MADISON – Falling short of championship expectations in 2021, the University of Wisconsin looks to return to the top of the Big Ten West Division.

The Badgers will have some familiar faces on offense but will have some work to do to improve a unit that has averaged less than 26 points per game the last two seasons. Wisconsin’s defense was No.1 in the country last season in total yardage and against the run, but the Badgers must replace eight starters. UW also is dealing with changes to its special teams and has revamped its coaching staff.

All of it breathes excitement (and some nervous energy) leading into the season opener against FCS opponent Illinois State at Camp Randall Stadium (6 p.m./FS1).

With Wisconsin beginning fall camp later this month, BadgerBlitz.com begins its position-by-position breakdown of the fall roster. We continue our analysis with the inside linebackers.

Fall Previews: Quarterbacks | Running backs and fullbacks | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends | Offensive line | Defensive Line | Outside Linebackers |

The inside linebacker position has had to deal with a constant level of change since the conclusion of the 2021 season. Some of the changes were expected, as starters Leo Chenal and Jack Sanborn – a duo who combined for 205 tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss, and 13 sacks – declared for the NFL Draft. Throw in six-year senior Mike Maskalunas departing and the Badgers would be without their top three ILBs entering 2022.

The changes continued during the summer. After Wisconsin hired long-time college assistant Bill Sheridan to replace Bob Bostad in coaching the position, Sheridan resigned in May after reports surfaced of him being involved in an NCAA investigation at Air Force, alleging he was dismissed for providing impermissible benefits and hosting high school prospects during the COVID-19 dead period in 2020.

Head coach Paul Chryst filled the vacancy in mid-June with the hiring of Mark D’Onofrio, who hasn’t coached since November 2018, but his stops include Georgia, Rutgers, and Virginia. His last 12 seasons as a college coach, spanning his time at Temple, Miami, and Houston, were spent as a defensive coordinator where he helped develop 20 NFL draft picks.

He’ll have a big task on his hands, as none of the eight inside linebackers who participated in spring practices has started a college game and few have delivered meaningful production.

"Inside 'backers, we kind of took the approach of clean slate, new coach," coordinator Jim Leonhard said in the spring. "We set it up the first three weeks were they pretty consistently played with the same guys, the same groups. Just create some consistency, and now last week was the first one we really started juggling kind of who's playing Mike, who's playing Will, who's playing together. And the plan was to do that the last two weeks of practice and then once again, see who is relying on somebody else to communicate and who really knows it, and who's flexible in what they do. A number of those guys have stepped up.

"Jordan Turner once again, you forget how few of snaps on defense he kind of had, but plays fast plays physical. Tatum Grass, stepping up and kind of showing the maturity and the experience he has in that group. Jake Chaney, Maema (Njongmeta), Jake Ratzlaff, Bryan Sanborn, all those guys you're just seeing take the next step and it's a very young group. So excited to see kind of how they finish and what their confidence level is coming out of spring."

Combine having no established starters returning with the late coaching change and the battle for playing time will be won and lost throughout fall camp.

When UW concluded spring practice in April, the No. 1 pairing was Tatum Grass, a former walk-on, and Jordan Turner. A fourth-year junior, Grass played every game in ’21, finished with nine tackles, and returns the most snaps in the inside linebacker room last season (63). Turner played less than half as many games as Grass (six), but the redshirt sophomore recorded two fourth-quarter interceptions in mop-up time and recorded a career-high four tackles in the Las Vegas Bowl.

At the end of the spring practices, fourth-year junior Maema Njongmeta and sophomore Jake Chaney worked with the twos. Njongmeta has the second-most experience in the ILB room, behind Grass, after playing in six games and on 58 snaps last season. One of three first-year players to play last season as a true freshman, Chaney played in nine games but was primarily on special teams.

To help inject some experience into the position, the Badgers moved junior Spencer Lytle from outside linebacker – where he had made all his previous appearances over the previous two seasons. Other than him, the rest of the room will be head into their second season at UW at the very most.

Redshirt freshman Jake Ratzlaff is a former 2020 Mr. Minnesota in football who played in one game last season, redshirt freshman Bryan Sanborn is the younger brother of Jack (45 career games for UW), and 2022 early enrollee Aidan Vaughan.

With due respect to those players in camp, there is no way the Badgers will be able to replicate what the Chenal/J. Sanborn duo gave Wisconsin. Chenal’s brut strength and controlled chaos ranked him second in the country with 1.7 tackles for loss per game (18.5 total) and earned him the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year. Jack Sanborn’s experience allowed him to diagnose plays properly as they developed, putting him in the right position to rack up tackles. Nobody in the current makeup of Wisconsin’s linebacker room comes close.

Basically, D’Onofrio’s job will be easier if Grass can ascend into a steady presence in the middle of UW’s defense, use his experience in the program to learn the new call signs, and relate them to the young player who will inevitably be starting next to him. Whether Turner wins the other starting position is unknown, but the Badgers need to build depth and work in some experience in what will easily be the least inexperienced position on the entire roster.

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