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.

Christian Alliegro was one of the finishing touches on Wisconsin's 2023 recruiting class, a pieced-together group of signees that spanned two coaching staffs. The Connecticut native was once committed to Navy for lacrosse in high school. His senior year, however, he decided he wanted to pursue football.

Being just 17 during his senior season of high school football, and with not enough football experience yet to attract the attention of big-time programs, he knew he needed to develop more. So Alliegro took a post-grad year at Avon Old Farms boarding school, where he could compete against tougher competition. From there, his recruitment took off.

“I think that was the best thing that happened in my life, honestly,” he said. “Taking that extra year, boarding school, all boys school, being away from home for a whole year. It really allowed me to transition into a college atmosphere really well. Not getting homesick, just the little things.”

Alliegro racked up offers from Nebraska, Ole Miss, Minnesota and Louisville, among others, before committing to the Badgers on December 14, 2022.

Alliegro's rise last season was especially surprising considering he wasn't an early enrollee. The linebacker simply arrived in Madison in the summer, did nothing but impress the coaching staff and eventually earned legit playing time just months after stepping on campus.

Alliegro's traits had a lot to do with his rapid ascension. Most notably, he has sideline-to-sideline speed, which is a big reason why his first playing time on defense was an assignment to spy a mobile quarterback on the road in crunch time. That speed also allows him to shoot gaps quickly and fly into the backfield, as evidenced by his first career sack several weeks later against Northwestern.

The linebacker couples that speed with good instincts and an innate physicality. Still just a true sophomore, Alliegro could just be scraping the surface of his athletic potential.

“He’s a freaky athlete. You see him in the weight room. Heavy squatter, strong kid, can bench, fast. Puts his head down and works, gained the respect of everybody with his work ethic,” former Wisconsin outside linebacker Jeff Pietrowski said last season.

Still, Alliegro remains relatively inexperienced, playing just 53 snaps in 2023. He hasn't yet been tested in pass coverage. His athletic ability makes him one of the most exciting young players on Wisconsin's roster, but again, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg from Alliegro.

Wisconsin's inside linebacker room is bursting at the seams with talent. With the likes of Jake Chaney, Jaheim Thomas and Tackett Curtis, the Badgers have plenty of talent at the top of the room. But Alliegro, who should ultimately crack the two-deep at inside backer, represents the future of this room as well as an exciting option to deploy in certain packages; he could be a quarterback spy or extra pass-rusher in exotic formations. This spring, inside linebackers' coach Mike Tressel talked about how the highest number of inside linebackers he's ever played consistently is four. Again, Alliegro should crack that top group, but even if he doesn't, he's simply too talented to keep off the field.

Alliegro looks like the real deal, but it appears as though he'll have to wait until his junior year to be one of the faces of the Badgers' front seven. Regardless, it's hard to ask for a better depth piece than Alliegro — young and still developing but oozing talent and already with some invaluable experience under his belt.

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