Wisconsin Football Coach Details Importance of Enhanced Pass-Rush

After losing Nick Herbig to the NFL after his junior year, the Wisconsin Badgers football team’s pass rush took a significant step back this season in terms of production. 

The Wisconsin Badgers have been an outside linebacker factory for the last decade, but its rotation of edge rushers only recorded 9.5 total sacks under Matt Mitchell this past season. 

By the end of the year, CJ Goetz, Darryl Peterson, and Jeff Pietrowski were the only OLBs earning meaningful snaps. 

Simply put, that didn’t live up to the standard, and Wisconsin football needed to add some depth through the transfer portal to foster more competition. More specifically, Luke Fickell felt the team needed more agile and disruptive linebackers to get after the quarterback. 

“Sticking with a lot of the things that we’ve done here in the past, that position in particular has been pretty dynamic,” Fickell said. “Probably didn’t have quite as much of that this year.

“We’ve gotta create some more competition; we’ve gotta put some dynamic stuff on the edge. The nature of the beast up front is you’ve gotta be able to roll guys. If you don’t have four guys that can rush the edge, by the end of the year, it’s gonna be really tough.”

Wisconsin Football Attacked the Transfer Portal to Address OLB Depth 

Wisconsin football has focused much of its attention on righting that deficiency in the early portion of the open transfer portal window.

The Badgers have added Leon Lowery from Syracuse and John Pius, a multiple-time FCS All-American, both of whom were high priorities through the transfer portal.

A source shared with BadgerNotes.com that the staff feels that adding these two players alone will aid in changing the entire dynamic of the Wisconsin Badgers defense under Mike Tressel next season. They’re incredibly high on the pairing’s capabilities.

Pius has 38 games worth of experience from his time at William & Mary, where he recorded 171 total tackles, 133 pressures, 40.5 tackles for loss, 24.5 sacks, three pass deflections, and two fumble recoveries. Pro Football Focus gave him an elite pass-rushing grade of 90.8 in 2023, and he’s also recorded at least 39 pressures in each of the last three seasons.

Then there’s Lowery, whose recruiting story doesn’t need re-hashing.

The New Jersey native has 30 career games’ worth of experience, recording 75 tackles, 5.0 sacks, and two pass deflections. Lowery started all 12 games for the Orange last season and ended with 46 tackles, 16 pressures, 7.5 TFLs, 3.5 sacks, and a pass deflection.

Both pass-rushers are expected to step into the Wisconsin Badgers football team’s two-deep and play an immediate role next season. The staff was openly critical of the production they got last year but also attributed some of that to the lack of playable depth at LB.

Time will tell if this will heal the Wisconsin Badgers pass-rushing wounds, but it’s a damn good start, and they’re still not done exploring upgrades in the front seven.

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