Wisconsin's 2018 football season is right around the corner, so BadgerBlitz.com contributors Jon McNamara, John Veldhuis, Jon Gorman and Jonathan Mills ranked the Top 30 players who we think are the keys to success for Paul Chryst's squad this year.

Playing time, past performance and positional depth all factored in to our individual rankings, which were combined into a final score.

30: CHRIS JAMES / 29: ANTHONY LOTTI / 28: JAKE FERGUSON / 27: ALEC INGOLD / 26: BRYSON WILLIAMS / 25: MADISON CONE

It seems like Rafael Gaglianone just arrived on campus at Wisconsin, taking over the open place kicking job as a true freshman and making 19 of 22 field goals to solidify the position. But 2018 will be Gaglianone's senior season - after he was able to take a medical redshirt in 2016 for a season-ending back injury.

Gaglianone bounced back from his shortened junior season by making 16 of 18 field goal attempts in 2017, and the Badgers are hoping that he can repeat that performance during his senior season. And even though his 18 field goal attempts were a career-low (excluding his injury-shortened season), that has more to do with Wisconsin's offense finishing off drives more consistently last year than they did earlier in Gaglianone's career.

Gaglianone has been all-but automatic on extra points during his career for UW (he has only missed two PATs during his career, both coming in 2014), and his strong leg gives the Badgers a chance to get points out of drives if the offense stalls inside the red zone - or even just outside of it.

This multi-year starter had a chance to turn pro at the end of 2017, but decided to return to school for his senior season and help make his position group the deepest it has been in a long time.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.