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

Unlike Wisconsin's offense, Wisconsin's defense has plenty of starters to replace before the 2018 season kicks in to gear. On the defensive line they need to replace three multi-year starters in Conor Sheehy, Alec James and Chikwe Obasih, who held down the fort for the UW defense in the trenches for the last few seasons.

The Badgers do return starting nose tackle Olive Sagapolu, and an incoming freshman who looks like a solid backup in Bryson Williams. But they need to find two new starters at defensive end, and develop enough depth to where the backups can spell the starters for a while to keep them fresh for the end of games and the last part of the season as a whole.

But a few offseason injuries have thrown a bit of a wrench in to what looked like the plan at the end of spring camp. Junior defensive end Garrett Rand is expected to miss the whole season with an achilles injury he suffered after spring camp ended, and sophomore Isaiahh Loudermilk is expected to miss part of the season as well - but he could be back in time for the start of Big Ten play.

That means that the Badgers will be without their top two defensive ends for at least part of the season - and they'll need to dig a little deeper on the depth chart to build their two-deep than they originally expected at the end of spring camp.

With Sagapolu and Williams holding down the middle of the line, the Badgers will need to identify two starters at defensive end - and a few other players who are game-ready who and rotate in without much drop off as well.

The injuries to Rand and Loudermilk essentially mean that redshirt freshman Aaron Vopal will go from being the first man off of the bench to an every-week starter for the Badgers at defensive end - if he can build on top of a strong spring camp that saw him take a decent amount of reps with the first team. The coaching staff liked where he was at a few months ago, but he'll need to take another step forward in response to the injuries at his position to help the Badgers make a smooth transition on the line.

What the Badgers do with the second spot is anybody's guess at this point. They'll hope that Loudermilk is able to return to the field sooner rather than later, but it doesn't sound like he will be available for the non-conference season. That means that someone like David Pfaff, Kraig Howe, or Keldric Preston will have to bring their game up to a higher level and help the Badgers get through a few weeks, although the Badgers will need one or two of them to be ready to contribute all season - not just during the non-conference season.

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.