Chris Orr and Zack Baun, who combined for 24 of Wisconsin’s 51 sacks in 2019, were the top two losses on the defensive side of the ball for the Badgers this off-season.
With the linebackers looking to fill those holes, UW will turn to a veteran group of defensive linemen who are ready to make up for that production.
“Really put it on Garrett (Rand) and Isaiahh (Loudermilk) and Matt Henningsen and Keeanu (Benton),” defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield told reporters Wednesday afternoon. "We’ve got to be productive.
"The experience is up front now. We're a more veteran group than any other position."
At end, the Badgers return redshirt senior starters in Loudermilk and Rand. Henningsen, a redshirt junior, carved out a nice role in 2019. The trio combined for eight sacks last fall, and Breckterfield noted that redshirt sophomore Isaiah Mullens is ready to join the rotation in 2020.
“Individually, I definitely think that I can be more of a presence in the pass rush this year," Loudermilk said. "I feel like I have lacked that the past couple years.
“I've worked on flexibility and being able to bend a little more. Also trying to cut some weight to be able to be more explosive off the ball and have faster feet. In the off-season I really worked on a lot of speed, a lot of agility and a lot of flexibility stuff, that really helps.”
Rand, at 6-foot-2 and 279 pounds, has taken time after practice to join Garrett Groshek and the running backs to “work on fast-twitch muscles and being quicker."
"I'm really working on just trying to be a little faster - a fast-twitch guy," Rand said.
Leading the way inside are sophomore Keeanu Benton and junior Bryson Williams, who is recovered from a knee injury that shortened his 2019 season.
"To have two guys like that at that position that's has played a lot of football - Bryson the year before and Keeanu getting all of his work last year, you feel confident and good going into the season," Breckterfield said.
“Up front we know that we can be a special unit,” Loudermilk added. “We’ve been around each other for a long time and we’ve learned a lot. This year it’s really about the defensive line stepping up and I think that we can. We have a lot of good guys on the line. Not just me, Garrett and Matt, we have Keeanu, we have Mullens.”
With the departure of Baun, Noah Burks is the leader of a young group at outside linebackers. After him, no other returning player from that unit got to the quarterback this past season.
“We’ve had Chris Orr, we've had Zack Baun, Garrett Dooley, TJ Watt - we’ve had those guys coming off the edge," Breckterfield added. "This whole off-season was about cutting them loose and getting them to be more productive, so we really worked hard on that in terms of trying to as a unit make up for that missing piece of Baun and Orr.
"We've got a lot of new guys coming off the edge. Izayah Green-May is coming and Nick Herbig is really doing his thing in camp. Noah Burks, C.J. Goetz, they're all standing out."
