How well did Wisconsin’s outside linebackers play during the 2019 season?
Wisconsin finished its fifth season under head coach Paul Chryst as Chryst improved his overall record to 52-16 and has a posted a 34-10 record in conference games. After not winning the Big Ten West Division title in 2018 the Badgers were back in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game as the West representative for the fourth time in the last six years since the Big Ten went to its current format.
In this Badgers Wire feature we will examine the play of Wisconsin’s outside linebacker from the 2019 season and take a sneak into what the 2020 season may have in store for the position:
Zack Baun was simply terrific for Wisconsin’s defense in 2019. If the Badgers were going to be improved as a defense the Badgers were going to need Baun to deliver.
Baun certainly did and then some as he finished his season leading the team in both tackles for loss (19.5), sacks (12.5), and quarterback hurries (10) as his 76 tackles ranked third on the team.
With Baun having such a strong season he was able to earn First team All-Big Ten and earned All-American honors as well.
Most importantly with Baun being dominant at times the Badgers were going to need someone opposite of him at the other outside linebacker position to take some pressure off of him.
Initially, that responsibility appeared that it was going to go to redshirt sophomore Izayah Green-May as he won the other starting outside linebacker position out of fall camp. However, Green-May suffered an injury early on in the season causing him to miss the game against Central Michigan.
With Green-May out with a right arm, injury opened the door for Noah Burks. Burks took his starting opportunity and ran with it as he finished out the season as the starter along with Baun.
Burks finished the year with 36 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two sacks, three pass breakups, and one interception, which he returned for a touchdown.
Green-May only ended up playing in 10 games finishing the season with five tackles and a sack. Wisconsin also relied on at times at the outside linebacker position in Christian Bell and Tyler Johnson the two combined for 11 tackles and each had a sack.
With Baun consistently getting in opponents, backfields was one of the reasons why the Badgers were able to average 3.3 sacks over conference play, which ranked second. Creating that pressure on the outside also led to forcing quarterbacks to hurry up their decision making process in the pocket. As Big Ten quarterbacks completed an average of 50.3 percent (145-for-288 of their passes as that percentage was the second-lowest over Big Ten play.
2020 Wisconsin Outside Linebackers
Losing Baun to graduation hurts but Burks was able to make some nice strides between his redshirt sophomore season and redshirt junior season. Burks will need to continue to develop and take that next step in order to continue to find ways of getting in opponents backfields. Although it wasn’t the season Green-May was anticipating after he won the starting outside linebacker job out of fall camp he’ll need to continue to add weight and strength in order to hold up over Big Ten play. The Badgers will also need to see the continued development out of redshirt sophomore Jaylan Franklin and redshirt freshman Spencer Lytle as both will be counted on to take on a bigger role in Wisconsin’s defense. True freshman Nick Herbig enrolled early at Wisconsin, which will allow for outside linebackers coach Bobby April the chance to start working with one of Wisconsin’s prized recruits on the defensive side of the football.
