Wisconsin brought Marvin Burks Jr. to Madison with a pretty clear idea in mind: plug him in, let him start, and watch the secondary settle down.
That vision makes a lot of sense on paper. Burks arrives after two straight seasons as a starter in the SEC at Missouri, where he piled up 26 starts and 115 tackles over the past two seasons. In 2026, he could be exactly the kind of veteran presence Wisconsin needs at safety.
The production is already there. Burks posted 49 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, one pick-six and one pass breakup. More important than the numbers, though, is the kind of player he looks like on film: a 6-foot-2, 210-pound defensive back who can work both in the back end and close to the line of scrimmage.
He does a little of everything. Burks shows strong eye discipline, looks comfortable in coverage and brings the kind of physicality that shows up when he’s throwing his weight around. His tackling can get uneven at times, but there’s no shortage of pop in his game.
Even so, Luke Fickell wasn’t ready to hand him anything when spring started.
“Just because a guy like Marvin comes in here and is a two-year starter, it doesn’t exactly mean they’re the guy," he said after the team's first spring practice.
That changed by the time summer rolled around.
“I think Marvin, the safety from Missouri, has figured out and recognized a role not just as a leader, but as a guy who’s played a lot of ball and his growth of recognizing what the culture and the standards are here, have been really good for our defense," he said on Wilde and Tausch in July.
Jack Cooper has seen enough to believe Burks brings something valuable with him from his time in the SEC.
"He's just got a lot of confidence," safeties coach Jack Cooper said. "As soon as we met him in the portal, got to talk to him, the reps in the SEC in big-time environments gives him confidence, that, 'yeah coach, I got that.'"
The expectation here is straightforward: Burks starts, and he starts right away. Even before Fickell warmed up to the idea publicly, it never felt like a serious question whether the former Missouri defender would be on the field with the first group.
If everything clicks, 2026 could be the best season of his career. Burks has enough experience now for all of it to come together - the good plays, the mistakes, the lessons from two years in the SEC - and turn him into one of the more dependable safeties in the Big Ten. His versatility gives Mike Tressel options, and his playmaking history suggests there’s still more to come.
The upside is obvious. Burks could become the kind of defensive back quarterbacks have to find before every snap, while also stacking the kind of season that pushes him into the NFL Draft conversation after three years starting at the Power Four level.
The downside is more about volume than role. He should be in line to start, so the worst-case outcome is not losing the job but simply not making the impact he’s capable of - fewer splash plays, fewer moments around the ball, and less of the disruptive presence Wisconsin wants from him.
But the staff did not bring him in for a quiet season. Burks looks like a natural fit to jump into the lineup, stabilize the back end and deliver the kind of full-time starter’s year Wisconsin envisioned when he transferred. He should be one of the safer bets on the roster for 2026, and maybe one of the more memorable one-year additions the Badgers have had in a while.
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