MADISON, Wis. - Football season is around the corner, so BadgerBlitz.com contributors Jon McNamara, John Veldhuis and Dan Broughton ranked the top 30 players who will make or break Wisconsin's first year under new head coach Paul Chryst.

The series will run every other day, counting down until we reveal this season's key player.

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

No. 5: VINCE BIEGEL, OLB

The Badgers were counting on a breakout season from Vince Biegel in 2014, and he delivered. Biegel's numbers were up in all but one category in his first year as a full-time starter, but now expectations are even higher for his junior season.

After tallying 7.5 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss as a sophomore Biegel has been named to the Lombardi, Bednarik, and Nagurski Award watch lists over the last few weeks, in addition to being named a fourth-team preseason All American by Athlon.

That's a lot of praise for the 6-foot-4 Wisconsin Rapids native, but Biegel definitely has a chance to live up to the hype. He'll be a featured part of Wisconsin's pass rush for a second straight season, and the Badgers will try to involve him as much as possible to take some of the pressure off of a young defensive line. He'll get enough reps where he could beat last year's numbers with another step forward, but it won't be easy by any means.

Biegel also make the top five of our countdown in part because of the options the Badgers expect to have behind him. He has a solid starting partner on the other side of the defense in Joe Schobert, but the second team is relatively untested.

Jack Cichy and Jesse Hayes finished spring camp behind Biegel and Schobert, but neither player has seen extended time for the Badgers during their careers.

That puts a little extra pressure on Biegel to live up to the pre-season accolades that have been heaped upon him, but he hasn't been one to back away from a challenge during his career at Wisconsin so far. He's a pass rushing spark plug for Dave Aranda's defense, and he'd be sorely missed if the Badgers had to play without him for an extended period of time.

This offensive player will be a key part of Wisconsin's passing attack in 2015.

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