the destination, Curtis searching for a new scheme where he could play free and fly rather than constantly worry about filling his gaps as a linebacker.
“I really thought that this would be a really, really good place for me to come here, and just develop into a really great player under Coach Fick and Coach Tress,” Curtis told local media Wednesday of Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell and defensive coordinator Jim Tressel.
It quickly became a better fit, Moses described, for Curtis’ personality – more “blue collar,” as the father said.
“He likes playing for a defensive coach, and he says it’s a night-and-day difference with how they run their programs,” Moses said. “And it’s not anything’s good or bad … just, one fits Tackett better and what he’s made of.”
A slew of key returners, though, have taken massive steps under USC’s new defensive staff, particularly the linebackers. Mason Cobb, frequently weighed down in 2023 in pre-snap communication, has been turned loose as a ball-hawk when healthy. Eric Gentry, at 6-foot-6 and yanked around off the bench last season, has looked like an All-American through three games.
“He wanted to go somewhere where he could play like, a traditional linebacker, defense,” Moses said of Curtis. “And it looks like USC’s done that, so it looks like it would’ve been fine, him staying out there, too. But it’s just, the timing of it was off.”
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Curtis still holds close relationships with a wide range of players on USC’s roster; he talks often with former roommate and now-starting left tackle Elijah Paige, Curtis’ father said. And Moses and his son have enjoyed rooting for his former teammates thus far at USC, particularly in a season-opening win over LSU, a program Curtis nearly transferred to before settling on Wisconsin.
Moses has asked his son, often, if he regrets his decision. No, Curtis has said, firm.
“I think we got something going here,” Curtis told Wisconsin media Wednesday, “and we’re growing something big.”