The Wisconsin Badgers, rightfully so, are often praised for their ability to develop players and get absolutely everything they can out of players that were often passed over by bigger programs. The Badgers will have to do exactly that this season with their outside linebackers in order to keep their defense at the standard they’ve established the past few seasons.
In Wisconsin’s 3-4 hybrid scheme, outside linebackers aren’t asked to be pure pass rushers but are absolutely depended on for pass-rush production. Outside of Joe Schobert and T.J. Watt, no recent Wisconsin outside linebacker has had more than eight sacks in a season, so the scheme isn’t dependent on huge sack numbers from its edge rushers.