Wisconsin Badgers: 5 Players to Watch in 2026
By Owain Jones
Wisconsin Badgers fans have had to be patient the last three seasons. But 2026 has to be the season when the wins finally come together.
Luke Fickell enters his fourth season knowing the schedule has finally opened up. The Badgers avoid Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana, giving them a realistic path towards seven or eight wins. Anything less than six victories would be a major disappointment, while another five-win season would inevitably raise questions about the direction of the program.
There are no excuses in 2026; it’s time to prove it. Wisconsin attacked the transfer portal, overhauled the roster, and enters the upcoming season with an experienced coaching staff. Now it has to show up in the standings.
These five players will have the biggest influence on whether the Badgers take the step everyone inside the program expects.
Everything about Wisconsin’s season points back to Colton Joseph.
The Badgers desperately needed to modernise an offense that averaged just 12.8 points per game last season, and Joseph arrives after one of the most productive years by any dual-threat quarterback in college football.
The Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year accounted for more than 3,600 total yards and 34 touchdowns at Old Dominion, giving Jeff Grimes an entirely different type of quarterback to build around.
His mobility should immediately change how defenses play Wisconsin. Designed quarterback runs, movement throws, and play action will become much more ingrained in the system.
The challenge now is proving that production translates to the Big Ten. If Joseph can limit turnovers while maintaining his explosiveness, Wisconsin finally has the quarterback capable of transforming an offense that held the team back throughout 2025.
Wisconsin’s identity has always been built around running the football. Last season, it wasn’t. It’s time to get back to it.
The Badgers averaged just 3.3 yards per carry in 2025, a figure that would have been almost unthinkable during the program’s best years. Abu Sama III arrives from Iowa State to help restore that tradition after averaging 5.2 yards per carry in the Big 12 and consistently showing the acceleration to turn small openings into explosive gains.
At 5’11” and 210 pounds, Sama gives Wisconsin a genuine home-run threat, something the offense lacked a year ago. Combined with Joseph’s ability as a runner, Jeff Grimes suddenly has far more options to stress defenses both inside and outside the tackles.
Wisconsin doesn’t need to become the nation’s most explosive rushing attack overnight. But it does need to make the running game a priority and their identity again.
The Wisconsin defense was able to create pressure in 2025, producing 2.67 sacks per game, but with talent departing, Sebastian Cheeks will need to step up.
The former four-star recruit continued his steady development in 2025, recording career highs with 25 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, and three sacks while showing he could become more than a rotational contributor. Now, Wisconsin needs him to make the leap into a dynamic player opposing offenses must actively plan for.
That responsibility becomes even more important because the Badgers’ defense was good enough to win more games last season. Holding opponents to 21.6 points per game should have produced a far better record than 4-8.
If Cheeks develops into Wisconsin’s next disruptive edge defender, the jump in wins will become inevitable.
If there was any doubt that the staff at Wisconsin knows it is in win-now mode, it is the signing of sixth-year defensive tackle Hammond Russell IV.
After appearing in 39 games at West Virginia, Russell brings experience, size, and physicality to a defensive line that already defended the run well in 2025. His role isn’t necessarily to fill the stat sheet. It’s to occupy blockers, strengthen the interior rotation, and allow Wisconsin’s athletic linebackers to play faster behind him.
With UCLA, Iowa, Maryland, and Minnesota all capable of testing Wisconsin’s front seven, Russell’s ability to control the line of scrimmage could quietly become one of the biggest factors in whether the Badgers reach their win target.
If there is one under-the-radar player who is expected to make a big jump on the Wisconsin defense in 2026, it is Jai’mier Scott. The explosive cornerback has beat reporters and fans excited, and proves that Wisconsin can still recruit elite talent.
The former four-star recruit redshirted last season, but his high school résumé suggests a player with the instincts and athleticism to develop into an important piece of the secondary. Seven interceptions, 93 tackles, and nearly 900 receiving yards as a senior underline the type of playmaker Wisconsin believes it has.
And he will need to play up to that playmaker moniker. The Badgers’ defense didn’t create nearly enough turnovers in 2025. It is a reason why Wisconsin went all out to get some of the top defensive backs in the transfer portal. But Scott has potential X-Factor.
Whether the redshirt-freshman earns a starting role or contributes in sub-packages, his development matters if the program is to become more sustainable.
Wisconsin has given Luke Fickell the schedule, the resources, and the roster to deliver meaningful progress in 2026. If the Badgers fail to put wins on the board this time, there will be far fewer reasons to believe patience remains the right approach.
OWAIN JONES
COLLEGE FOOTBALL & NFL DRAFT ANALYST
OWAIN jones COVERS EVERYTHING college football & NFL DRAFT. COMING WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE, OWAIN was PREVIOUSLY a writer for pfsn and WAS THE NFL DRAFT EDITOR AT NINETY-NINE YARDS WHERE HE CREATED DRAFT TALK. YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @OwainJonesCFB