Dillan Johnson, Ben Barten, and Brandon Lane are all noticeably bigger compared to the last year during the Wisconsin Badgers football team’s practices.
That reflects their commitment to head coach Luke Fickell’s vision after lamenting that his team lacked the size in the 2024 season.
“They’re grown men and understand, I think, a little bit more of the expectation of what we need,” Fickell said about the trio who got bigger as the offseason continues.
“For us, it’s still about being able to have five or so of those guys inside there. If you look at us, maybe we had one guy who was 300 pounds last year. And I think we’ve got at least five right now just playing on the interior.”
Fickell is getting what he wants to be able to build a team that can compete.
The team focused more on finding strong, agile, and imposing players in the transfer portal to make sure that they can keep up with the other programs in the Big Ten conference.
Among the latest additions are Corey Walker (297 lbs), Jay’viar Suggs (299 lbs), Micheal Garner (300 lbs) Parker Peterson (315 lbs), Charles Perkins and (316 lbs).
Wisconsin Badgers’ defensive line expected to improve
Pressure to deliver is on the team’s defensive line which according to a popular Badgers fan site should improve drastically.
The site put their projected improvement at 75 percent.
The first thing they need to work on though is the chemistry between the guys mentioned above.
A bit like QB, this position has nowhere to go but up, but there are some signs that it can improve upon a dismal 2024 effort, where it got pushed around in several games.
The portal emphasis was on size, speed, and reliable tackling, and I’m hoping that dudes like Jay’Viar Suggs, Mason Reiger, and Parker Peterson, will gel alongside Dillan Johnson, Brandon Lane, Ernest Willor, Jr, and Jamel Howard (now back from a Portal odyssey).
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