Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 2 - Running Back Braelon Allen

Wisconsin's 2023 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.

Braelon Allen was originally the first commit in Wisconsin's 2022 recruiting class when he verbaled to the Badgers in July of 2020. But a few months later, the four-star prospect reclassified to the 2021 cycle. The move seemed to pave the way for an exciting young tandem in the secondary, with Allen paired up with fellow in-state recruit Hunter Wohler.

"That was huge," Allen told BadgerBlitz.com at the time. "Hunter's a great player and I don't think it could have played out any better for the two top safeties in the state - ever, I think - to team up for our home state. Hopefully we bring home a national title."

Just before joining UW in June, however, BadgerBlitz.com reported that Allen would be joining the program as a running back. He joined Jackson Acker, Antwan Roberts and Loyal Crawford in the class at that position. Three years later, only Allen and Acker remain on the current roster.

Allen made an immediate impact for the Badgers and led the running back room in 2021. As a true freshman, the 6-foot-2, 240-pound back ran for 1,268 yards and 12 touchdowns. Allen was one of just four backs, along with Ron Dayne (1996), James White (2010) and Jonathan Taylor (2017), to run for over 1,000 yards as a true freshmen in school history. The freshman season landed Allen on the Walter Camp Freshman All-American team, along with consensus second-team All-Big Ten honors. He also earned Big Ten freshman of the week honors following an 108-yard performance against Army and a 129-yard game against Rutgers.

While it wasn’t quite the second-year leap Allen had hoped for, he still followed it up with an impressive 2022 season, running 1,242 yards and 11 scores. Allen compiled seven games of 100-plus rushing yards, including a 116-yard night in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against Oklahoma State to earn offensive MVP honors. His sophomore season would also see him claim all-Big Ten second-team honors while becoming the fifth fastest Badger back to reach 2,000 career yards in the program's history (19 games).

For a second straight season, however, Allen dealt with injuries and struggled during the later portion of the season. While bumps and bruises are normal throughout a long year, Allen’s durability has popped up in both of his college seasons. He was injured last fall against Nebraska and missed UW's season finale against Minnesota due to injury.

If Wisconsin wants to break through in pivotal games against conference foes, it will need better outings from Allen than he showed in 2022. Part of a disastrous loss to Illinois, the second-year back rushed eight times for a total of two yards. And on the road against Iowa, he rushed for 45 yards on 18 touches. Neither games were memorable for the offense in general, but a lot is put on Allen’s plate as a leader on the unit.

It’s still not totally clear just how coordinator Phil Longo's offense will look, but he’s made it known that the term Air Raid can be a bit misleading. Wisconsin will still rely heavily on the ground game, with Allen leading the way as a workhorse back. The tailbacks were used in a few more creative ways in the spring with a greater emphasis on catching passes in space. There were even a number of instances where Allen and Chez Mellusi shared the field together.

“The words ‘Air Raid’ kind of create a poor perception of what we want to do offensively,” Longo said when he met with local reporters for the first time. “We’re going to be more diverse maybe than we’ve been here, and we want to throw the ball more effectively and maybe even more (repetition) wise than we’ve done, but you want to be more effective at both.

“I’d be an idiot not to run the football here with the backfield that we have and the offensive line that we have."

Allen’s talent alone merits his position near the top of this list, but the lack of depth at running back make his availability that much more important. The top duo of Mellusi and Allen were relied on heavily this past season, and with no clear third back emerging to this point, that likely won’t change anytime soon.

After the makeover Wisconsin had on the offensive side of the ball with a new offensive system brought in, new quarterback and a number of talented receivers to bolster the passing attack, Allen could come out as the big winner. Through his two seasons in Madison, he’s seen the most attempts in college football with eight defenders in the box, according to Pro Football Focus. The added space should also serve him well when it comes to taking care of his body and have him in better shape for the tail end of the season.

The third-year back has made his goal of turning pro after this season public. He can put himself in good position to be an early-round draft pick with another stellar season.

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