Key Wisconsin Badgers: No. 24 - Safety Kamo'i Latu

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.

Wisconsin landed Kamo'i Latu, a transfer from Utah, in the spring of 2022. The addition brought some much-needed depth to a safety room that lost Travian Blaylock to injury during spring camp and Hunter Wohler for a big chunk of the fall. Latu, who played at St. Louis High School in Hawaii with former Wisconsin outside linebacker Nick Herbig, was part of the regular rotation for the Utes as a redshirt freshman. That year, he tallied 19 tackles and three pass breakups.

Joining a depleted secondary after spring camp, Latu developed into a reliable defensive back for former defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard. By the end of spring ball in 2022, John Torchio and Wohler were the only safeties with game experience to take part in practice.

"That's where the transfer portal changes things because we don't have to go from experienced to non-experienced," Leonhard said during spring camp last year. "We love the guys in the room. We are not down on anybody in the secondary room but we knew we needed depth."

Latu brings a toughness and physical presence to the safety position. That was on full display last year when he played with a club on his right hand against Michigan State. After undergoing surgery the night before, Latu led the team in tackles (13) against the Spartans.

“When I woke up from getting put under all I was thinking about was Michigan State,” Latu said. “Obviously I had to club it up, which I knew it was going to come with some challenges. But it’s football.”

In terms of improvement, Latu and Torchio each gambled at times, which led to chunk plays in 2022. Latu's tackling (58.8) and coverage (62.6) grades, according to PFF, both need to improve this fall. Playing more disciplined in the back end of the field should be a focus for Latu in 2023, though you love the game-changing potential he brings to the field.

Latu's experience and dependability (played 504 of Wisconsin's 839 defensive snaps last fall) make him one of the more important players on the Badgers' defense in 2023. And as UW transitions from a 3-4 to 3-3-5 look, having game-ready defensive backs will be crucial for coordinator Mike Tressel.

Wohler and Blaylock may be slotted ahead of Latu on the depth chart when it's released this fall, but Tressel showed plenty of three-safety looks during spring camp. With that, Latu is once again expected to have a large role in 2023 as a deep safety. It will be interesting to see how the safety reps are divided this fall, especially with second-year player Austin Brown pushing for reps at the position.

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