MADISON, Wis. - After months of workouts, interviews, and stress, hundreds of former college athletes are now sitting to play the waiting game. The longer the wait goes, the higher level of stress, anxiety, nervousness, and possibly a touch of frustration exponentially grows.

It's a roller coaster of emotions that former University of Wisconsin punter Brad Nortman still vividly remembers 13 years later. After seeing the team he thought would pick him go a different direction three rounds earlier, the level of angst grew with each passing pick while waiting and watching with friends and family at his parents' house.

He still remembers the exhale when his phone loudly rang with a Charlotte area code, and then Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney was ready to change his life.

"My heart rate picks up to triple digits, chills down my spine," Nortman recalled. "It was a blur. I went into automatic mode with all that media training that the Badgers had. It was a surreal moment."

The phone will likely ring again this weekend for former Wisconsin safety Hunter Wohler and offensive linemen Joe Huber and Jack Nelson, athletes over the three-day NFL Draft, which begins tonight with the first round in Green Bay, followed by the second and third rounds on Friday and the final four rounds on Saturday.

If that happens, those players would extend their former school's impressive streak. UW has had at least one player selected in every NFL Draft since 1979, trailing only Michigan and USC (1939), Florida (1952), Miami (Fla.) (1975), and Notre Dame and Iowa (1978).

The next former UW player selected will be the school's 300th drafted player, as the Badgers are tied for 21st in having players drafted. Nortman was No.258 when he was selected in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft, the beginning of a six-year professional career that included an appearance in Super Bowl 50 and a $8.8 million free-agent contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"The moment itself can correctly be personified if you put yourself in the shoes of someone entering that process," Nortman said. "The second and third guys have very little idea of where they are going to go ... Your life is about to change in a really profound way, but you are flying completely blind. Leading up to that is stressful. There's no other way to put it."

While UW has been a steady pipeline to the pros, the Badgers have not recently produced top-end talent. Barring something unforeseen tonight, Wisconsin hasn't had a first-round selection since 2017, when outside linebacker T.J. Watt (30th pick, Pittsburgh Steelers) and offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk (32nd, New Orleans Saints) were selected.

UW's seven-draft drought is the program's longest in the modern NFL draft era, dating back to the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. If prognostications are correct and no UW players are selected until Saturday, it will be the third time in the last five drafts the Badgers haven't produced a player picked in the first three rounds.

Huber, Nelson, and Wohler have been projected to fall anywhere from the fifth to the seventh rounds, or possibly go undrafted.

“It's what you sell when you walk in the doors here,” coach Luke Fickell said of the NFL and his recruiting message. “They've seen it in front of them, they've seen it happen in the past, and that's what our job is to do, it’s to develop guys. Not everybody's gonna have that opportunity, we understand that. But who's to say they don't? I mean, obviously we've got two great examples of (players) somebody would say they were never going to be a first-round draft pick in the Watts, right? And then all of a sudden they become first-round draft picks.

“There isn't just this magic, ‘You've got to have this height, you got to have this weight,’ so it's a development piece. And so to me, if guys aren’t coming here and have that goal and dream and belief, then they're going to be in the wrong program."

While a lack of top-end talent getting drafted from Wisconsin is glaring, the last seven drafts haven't been completely barren. Former running back Jonathan Taylor was selected in the second round by the Indianapolis Colts in 2000 and has produced three 1,000-yard seasons. Linebacker Leo Chenal was a third-round pick in 2022 and has already won two Super Bowl titles with the Kansas City Chiefs as a starter and special teams contributor.

Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel (fifth round to Miami in 2019), tight end Jake Ferguson (fourth round to Dallas in 2022), defensive end Keeanu Benton (second round to Pittsburgh in 2023), and linebacker Nick Herbig (fourth round to Pittsburgh in 2023) have also carved out roles with the franchises that drafted them. It helped Van Ginkel to land a two-year, $20 million contract with the Minnesota Vikings last offseason, in which he responded with career highs in sacks (11½), tackles (79), and interceptions (2).

It's why the phone ringing with an NFL executive ready to offer an opportunity is so impactful.

"Draft picks are a finite resource, and a team has selected you with one of those resources," Nortman said. "There is a level of investment, and with that level of investment creates a level of patience. They are going to have more patience with a first-round pick than a seventh-round pick or a free agent, but that level of commitment gives you a little bit of an inside track."

Nortman was convinced he would be drafted by Jacksonville, which called him leading into the draft to express their strong interest in him and sell him on living in Florida near all the area's great golf courses. Imagine his surprise when the Jaguars drafted California punter Bryan Anger in the third round Friday night, five spots ahead of former Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson.

"I was discouraged, wondering if anyone was going to draft me and what my free agent market was going to look like," Nortman said.

With despair growing as the draft moved into the late rounds on Saturday, Nortman's agent told him to keep an eye on the Rams and the Panthers, whom he'd spoken to once and had worked out for on a horrible spring day in Madison. That was evidently enough to convince the franchise, which then watched Nortman set multiple franchise records over his four years there.

"The days and weeks and months leading up to that, it's so stressful because you don't know where you're going to go and have no idea what teams think of you," Nortman said. "You're life is going to change, but you are flying really blind."

Huber has shown versatility during a career that started at Cincinnati and ended with two productive seasons at Wisconsin. A third-team All-Big Ten pick last year, Huber enters the NFL Draft having played 854 snaps at right tackle, 825 snaps at left guard, 765 snaps at right guard, and 16 at center over his past three seasons.

Nelson is a four-year starter and a three-time honorable mention all-conference selection. Starting at guard, he started at tackle his final three seasons and had a career-best 79.9 overall grade last year from Pro Football Focus.

"With Huber and Nelson, I'll bet on any Wisconsin offensive lineman," Nortman said. "I had more familiarity with the program under Bielema and Chryst, knowing the emphasis and how they were coached, but Wisconsin is still an offensive line-driven university. I have no doubt they will carry on the torch of great offensive linemen who go to the NFL."

Wohler's athleticism will likely make him the first UW player off the board. His combine performance ranked him in the 95th percentile of safeties who had ever performed at the combine, and his 120 tackles in his junior season were the most by a UW safety in 33 years.

"Hunter Wohler is just a stud. I always want a guy like that on my team who is willing to do it all from being a leader, a presence, a hard-hitter with instinct," Nortman said. "He sees the game better than most. I think not only is he a lock to make the team, but he'll have the opportunity to start. He's that good and that instinctual. He's just a baller."

Other former UW players are also hoping to get a call. Wide receiver Bryson Green tested well at Wisconsin's Pro Day with unofficial times of 4.48 seconds in the 40-yard dash, 6.8 seconds in the three-cone drill, and 4.2 seconds in the 20-yard shuttle. He also had 21 reps on the bench at 225 pounds and 39 inches on the vertical, which would have ranked second and tied for sixth among receivers at the NFL Scouting Combine, respectively.

Former linebacker Jack Chaney, cornerback RJ Delancy, and defensive lineman Elijah Hills also worked out at UW's Pro Day and will likely be undrafted free agents.

"They all have experienced turbulent times at the University of Wisconsin," Nortman said. "They've had to mature quickly, and I think they've all done that. That level of maturity will allow them to have a step up over other guys on the teams they are competing for.

"The University of Wisconsin still carries a level of respect in NFL buildings, and (executives) will see the difference in being a Badger right away. There's a reason even undrafted (Wisconsin) guys have a pretty long career because of how they have been shaped by the University."

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