With the Wisconsin football team now preparing for the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, it's a great time to do an overall assessment of the Badgers' defense.

Overall, this group has performed above expectations after losing five starters from a season ago. Currently, Jim Leonhard's unit ranks No. 8 in the country in total defense and No. 10 in scoring defense.

Position-wise, BadgerBlitz.com took a deeper dive into Pro Football Focus to learn more about snap counts and overall grades. The UW defense has played 822 total snaps this year. So when you see the snap count for an individual player, compare it with that total.

As far as the grading system, anything above 70 is usually pretty good. In the 60s is pretty close to average and in 50s is below.

Players listed have played above 40 snaps through 13 games.