Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 12 - Center Kayden Lyles

Wisconsin's 2021 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 Paul Chryst's squad this year.

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

After having his season cut short for a second consecutive year, Kayden Lyles is slated to start at center in 2021. Lyles, a redshirt senior, has appeared in 29 contests with 15 starts - four coming at left guard, four at center and seven as a defensive end in 2018.

At 6-foot-3 and 323 pounds, Lyles has been a key member of Wisconsin's offensive line the past two seasons, and this fall will be no different. Working his way back from a torn MCL and tibia fracture in his right leg, Lyles said he feels 100 percent. He mentioned that he had a similar injury in high school, which kept his recovery to just three weeks. The former four-star prospect took part in all of spring camp.

"With the knee injury and on top of the hips, I definitely feel like I am at 100 percent right," Lyles told reporters in the spring. "No doubt that I am progressing and everything like that."

Lyles has had a turbulent ride during his time in Madison. After redshirting his freshman year, he switched over to the defensive line to aid a depleted room. A pair of hip surgeries in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 left him scrambling without access to facilities and the staff to properly recover. Lyles was behind when fall camp rolled around in terms of the way he felt physically, which was compounded when he suffered the torn MCL.

"There is still stuff that I missed out on," Lyles explained. "Weight room strength and stuff like that with the hip surgeries having put a pause on lower body strength, and when I was regaining it had to put a hold on it because of my MCL. But thanks to coach (Shaun) Snee and everyone on the strength staff, they were able to help me out to get me back where I am today, so I definitely say that I'm back to 100 percent."

Lyles will be true sophomore quarterback Graham Mertz's mic up front and be asked to keep his pocket clean up the middle. He has been solid when healthy, but if he sustains another injury that could leave redshirt freshman Tanor Bortilini or redshirt junior Cormac Sampson at center.

Because of his experience, Lyles is a major piece along the offensive line this upcoming season. His health and play can provide stability up front following a season filled with turnover on the offensive side of the ball. Getting back to 100 percent this offseason, Lyles has been able to shift his focus from rehab and recovery to his on-field play.

"Last year it was probably a little more of survival mode going through what he went through in the offseason from surgeries and procedures, and he is one tough joker," offensive line coach Joe Rudolph said. "There was only one guy that went through that and that was (Tyler) Biadasz. For him to be able to do that without all the reps behind him, I thought was really a credit to him and his perseverance. I think he has taken a real step forward. His health is much better, his playing strength is better and now the work is on trusting the technique and the details. It's not about how we can do this to be OK on the rep and I've appreciated the way he's approached this spring."