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.

Joe Brunner is quietly one of the more highly-touted recruits on Wisconsin's roster. The in-state talent out of Whitefish Bay was a top-75 player in his class and a high four-star prospect for the Badgers in their 2022 haul. He was the only blue-chip prospect for Wisconsin in that cycle, and one of just two offensive linemen alongside fellow Wisconsin native Barrett Nelson.

Brunner, ranked as the No. 9 offensive tackle in the nation at the time, racked up offers from Notre Dame, Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan and Miami, among many others. Needless to say, he was a massive get for the previous coaching staff.

"They were pumped - they had to ask me if I just committed because I don't think they believed it at first," Brunner told BadgerBlitz.com after his commitment. "They were screaming and I was screaming, and we were all getting pretty hyped."

The Badgers fought hard for Brunner, and had to make a comeback against Notre Dame, who at one point was in prime position for a pledge.

"At one point, I think Notre Dame was in the lead for a good chunk of time. I started to build a strong relationship with their coaching staff and I didn't really talk to Wisconsin as much. But then Wisconsin started to pick it up and, trust me, it was hard not being able to get to the campus. So I'm glad I got to do that because it really opened my eyes. Wisconsin definitely was not always in the lead."

Of all of Wisconsin's projected starters, Brunner may be the least battle-tested. He played 38 snaps as a true freshman and seven last season, according to Pro Football Focus. So right away, a glaring lack of experience jumps off the page.

Still, Brunner is a very exciting player for the Badgers this fall. The biggest recruiting win of the 2022 cycle, who could've played for a litany of blue blood powerhouses, has patiently waited his turn for two seasons. Now, it's time for all of his behind-the-scenes work to pay off.

Brunner opened up spring camp as the starting left guard, the only position he's played along the offensive line thus far in Madison. Barring injury or a major surprise on the offensive front, Brunner looks destined to be the Badgers' starting guard opposite Joe Huber in 2024.

Despite his limited playing time, Brunner's physicality has stood out, especially during spring practice when he got extended reps with the starters.

“Since high school, I’ve been the nasty guy,” Brunner said. “I’m a young guy, but one thing I felt was that we needed to be nasty.”

“My older brother and my dad instilled it within me. I played sports all my life. They made me competitive and they let me know that if you wanna win, sometimes you gotta be nasty. From such a young age, that’s how I learned to win and how I learned to compete.”

Brunner checks in as the first offensive lineman in our Most Important Badgers series. Like the other four who will come after him, he'll be critical to the success of the offense. It's hard to know too much about an offensive lineman before they're tossed into the fire that is the trenches of the Big Ten, but all signs point to Brunner being more than capable. In spring practice, he played with attitude and the interior of the offensive line looked like one of the stronger areas on offense.

Brunner essentially has a blank slate, but he carries a highly-touted pedigree with how coveted of a recruit he was. Having waited his turn for two years, Brunner has all but locked down a starting spot as a redshirt sophomore. Everything is now in front of him — the path for him to become the next great home-grown offensive lineman from Wisconsin is wide open.

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