Wisconsin's 2018 football season is right around the corner, with fall camp expected to start at the end of the month. With that in mind, BadgerBlitz.com will be running through the burning questions the Badgers are facing at each position group as they look to build on last year's 13-1 season.

QUARTERBACKS / RUNNING BACKS / WIDE RECEIVERS / TIGHT ENDS / OFFENSIVE LINE / DEFENSIVE LINE / LINEBACKERS

The Badgers had high hopes for their 2017 secondary, and the players delivered. The combination of Derrick Tindal and Nick Nelson at cornerback and D'Cota Dixon and Natrell Jamerson at safety proved to be one of Wisconsin's best secondaries in years - helping the Badgers hold their opponents to just a 96.39 passer rating, which was the best rate in the Big Ten last year.

But good things can't last forever - Nelson elected to turn pro after a single stellar season on the field for the Badgers, and Tindal and Jamerson exhausted their eligibility as well. That leaves Dixon as the only returning starter - and means that the Badgers will have a very different look on the back end of their defense in 2018.

That will start at cornerback, where the Badgers have to find two new starters out of a group of underclassmen. The free safety spot looks like it could go from "open" to "closed" relatively quickly, if redshirt freshman Scott Nelson plays as well during fall camp as he did during the spring. But don't expect the cornerback spots to be decided early - the Badgers have several talented players to sort through, and they will surely try different pairings during the first few practices of camp to see which pieces fit where.

The Badgers might have two starting cornerback spots open, but that seems to under-estimate the number of solid players they are going to have to identify this fall. Wisconsin is going to have to play in a nickel defense at times throughout the year, so they will need to find at least three (and maybe even four) cornerbacks who can step in and be game-ready in 2018.

The good news for the Badgers is that they have four cornerbacks already who should be jockeying for starting jobs in Dontye Carriere-Williams, Madison Cone, Caesar Williams and Faion Hicks. Carriere-Williams held his own as Wisconsin's No. 3 cornerback in 2017, and the coaching staff seems to think he can be a leader in the new-look secondary. Meanwhile, Cone, Williams and Hicks all flashed at times during spring camp, so the Badgers might be more interested in finding out if they can all be depended on and not worry so much about the exact rep distribution.

But make no mistake, opposing offenses are going to challenge Wisconsin's young cornerbacks early and often in 2018 - at least until the Badgers can prove that their young players can make teams pay for picking on them. UW's current group of cornerbacks seems to think they will surprise people in 2018, and it's almost time for us to find out if they are right.

In preparing for our fall camp series, Jon McNamara and John Veldhuis sat down to break down what they are expecting to see out of Wisconsin's position groups during the pre-season. Their conversation is included below.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.