Madison — With the Badgers on an early bye week, BadgerBlitz.com will examine Wisconsin unit by unit and analyze who's overachieved and who's underachieved to this point in the season.

We'll wrap things up with the defense.

Overachiever: Preston Zachman. When new defensive coordinator Mike Tressel brought his scheme to Madison, one of the main talking points was his use of safeties. Particularly, his use of three of them on the field at once as part of his "dollar" package. We've seen that look on defense quite a bit, but what's been surprising is who he's elected to deploy. Zachman has been one of the main beneficiaries.

While Zachman has areas to improve, especially in regards to missed tackles, his redshirt junior year has been something of a revelation. He's played the second most snaps at safety though four games, which is pretty shocking considering again all the offseason talk of the three-safety combination of Hunter Wohler, Kamo'i Latu and Travian Blaylock. With 157 total snaps so far this season and 169 throughout all of last season, Zachman is on pace to easily shatter his career highs. Yes, the safety could offer more in the way of production, but just to simply log the playing time he's logged makes him an overachiever.

Underachiever: Latu is the easy answer here, but I want to highlight Blaylock's puzzling situation. Through three games, he saw meaningful snaps every game as the Badgers' second or third safety. Then, against Purdue, he didn't play at all.

The sixth-year senior was expected to have a starting role as part of Tressel's secondary-heavy defense. And yet, he's losing snaps to the rather inexperienced Zachman and the struggling Latu. Looking at his numbers, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Blaylock hasn't missed a tackle yet, according to Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, missed tackles are one of the main areas Latu and Zachman have struggled. He brings something to the table as a pass-rusher, whereas Zachman hasn't been used in that role at all yet. It's tough to put Blaylock here as he hasn't underachieved with his performance, but he's certainly playing much less than expected.

Overachiever: Nyzier Fourqurean. You haven't heard his name much on game days, but the simple fact that the D-II transfer has managed to carve out a significant role so early qualifies his as an overachiever.

Forqurean didn't get a full offseason to make an impression on the coaching staff. He got fall camp, and that's about it. Still, the long, rangy corner played his way into a notable role and has consistently rotated in as Wisconsin's first corner off the bench.

The staff likes Fourqurean at boundary corner because of his size, but he's played to the field side as well. His presence has been vital for Wisconsin's defense, because if they didn't have Fourqurean, they might have to trot out a true freshman like Jonas Duclona as their third outside cornerback.

Fourqurean has been a sure tackler and hasn't given up any big plays. For a secondary that's already struggling, his presence is probably keeping them from going from bad to worse.

Underachiever: Jason Maitre. During camp, Maitre flashed as a physical, sticky slot cornerback that got in receivers' faces and tended to not make the same mistake twice. So far, he's been underwhelming in coverage.

All of the Badgers' cornerbacks are struggling to stay with receivers, but Maitre's numbers tell an especially egregious tale. According to Pro Football Focus, he's been targeted 26 times and has allowed 19 receptions, good for a whopping 73.1 reception percentage.

In Maitre's defense, he's been forced to play the slot nearly every time the Badgers have to deploy a nickel defender, as Wisconsin doesn't feel great about its depth in the slot. Still, he'll need to step up his coverage for the Badgers to improve their pass defense.

Overachiever: Jake Chaney. How about the season Chaney has had? After once again losing the offseason position battle at inside linebacker to Jordan Turner and Maema Njongmeta, Chaney has surpassed both of them in playing time and production.

The staff sees Chaney as a starter, and its clear why. The linebacker is second on the team in total tackles behind Wohler, and its not particularly close. He has two sacks, tops amongst his position group. He's also missing tackles at essentially the lowest rate on the team. What's more, he's played the most out of every inside linebacker.

Some of that has to do with circumstance, as Turner was limited in the first two games by a targeting suspension and Njongmeta was mysteriously held out against Purdue. Nevertheless, Chaney is proving that he's every bit as starter as the other two inside linebackers.

Underachievers: It's tough to put Njongmeta here because we're still largely unsure of the circumstances that kept him sidelined against Purdue. And yet, the captain middle linebacker isn't exactly playing up to his potential.

Again, part of this is due to circumstance as Njongmeta has played less games than Wisconsin's other starting defenders. However, he's playing well below his standard. Njongmeta has missed 20 percent of his tackles, compared to a much better 9.7 percent a season ago. He's still finding the ball, as he's tied for third on the team in tackles and has a few pass breakups. Regardless, the Badgers are hoping Njongmeta's best games this season are ahead of him.

Overachiever: CJ Goetz. This isn't about how much he's played — everyone knew the elder statesman of the outside linebackers was going to play quite a bit. It's more so how Goetz is playing — it's the best he's played in his career so far.

Towards the conclusion of fall camp, teammates and coaches alike raved about his improved pass-rushing ability. He'd apparently taken a major step forward in that department, and the early returns are promising.

Four games in, Goetz has already tied his career-high sack total with two. He's beating his blocker and winning at the point of attack as well as anybody else on the Badgers right now. He also has an interception, and the coaching staff has trusted him to be able to drop into coverage. For a team that appears to lack alpha pass rushers, Goetz has led the way so far.

Underachiever: Darian Varner. The temple transfer came to Madison with a certain pedigree after registering 7.5 sacks last season. He dealt with an injury that undoubtably slowed his acclimation process, but now, Varner is simply not getting the playing time.

Varner has played 26 pass-rushing snaps and has logged one total pressure, according to Pro Football Focus. He has just two tackles on the season.

Varner's lack of playing time is one of the most curious decisions the new defensive staff has made thus far.

Overachiever: James Thompson. This is an easy one. With Keeanu Benton now hunting quarterbacks for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Gregg Scruggs needed a lineman to rise above the rest and lead his unit. Thompson has answered that bell about as well as could be expected.

I predicted that Thompson could be poised for a big season, but I didn't expect him to emerge as the top dog in the defensive trenches so quickly. Through four games, he's easily been Wisconsin's best pass-rushing lineman — he has 3.5 or 4 sacks, depending on whose statistics you look at (for the record, I credit him with the former).

Thompson has played the most out of any Badgers' defensive lineman, and that shouldn't change any time soon.

Underachiever: The whole unit. I won't single out anyone here, although it is true that the entire defensive line has underperformed as a whole, especially when it comes to stopping the run. Multiple players have struggled to stop opponents' rushing attacks, and multiple players are struggling to get to the quarterback. The defensive line is more of a lone "bright spot" situation with the aforementioned Thompson.

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