MADISON - Following the conclusion of fall camp, BadgerBlitz.com will take a look at each position group and where they stand with the final phase of the offseason wrapping up.

We'll continue our defensive overviews with a look at the inside linebackers, which has been the most hotly contested position all throughout fall camp.

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Inside linebacker is another position on defense where the Badgers must produce two new starters. The competition to replace Jack Sanborn and Leo Chenal has been intense and relentless. Four candidates have emerged — Jordan Turner, Jake Chaney, Tatum Grass and Maema Njongmeta — who will likely see the majority of the snaps at the position. Past that, who plays when and where is anybody's guess.

Inside linebackers coach Mark D'Onofrio was mixing and matching players all camp, going with different combinations on different days. According to Chaney, D'Onofrio let the two linebackers who had the best practice last time out roll with the starters. With different combinations at first team at almost every practice open to reporters, that should be a sign the competition is just about as even as can be.

Depth at ILB: Regardless of which two linebackers emerge as starters for the Badgers' opener, the heated competition at the position has been a win for the whole inside linebacker room.

“To their credit, they’ve been bringing out the best in each other. Good competition, healthy competition, can be a good thing,” head coach Paul Chryst told reporters Monday. “I think that position, as much as any, has illustrated that…I do think they’re raising the bar on each other.”

No matter who takes the field with the starters on Sept. 3, there will be two more inside linebackers on the sideline that should feel like starters as well. It's unclear what kind of rotation we'll see at the position, but Chryst feels like he has four genuine starting-caliber players. There may even be a fifth that finds his way into the mix.

Bryan Sanborn: The top four inside linebackers have been clear, but Sanborn has been working his way into the conversation as well. He's the only other player at the position to have received first-team reps in practices that reporters saw. The redshirt freshman is inexperienced, but he's been making a great impression on the coaching staff this fall:

"We think that we’ve got, right now, four guys that are stepping up. And I also like what a fifth is doing," Chryst said.

That would be Sanborn, the brother of his predecessor, Jack. With how talented his brother was, people forget that Bryan was a legitimate recruit with a slew of other Big Ten offers. It's a great sign to see the redshirt freshman push older players for starting snaps, and speaks volumes about the competitive environment that D'Onofrio has created.

The race to replace Chenal and Sanborn has been as down-to-the-wire as can be, and we don't know how much being the "starter" in this room will actually mater. But we do know this: whoever plays with the first-team defense against Illinois State will have earned it.

This is a room on the rise: At this point, in between fall camp and the season kicking off, there is very little cause for concern with this group. The only red flag here is lack of experience, which is a natural part of developing home-grown players. But these guys have been waiting their turn, and they've seen what it takes to succeed. Needless to say, Sanborn and Chenal were excellent role models.

“Learning how they got through the day, how they studied, how they ate, how they hydrated, and how they went around and talked to people," Chaney said. "They offered us so much life advice, just by their actions.”

This is a young core that is still developing every day. You can tell they're hungry to live up to the Wisconsin standard by the way the've been competing. It's impressive, but fair, to say that no player in the room has made a bad impression. The future at inside linebacker is bright.

This is a two-part question: who will be the starting duo, and how much will that matter? First of all, no matter how tight the race has been, two players still have to take the field first. The room has been so fluid, it's anybody's guess as to who those two could be. I would imagine Turner, the redshirt sophomore, is one of them. The other three are virtually neck and neck.

But even once the starting duo is determined, how much will that really matter? Wisconsin coaches seem open to more of a rotation at the position than they had when Sanborn and Chenal held it down for two seasons. Do certain players take the field for passing downs? With a clearly talented but unproven group, it's reasonable to expect situational rotations like that to happen. Ultimately, though, it will likely take several games for a group this deep to solidify their hierarchy.

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