Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 18 - Offensive tackle Tyler Beach

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.

As part of a reshuffled offensive line, redshirt senior Tyler Beach, who started six games in 2020, moved from right to left tackle this spring. The move allows Logan Bruss, who played right guard this past season, to flip outside to tackle. Beach, at 6-foot-5 and 309 pounds, will be taking over for Cole Van Lanen, who held down the blindside the previous two seasons for Wisconsin. The former three-star recruit has plenty of game experience - 34 appearances and eight starts under his belt - but taking the next step in his development is the focus heading into fall camp.

"Personally the biggest thing I learned is getting the pace for the game. It was my first time starting multiple games in a row, so just getting a feel for the conditioning that's required for that and with the consistency part, I feel like I've learned how to be more consistent," Beach told reporters in the spring. "I guess just understanding the game a little bit more from starting games has been huge for me."

"The No. 1 thing that he has is consistency," position coach Joe Rudolph added. "He's a very consistent player. He's a smart player. He's detailed."

Beach isn't completely new to the left side of the offensive line. He worked at both tackle spots during the 2019 season, starting a game on the right side against Illinois and a game on the left against Purdue. The experience has made the transition easier, according to Beach, but the Wisconsin native is coming off a season where he took all of his snaps at right tackle.

"The left side, it's been good. It is a little bit of a transition because I didn't play there at all this past year," Beach said. "But from the year before working both left and right, I feel like it's given me an advantage, so it's a lot smoother of a transition than it could be."

Rudolph gushed over the performance Beach turned in on every play but would like the veteran lineman to be more of a punishing bruiser and "let it loose."

"I've challenged him to be more of a let-it-loose guy, more explosive," Rudolph said. "Trying to be great, rather than maybe trying not to be wrong. I think he's got that in him and it's showed up a little bit in these practices, so I'm going to keep pushing that out of him."

Making the switch to left tackle, Beach will be tasked with protecting Graham Mertz's blindside. A key part of a veteran offensive line, his performance can help elevate a Wisconsin offense that struggled this past season.

Beach has become a reliable player for Rudolph's unit during his time in Madison. He will anchor a talented group and his continued development could mean the return of an elite rushing attack for Wisconsin.