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.

The 12th member of the program's 2021 recruiting class, Ohio native Darryl Peterson committed to the Badgers in June of 2020. A three-star prospect at the time, Peterson chose the Badgers over offers from Alabama, Michigan, Michigan State, and West Virginia, among others.

"I told the coaches yesterday on a Zoom meeting," Peterson told BadgerBlitz.com. "I almost shed a tear when I heard the stuff they were saying about me and how I fit at Wisconsin.

"It was me, Coach (Joe) Rudolph, Coach (Bobby) April and Coach (Paul) Chryst, and you could feel how happy they were even though we were on Zoom."

Peterson was bumped up to four-star status by the end of the year, making him one of eight signees with that distinction in that class for Wisconsin. At the time, that was a record number for the program, which has since been matched by the 2024 cycle.

"I've been talking to guys like Hunter Wohler, Bryan Sanborn and Deacon Hill for over a month now - really since March 1 for some of the guys I met during the junior day," Peterson told BadgerBlitz.com at the time. "There's nothing like knowing the people you're going to be there with, so that made it a lot easier for me. And then I've been there four times already, and it's not far from home. So being around the guys and being around the coaches, it just felt like family and it felt like home."

After playing in two games during his freshman season in 2021, Peterson was part of a competition for a starting role on the edge opposite Nick Herbig last fall. He was ultimately beat out by veteran C.J. Goetz, but Peterson was a key part of the rotation this past season. In his second year in Madison, Peterson appeared in all 13 games and saw 331 snaps.

The 6-foot-1, 244-pound edge rusher turned things on at the tail end of his redshirt freshman season. After tallying five pressures through the first seven games, Peterson totaled six pressures in the final six contests, including four in the last three games. He finished with a sack in three straight outings.

The next step for Peterson is to develop into a consistent impact pass rusher. The third-year player was healthy through all of spring ball and anchored his position. He started to show flashes with a handful of days with multiple pressures.

"I think Darryl Peterson has done a good job (of rushing the passer)," outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell said when he met with reporters mid-way through spring practices. "Give him a lot of credit, he's taken a lot of reps through six practices and he hasn't missed any time with injury. I think he's done a good job affecting the quarterback. Some with speed rush, some with some power rushes and we've seen some flashes of him being able to do that."

Peterson has been asked to be versatile during his time in Madison, and that won’t change under the new coaching staff. During the spring, he was lined up in different formations and played both the boundary and field positions. His versatility and development as a pass rusher will be key to a unit looking to replace Herbig. Peterson's role as a leader will be important as well for a team that lost its three captains from 2022.

“He's got the most on his plate right now of any outside linebacker,” Mitchell said of Peterson. “He's playing our outside linebacker position where he's to the field and he's playing in our other package, too, where he's a little bit off the ball. In terms of jobs, he has the biggest menu of jobs, really of any player that we have.

“There are some things that he's really good at. If we can get him to be highly competent in all those different skillsets, then that allows us to have an impactful player on the field. But that also allows us to not really have to substitute any type of personnel as we go through different situations. So that's really the goal for him to work to have that multiplicity and develop a set of skills that can allow him to move around.”

Part of a group of players that saw consistent snaps for the first time in 2022, Peterson will look to build off the performance and break out in the fall. Wisconsin’s defense will have to find ways to replace its top two sack leaders with Herbig and Keeanu Benton gone. Peterson is a front-runner to emerge in that department.

"Nick was an All-American and first-team All-Big Ten. I feel like at this position - especially with the defense that we're running - for us to have a great defense, the outside backers have to be that guy," Peterson said in the spring. "There's no pressure, though. I feel like I just want to keep building confidence and keep getting confident in the scheme and in my play and I feel like it'll be that."

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @MHoganReports @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer

*Like us on Facebook