It hasn’t been the best three years for head coach Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers, as the program has endured some of the toughest seasons over the past 20 years, going a combined 16-21 over the last three seasons.
A big part of the issue has been injuries, specifically at the quarterback position, but Wisconsin has struggled with development at key positions as well, while not getting the most out of its roster. Still, we’ve definitely seen some bright spots, especially on the recruiting
side, and there has been one position that has really stood out to me from a talent evaluation standpoint.
Thinking about the Badgers and their rosters over the past few seasons, I kept circling back to one position/position coach: Matt Mitchell and the outside linebackers.
Wisconsin has lacked that elite pass-rusher since Nick Herbig left for the NFL back in 2022, but there have been quite a few strong evaluations at the position that keep me confident. Let’s go through them.
2024
Let’s first look back to the 2024 class, which was Fickell and Mitchell’s first true cycle with the program. Wisconsin landed two outside linebackers in that class: four-stars Thomas Heiberger and Anelu Lafaele.
Heiberger was one of the more promising freshmen in his class, with the recruiting staff noting he was one of the most ready-now players with his skillset. Unfortunately, injuries have derailed his first two years so far, but he’s poised for a bigger role in 2025, moving to linebacker and potentially playing the ‘star’ role for the Badgers.
Lafaele, on the other hand, left after one season with the Badgers, transferring to Michigan State. In 2025, he had quite a good season in a small sample size as a true pass rusher. Playing in five games this season, Lafaele had seven pressures and two sacks in 50 pass-rush snaps, while producing a quality 13.3 percent win rate. In true pass-rush sets, that number increased to 15.0 percent. Again, it’s a small sample size, but he had great juice off the edge coming out of high school, and we’re starting to see that translate.
Wisconsin isn’t going to get credit here, nor should they, as Lafaele’s production came at Michigan State. But, the Badgers were on this eval early in the cycle, and it was a strong one, and they fended off some top suitors for his commitment.
One other edge they were on in the cycle? Michigan four-star commit Dominic Nichols. The Badgers got the first official visit here and were serious contenders, but ultimately lost out to the Wolverines. In 2025, Nichols was also a quality player in his role, seeing action in 12 games and playing 167 snaps. He had nine pressures in 87 pass rush snaps, recording a quality 12.8 percent win rate, and was graded a top-10 defender for Michigan according to PFF.
2025
Wisconsin was after some huge targets at outside linebacker in the 2025 class. They ultimately landed three players: three-star Samuel Lateju, four-star Nicolas Clayton, and four-star Jaylen Williams. That only came after some fireworks in the cycle, though.
Wisconsin had a commitment from three-star Brenden Anes, who flipped to Tennessee, which opened up the spot for Williams and his flip from Michigan. Of course, it’s way too early to say whether the true freshmen are going to be key players in college, but the Badgers had early evals for their top guys, which helped them in tough recruitments.
They were on Lateju early, shutting down his recruitment quickly. This one was always going to be a high-risk, high-reward type of evaluation, as Lateju had been developing rapidly, but was still relatively new to football. They were in early on Anes as well, who ended up at an SEC school. And Williams was a top edge prospect in the class.
Then, there’s Clayton, who came in as an undersized edge, but had one of, if not the quickest get-off in the room in 2025. He’s poised for a bigger role this season and figures to be that true pass-rusher Wisconsin has been lacking.
But, outside of their commitments, Wisconsin was also heavily in on four-stars Jayden Loftin and Jayden Woods, getting in their recruitments early with good evaluations as well. Loftin had schools like Penn State and Tennessee after him and committed to the Volunteers before recently transferring to the Badgers after just one season.
Loftin didn’t have much of an impact as a true freshman, continuing to recover from a torn ACL sustained during his senior year of high school.
Woods, on the other hand, was also an official visitor for the Badgers, and was a top-100 player and top-10 edge in the Class of 2025 with Tennessee, Penn State, and Florida all being top suitors as well. Wisconsin had a great evaluation there as well, as Woods was a stud as a freshman.
He had 17 pressures and four sacks while playing in all 12 games for the Gators, notching an impressive 18.6 percent pass rush win rate in true pass sets this past year. He also added 18 stops and a forced fumble in a very good freshman year, making him a key piece to retain this offseason at Florida.
That’s another really good evaluation for the Badgers (yes, he’s a touted recruit), and it’s pretty impressive that Wisconsin is in the mix for all of these recruitments with relationships and the early evaluations. In every cycle, they’re finding some really good players that can make impacts in the future for the program.
And high school recruiting isn’t the only place they’ve done that. Let’s look at the transfer portal as well.
Transfer portal
In that 2024 transfer portal class, the Badgers admittedly had a big miss at outside linebacker with Leon Lowery, the transfer from Syracuse.
Expected to make a big impact on the edge in both the run and the pass game, Lowery had an ugly 2.7 percent pass rush win rate for the Badgers, according to PFF. He was also 13th on the defense in run stops, making him an all-around miss as Wisconsin struggled to secure the edge on the ground.
John Pius was a fine addition, as he was a pretty solid pass-rusher, recording a team-high 30 pressures with an impressive 23.4 percent pass rush win rate. That skyrocketed to 30.9 percent in true pass sets, both being very impressive feats. But he wasn’t much of a run defender, which is why the miss of Lowery hurt even more.
There was a very quality evaluation, though, in that cycle with UNC transfer Sebastian Cheeks, who came in as a redshirt sophomore and was switched from inside to outside linebacker with his unique athleticism and build.
Trying a new position and taking some time to develop, Cheeks started to eat at some reps at outside linebacker late in the season and quickly made an impact. He had eight pressures and three sacks in 58 pass rush snaps, recording a 10.9 percent pass rush win rate. He was also stellar against the run with five stops and an 11.1 percent run stop rate, while missing zero tackles against the run.
In 2025, Cheeks really took a step forward as a starter, ranking third on the team with 26 pressures, which came with a 12.9 percent pass rush win rate, a solid feat. That markedly bumped to 18.7 percent in true pass sets. Once again, he didn’t have any missed tackles against the run, setting the edge well and recording nine stops (7.5 percent stop rate). He’s set to be Wisconsin’s top outside linebacker in 2025.
Then, there’s Mason Reiger from this past offseason, who missed the entire 2024 season, but was a good player at Louisville in 2023. I can’t give too much credit from an evaluation standpoint because Reiger was a guy already coming into his final year of college football.
But he was another good addition that proved to be very productive at Wisconsin with his style of power and effort off the edge. He set the run enough, ranking second on the team in run stops. He led the team in pressures (45) and had an impressive 15.8 percent win rate, which bumped to a whopping 23.0 percent in true pass sets. And he played a good number of snaps for Wisconsin as its top outside linebacker.
I also think there’s something there with Kentucky outside linebacker transfer Tyreese Fearbry, who should get a bigger role this year. He’s just physically there at 6’4, 250 pounds, being physical on the edge and setting well. He can also get after the quarterback a bit and will have a bigger sample size to show that in 2025.
We’re not even including the development of Darryl Peterson, who took some huge steps forward these past two years as an inside/outside hybrid, figuring out how to grow his game. He’s set to likely be an NFL player this offseason.
Overall, I think the Badgers have done a pretty good job with talent evaluation and recruiting at the edge spot, and Matt Mitchell might be the most underrated member of Luke Fickell’s staff. He’s been pretty good with both on and off-field production so far.
