Badgers revamped LB room has 'five guys right now that can play on Saturdays'

The Badgers defense will have depth in 2024.

Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Jake Chaney (36) during Wisconsin Badgers football media day at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. - Mike De Sisti / The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Mike De Sisti / The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Wisconsin's defense will be known this season for impressive talent in the secondary, but the inside linebacker position should not go unnoticed. Led by returning senior Jake Chaney, they will have a deep group that could wind up being one of the best units on the team.

Last season, Chaney started nine games at linebacker for the Badgers. He recorded 80 total tackles, which ranked second on the team, trailing star safety Hunter Wohler. Chaney's 675 snaps on the season were more than double his total from 2022.

"Jake Chaney is the leader, you absolutely love what he's doing and the impact he has, but we need to force-feed packages, because he can't be on the field 70 snaps for 12, 13, 14, 15 games in a year," defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said.

Maema Njongmeta is off to the NFL and Jordan Turner transferred within the conference to Michigan State, so there will be some new faces alongside Chaney in 2024. Sophomore Christian Alliegro returns after playing in six games last season; former four-star high school prospect Tackett Curtis followed Alex Grinch from USC; Jaheim Thomas transferred in from Arkansas after playing for Luke Fickell at Cincinnati; and Sebastian Cheeks is another talented transfer from North Carolina.

"I honestly think that we have five guys right now that can play on Saturday, which gives us the ability to package some things, get people out in specific situations, which will force us as coaches to get them on the field," Tressel said.

With over 1,000 career snaps Thomas is the most experienced player in a rather inexperienced group. Fickell recruited him out of high school while he was at Cincinnati and played close to 600 snaps across his first three seasons. He transferred to Arkansas last offseason when Fickell began his tenure in Madison. He seems to be the favorite to line up next to Chaney on the first defensive snap of the season.

Curtis is the most experienced player out of the remaining three, having played more than 300 snaps last season for the Trojans. Alliegro and Cheeks have played less than 100 snaps in their college careers, but Wisconsin's staff has liked what they've seen in the preseason.

"Tackett Curtis is a guy who quite honestly if you ask me, even though I wasn't here at the beginning, he probably belonged here from the get-go," Tressel said earlier this summer. "He’s a Wisconsin type of dude. He's a bang your head against the wall, football junky.”

Tressel followed Fickell to Madison from Cincinnati and he's now heading into his second season as defensive coordinator with the Badgers. The defense went through a transition this offseason adding Grinch, who was the longtime defensive coordinator for Lincoln Riley at USC and Oklahoma. He will now split duties as the co-DC. Ultimately, the success of the inside linebacker group will go a long way in determining the ceiling of the Badgers defense in 2024.