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.
RECRUITING STORY
Maema Njongmeta was one of the later commitments in Wisconsin's 2019 recruiting class. The former three-star recruit from Illinois committed to UW in November of 2018, roughly one week after the Badgers offered. Njongmeta chose Wisconsin overs scholarships from Columbia, Cornell, Army, Iowa State, Navy and Princeton, among others.
"The great combination of academics and football stands out at Wisconsin," Njongmeta told BadgerBlitz.com at the time. "They're also close to home and it's in the Big Ten. It's an all-around great package."
Njongmeta was one of four linebackers in the class, along with Spencer Lytle, Leo Chenal and Skyler Meyers.
STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSESÂ
After battling injuries and a health scare early in his Wisconsin career, Njongmeta took full advantage of a starting role in his fourth season. In 2022, he led UW in total tackles (95), was second on the team with 11.5 tackles for loss and ranked third with 3.5 sacks. Those results netted third-team all-Big Ten honors.
Last fall, the redshirt senior was a stable presence in the middle of the defense. The 6-foot, 230-pound linebacker graded out well defending the run (86.4), rushing the passer (87.2) and as a tackler (79.2) to lead the Badgers with an overall grade of 89.9, according to Pro Football Focus. Njongmeta tallied at least seven tackles in eight of 13 games this past season.
As was the case for many on the defensive side of the ball, Njongmeta got better as the season wore on. Following the contest against Illinois, he rattled off seven straight games with multiple pressures and had 21 total over that stretch, including seven in the regular season finale against Minnesota. With just 3.5 sacks coming off of his 25 total pressures, though, capitalizing on the opportunities in 2023 will lead to a significant bump in production.
WHY HE'S No. 6
Njongmeta, who grades out as the best among returning linebackers in the Big Ten, is in line to be one of the top defenders in the conference. Despite what was a productive season this past fall, Njongmeta doesn't appear to be satisfied, which is a good sign for the defense. Any kind of leap for the fifth-year player will catapult him right into the position of a consistent playmaker that Wisconsin's defense will need this fall.
"Honestly, my mindset is that whatever I did last year wasn’t enough," Njongmeta said in the spring. "That’s kind of fueling me. Just doing the work we did in the offseason and coming out and going 6-6 (during the regular season)... I had some matchups where I was like, ‘Oh, I got beat in that one-on-one matchup.’ Just realizing there is more work to be done, more to be had. I left a lot of meat on the bone last year. The approach has been that I need to do more."
Njongmeta is one of three players set to represent Wisconsin at the Big Ten Media Days later this week, along with quarterback Tanner Mordecai and tailback Braelon Allen.
OVERALL
It wasn't easy for the group of inside linebackers in 2022. For what was an inexperienced crew, the position group is on their third position coach since the end of the 2021 season. With the voids left behind by Nick Herbig and Keeanu Benton, the trio of Jordan Turner, Jake Chaney and Njongmeta at inside linebacker should lead the unit. Learning on the fly, the trio took their respective bumps this past season but now project to be game wreckers.
"We talk about how it's better to be consistently good than occasionally great," coordinator Mike Tressel said during spring camp. "When you're trying to be that 'splash playmaker,' what happens is you end up being occasionally great. You have to let it come to you."
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