Wisconsin football saw its season end without bowl practices for the first time since 2001. The Badgers hit a new low this century in year two of the Luke Fickell era, and will face a critical get-right year in 2025.

Over the next two weeks, BadgerBlitz.com will examine the 2024 Badgers position by position. Today, we'll continue with the outside linebacker, a unit populated largely by transfers that failed to live up to the hype.

POSITIONAL REVIEWS: Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends | Offensive Line | Defensive Line |

In just a brutal year for the outside linebackers, North Carolina transfer Sebastian Cheeks was something of a bright spot. Transitioning from inside linebacker during fall camp, Cheeks saw his first legitimate snaps against Purdue in Week 6 and delivered, logging 1.5 sacks in just nine pass-rushing snaps. He delivered another half sack against Northwestern two weeks later.

Yes — Cheeks, with his 2.0 sacks, was the highlight of this outside linebacker room. He was a nice surprise despite his impact in the pass-rush department essentially being limited to two games. While the rest of the outside linebackers were incompetent at rushing the quarterback over the course of the entire season, Cheeks simply wasn't given an extended look.

Cheeks took the fifth-most snaps in the outside linebacker room — by a wide margin, I might add — as the least utilized player (Cheeks played 123 downs; the next closest Aaron Witt played 296 snaps). And yet, he was the most effective when it came to rushing the passer. Cheeks generated eight pressures on 60 pass-rushing snaps, per Pro Football Focus. That's a pressure rate of 13.3 percent. That was easily the best mark in the room, and only John Pius (12.9 percent) even came close to matching that number.

Thus, Cheeks' limited involvement was rather curious. Now, he did cool off towards the end of the season as a pass-rusher, but time and time again the staff went with less productive players over the former Tar Heel.

The Badgers' home-grown outside linebackers, Witt and Darryl Peterson, were pretty abysmal as well. They combined for one sack and 5.5 tackles for loss across 754 snaps. But it was the transfers, Pius and Leon Lowery, that were such a let down, given how dynamic they looked upon first arriving in Madison.

Pius and Lowery bonded during Wisconsin's bowl game prep in Tampa Bay last year and became roommates. Then, in spring practice, they practically wrote the headlines themselves with their highly disruptive play. Pius appeared to have excellent get-off and bend around the edge as more of a pure pass-rusher, while Lowery looked like a strong, versatile linebacker who could be relied upon to consistently set the edge. Neither projection even came close to fruition.

Several weeks removed from the end of the Badgers' miserable 2024 campaign, and we're still searching for reasons as to why. How could both players, who looked electric against Wisconsin's above-average offensive tackles in practice, completely disappear off the face of the earth when lining up against a different colored jersey?

There may not be one right answer. But regardless, Wisconsin's outside linebackers have been alarmingly quiet in two seasons under position coach Matt Mitchell. In 2023, the room combined for 9.5 sacks. In 2024, they combined for just 6.5. That's not going to cut it.

Wisconsin has stockpiled talent at the edge position via its last two recruiting classes. As it currently stands, the room will feature three true freshman and two redshirt freshman (none of whom played a snap this season) at the onset of spring practice.

Thomas Heiberger appears to be the most likely of that bunch to push for snaps. He was set to play sparingly this fall after impressing in offseason practices, but suffered an injury that ultimately held him out of the entire 2024 campaign. Anelu Lafaele also appeared primed for snaps, displaying a similar tenacity as Heiberger in spring practice. However, quite literally as this paragraph was being typed, he announced his intent to transfer.

Of the rest of the room, there's a few other names to keep an eye on. Ernest Willor, who initially signed as a defensive linemen, was a huge recruit in the class of 2024 and his development will be key to track. As for the true freshman, New Jersey native Samuel Lateju may have the highest upside, even amongst two four-stars in Nicolas Clayton and Jaylen Williams. That's exciting. But it's time for all of this home-grown talent to start producing.

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