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.

Nyzier Fourqurean joined the Badgers as a transfer during the spring of 2023.

The redshirt senior cornerback spent the beginning of his career at Grand Valley State, where he began to garner Power Five interest after earning Division II All-American honors in 2022.

He originally committed to Vanderbilt during the 2023 transfer window before the Badgers stepped in and swayed him. A major influence in Fourqurean’s ear was Matt Mitchell, the former head coach at Grand Valley who Fickell had hired as his outside linebackers coach earlier that offseason.

"I committed to Vanderbilt not too long ago," Fourqurean said after committing in 2023. "But not long after that, Wisconsin and a few other schools reached out to me. The only one I really considered was Wisconsin, and a big part of that is my relationship with Coach Mitchell and my trust in him. That was a hard conversation to have because Vanderbilt invested a lot into me. But I had to pick the best school for me and I made the best move for me.

"Coach Mitchell did play a huge role in my commitment. We're on the same page and he wouldn't bring me here if it wasn't the right opportunity for me. He let me know that it's a great fit for both sides. I'm also walking into a great culture and a great school at Wisconsin."

Fourqurean was a complete unknown coming out of high school in Mentor, Ohio, garnering zero major interest from top schools. It took him multiple years, but he eventually earned an opportunity at a legitimate program.

As a counterpart to Ricardo Hallman, one of the Big Ten’s best cornerbacks, Fourqurean provides much more range and athletic versatility. He’s 6-foot-1, compared to Hallman’s 5-foot-10 stature, and is the more capable tackler. This should give the Badgers more stability when facing some of the bigger receivers on their schedule.

He checks just about every box when it comes to desired physical traits. It’s just up to him now to put it to use for an entire season at the highest level. There were times last year when his lack of D1 experience was rather obvious.

Against the two most talented offenses on their schedule last season in Ohio State and LSU, Fourqurean gave up a total of 12 receptions for 151 yards over those two games, according to Pro Football Focus.

Struggling against receivers like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers is to be somewhat expected. But Wisconsin’s schedule is getting even tougher and the expectations for Fourqurean aren’t getting any lower.

While speaking to Fourqurean during the spring, members of the media learned that the redshirt senior was struggling with more last year than simply learning a new system.

“Last year, January to May, nobody knew this outside of the teams that recruited me and Grand Valley State, but I had a surgery, almost like a life-threatening surgery, where I couldn’t lift at all,” Fourqurean said. “It’s called thoracic outlet syndrome… It’s very rare.”

He was diagnosed with the condition in January 2023 but didn’t get surgery on it until May, cutting out most of his offseason preparation process.

“No excuses, but I feel like that definitely took a toll on me towards the back end of the season. My body wasn’t really prepared fully to where I needed to be to play in the Big Ten.”

What we saw of Fourqurean during the spring indicates that the condition and recovery process ultimately had a great effect on his play last season. He looked as if he aged years rather than months since the bowl game.

“I think when you look at Nyzier, he has probably been the most improved when you look at the weight room, you look at his speed and how he's moving,” cornerbacks coach Paul Haynes said during the spring. “Last year when he got here he had the rib deal, so he did no lifting until really fall camp. So once we hit midseason, end of the season, you go — again Grand Valley is a great program, Division II’s great, but it's just totally different. And he even said it like, ‘I got worn out.’

“Now, they did a great job in the weight room with him so I think his confidence has gone up like crazy for us.”

In 2023, Fourqurean joined the Badgers just a few months before the season began, in some of the worst physical shape of his career. He did his best to heal, took advantage of a thin cornerback room and was instantly one of the most important players in the room.

Fourqurean didn’t play his best ball last season and he knows it. But he gained valuable experience and now has real potential to be one of the best players on the defense.

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