Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 20 - Defensive tackle Curt Neal

Wisconsin's 2024 football season is right around the corner, so BadgerBlitz.com ranked the top 30 players who we think will be the keys to success for Luke Fickell's squad this year.

Playing time, past performance and positional depth all factored into our staff rankings.

It's easy to forget that although he's a player from the previous regime, Curt Neal still represents one of the biggest recruiting wins on Wisconsin's roster.

The Badgers identified Neal extremely early in his recruitment, as they were the first school to offer the class of 2022 lineman back in September of 2018. Three years later, they earned his pledge, beating out some national powerhouses in the process.

Neal took officials to UW and Ohio State, but also racked up offers from Alabama, Georgia, Miami, Oregon and Penn State, among many others. In the end, Wisconsin's long relationship with Neal paid off in a big way.

"It's amazing to commit to the first school that offered because that was the first program to take a chance on me," Neal told BadgerBlitz.com. "One of the biggest things I had in my head was that they were the first school to believe in you. They were the first school that really saw something in me and they kept pursuing me. Definitely a dream come true and it's crazy that it worked out that way."

Neal has slowly but surely worked his way onto the field in his first two seasons in Madison. In 2022, he played in four games, preserving his redshirt year. In 2023, he played in all 13 games and made one start, playing the fifth-most snaps along the Badgers' defensive line. Neal hasn't exactly been given the keys to the room yet, but new defensive line coach EJ Whitlow says he's one of the leaders in the defensive trenches.

"Those guys (Neal and James Thompson) are very impactful. They're good leaders. They work hard. As guys that are veteran guys in the room, I talk to them all the time, right? There's an expectation, there's pressure with that. But pressure is a privilege."

Still, we haven't seen much from Neal in terms of playmaking. Considering he plays on the interior of the defensive line, an area where splash plays can be few and far between, it's not yet time to write off Neal as a potential dynamic player on this defense. Still, the Badgers need more out of their lineman, who recorded just 13 tackles across 263 snaps last year.

Neal is exclusively a tackle/nose guard. Anywhere from a 0 to a 2-technique is his sweet spot in the trenches. Wisconsin doesn't need Neal to generate consistent pressure on passing downs, but it does need him to manhandle interior lineman, stuff running lanes and eat up blocks.

During spring ball, Neal and the aforementioned Thompson looked like the best Wisconsin has along the defensive line. Those two figure to get the lion's share of snaps, with Ben Barten and Elijah Hills sprinkled in as well. Whitlow was non-committal when asked this spring about how many lineman he plans on rotating this fall:

"The biggest thing is, who can help us and who's earned that right. It's not your birthright to go out there and play and contribute for us up front...that's all determined on who earns it," he said.

Whitlow sounds open to the idea of a slight committee along the defensive line, but again, its clear who the top players in his room are, and right now, Neal is one of them.

This figures to be Neal's first fall as a full-time starter in Madison. He's another player who was heavily recruited by big-time programs but is only now staring down his first big-time opportunity with the Badgers, similar to projected starting guard Joe Brunner. Thus, it'll be fascinating to track Neal's season and development. There's plenty of pressure on Neal and what's been an underwhelming defensive line as a whole to produce more, but as Whitlow says, pressure is a privilege.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook