Transferring from a junior college to a Division 1 football program is nothing new, but such players usually have a pretty good story behind them.

Dan Moore, a junior defensive end on the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team, is no exception. After playing his freshman year at Eastern Illinois, Moore moved on to Joliet Junior College, where he had 40 tackles and eight sacks as a sophomore. As a junior at UW, Moore has registered seven tackles as a backup defensive end.

Moore sat down with The Capital Times to talk about transferring, how he has played this season and how he came to be at UW.

How is the JUCO level different than here at Wisconsin?

At the JUCO level we don't have any discipline as far as having a strict assignment to do or different things like that. We didn't have a strength and conditioning program, it was pretty much you do everything on your own. When you come to the Division 1 level, everything is structured from academics to what you do on the field and off the field. You have to come in and watch extra film otherwise you're not going to be successful. At (the JUCO) level, you are able to go out there and just kind of be an athlete and make plays, where here you have to be a student of the game.

Was that structure a shock to you?

It was something I kind of expected, but you never really know until you get here. I expected it to be a lot more work and a lot more tedious, but I have to say that it has far surpassed my expectations.

How do you feel you have played so far this year?

I feel I've been able to play pretty good for it being my first year, coming in and everything like that. I've been grading OK, I'm still pretty hard on myself, been making some mental errors and things like that, but for the most part I feel pretty good about my play this year.

Was Wisconsin always the destination for you?

It wasn't the destination always, but once I started getting recruited here I told myself that if I ever got the opportunity to play here that that was where I was going to come. When Coach B (Bret Bielema) called me and offered me the scholarship, I knew that this is exactly where I wanted to be.

Enrolling at UW last spring, how important was it to get in a semester early?

It was definitely very important. I did end up suffering a knee injury during the spring so I wasn't able to go through the complete spring ball, but just getting a jump on academics and things like that. I had a lot of credits and a lot of classes I had to pass to be eligible and just being able to get in and work with the strength staff and different things like that, kind of getting to know the guys and everything. I was definitely a lot more comfortable coming into fall camp than I was when I got here in January.