Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 22 - Offensive lineman Joe Huber

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 in to our staff rankings.

Fourth-year offensive lineman Joe Huber transferred to Wisconsin from Cincinnati this winter, joining head coach Luke Fickell and a familiar staff in Madison. The former Bearcat committed to the Badgers in the first week of January after a visit to UW.

"You can never have enough good o-linemen, so whether it’s portal or freshmen, we’re always looking to get bigger and better in the o-line room," offensive coordinator Phil Longo told reporters this winter. "So that will never change."

Huber walked on at Cincinnati as an unranked prospect coming out of high school in the 2020 class. After redshirting his freshman year, he saw action in five games in 2021 before starting all 13 contests for the Bearcats this past fall at right tackle.

Huber came over from Cincinnati with fellow offensive lineman Jake Renfro.

With Huber's addition to the room, offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. has another Swiss Army Knife to work with. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound lineman's versatility was on display this spring. Huber spent time as the second-team center for the early portion of camp before he joined the first team at left guard for the final stretch of the spring. That movement came after starting 13 games for Cincinnati at right tackle in 2022.

"(Huber) can play all five positions, I really believe that," Bicknell Jr. told reporters in the spring.

Showing a toughness as a run blocker, the Ohio native earned a run blocking grade of 83.7 from Pro Football Focus. Huber settled down in pass blocking after a shaky start to his 2022 season. Surrendering four sacks in the first five weeks, he would go without giving up a sack for the rest of the season.

This fall, one of the top camp battles to watch will likely be Huber and Michael Furtney at right guard.

While there is no guarantee Huber will be out there with the starting offensive line, he is certainly highly thought of by the staff. With Bicknell Jr. revealing he would like to rotate linemen during games to keep bodies fresh, Huber should, at the very least, be a member of the rotation and consistently on the field. Huber can likely play all five positions on the offensive line.

"I think we have a lot of guys that can play, I really do," Bicknell Jr. said. "I think we've got good depth so, in my opinion, if we have six, seven, eight guys, even then we'll rotate those guys. You see the defensive line rotating in all the time, so it'll give us a chance to be fresh. Especially after hopefully a 14-game season that we'd have next year."

Exiting the spring, one of the primary goals Fickell mentioned as key for fall camp was to find a group up front and allow them to gel together. Due in part to an early injury to starting center Jake Renfro, the offensive line moved pieces around a few times in the spring. After going through the final few practices with the first team, Huber may open up fall camp with the top unit and be in the driver's seat to land a starting role, most likely at guard.

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