Dating back to the mid-1990s, Wisconsin has routinely trotted out some of the best rushers in college football: Melvin Gordon, Montee Ball, Anthony Davis and Ron Dayne, just to name a few. The Badgers’ revolving door of successful rushers and consistent identity as a hard-nosed, ground-and-pound football team has kept them competitive for the better part of the last few decades.
However, Wisconsin’s gain has been many of these individual rushers’ losses. Because as good as they are in Madison, many have had very little to show for it in their pro careers. Let’s examine seven of the most prolific rushers in recent Badgers history and try to figure out how and why their transition to the pros went wrong.