As Luke Fickell's first season in Madison draws closer, the Badgers will hit the field for spring practice starting in late March.

Following its Pro Day on March 23, UW will run spring ball between March 25 and April 27 this year, according to a recent social media post. With a completely revamped coaching staff, a few key incoming transfers and brand new schematics, Wisconsin football will look plenty different in 2023. Spring ball will be the first glimpse at this new era.

BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Wednesday, we take a look at the defensive line, which has a good blend of depth, experience and potential.

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The challenge for first-year defensive line coach Greg Scruggs will be finding a way to replace its best player over the last three seasons in multi-year starter Keeanu Benton. Luckily for Scruggs, he'll have every one else back, and the room also added transfer Darian Varner, along with Jamel Howard, who will join the program in the summer.

Leading the group is the quartet of Rodas Johnson, James Thompson Jr., Isaiah Mullens and likely Varner. The four each have at least 20 games of experience under their belt, while Johnson, Thompson Jr and Mullens were all part of the consistent rotation this past season.

"My initial impressions of them are they play extremely hard," Scruggs told reporters this winter. "I was out on the road recruiting and had a coach, I won’t say what school, but he said they were one of the toughest defensive lines that they played, and they were scared to play those guys.

"But I will say this, I don’t think there are many people who play harder and I don’t think there are many people who will be yearning more to continue to grow and get better than the group in my room. I can say that confidently and that makes it easier for me as a coach to show up every day and work with them. These are guys that have made plays, but I think we have lot more that we can make just from the little bit that I’ve seen, but I got to study a little bit more."

Johnson and Thompson Jr. split time with Mullens in 2022 at defensive end. The latter saw a bump from 107 to 379 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and tallied 13 pressures, three in each of the last two games of the season. Johnson saw a similar leap, going from 157 snaps in 2021 to 492. With that playing time, he recorded 23 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss and a sack.

Varner will have to bulk up to contribute consistently at defensive end and has done so this point, according to UW. After being listed at 6-foot-2 and 260 pounds at Temple, he's 6-foot-3 and 278 pounds on the spring roster. In 10 games this past season in the American Athletic Conference, Varner totaled 12.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.

Plugging up the middle looking to take over at nose tackle will be redshirt freshman Curt Neal and senior Gio Paez. Behind Benton, the two didn't see much playing time. In 10 games, the senior saw 165 snaps. Throughout his career, Paez has played in 205 snaps across 20 games. Neal has played 47 snaps through four games and recorded three tackles in 2022.

For as much experience as the defensive line returns, not much of it is back at nose tackle. In fact, Paez and Neal are the lone defensive linemen listed on the inside on the updated roster. Those two played a combined 136 snaps when you exclude the bowl game, which Benton did not play in.

How does the battle kick off with spring ball being the first on-field look at the players for the new staff? It won't be fair to ask either to replace what Benton provided, but can they provide some spark or intrigue to minimize the drop off?

With the first look at the defense under a new direction for the first time since 2015, how do nose tackles fit into the equation under Mike Tressel? In recent years, Jim Leonhard often rolled out his defense in nickel but had to have Benton on the field as much as possible given his presence. What could a role look like for Paez and Neal?

Even though he enrolled early in the spring of 2022, Neal still had an abbreviated first year with the program while working his way back from a torn ACL. Once all the way back, he saw his first action against Purdue in Week 8 and would go on to play in four of the team's final five games of the season.

Neal, listed at 6-foot and 297 pounds on the spring roster, is up from a playing weight of 290 pounds in 2022. In the middle of his first full offseason with the program, what kind of strides can the former three-star recruit make and can he push the experienced Paez for the starting role?

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