Wisconsin’s defense is changing around him, but Sebastian Cheeks is the one piece Luke Fickell keeps pointing to as the group’s next anchor.
The Badgers entered the offseason with plenty of turnover, bringing in new starters on both sides of the ball after a 4-8 campaign in 2025. The defensive line, cornerback, and safety spots are all expected to look different. Even so, Wisconsin still has some key returners to build around, and the most important names might be the linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano, who emerged in the second half of the season as true freshmen and are now full-time starters.
Cheeks, though, may be the most important holdover in the front seven. He started in 2025 and is back in an even larger role now that Mason Reiger and Darryl Peterson are gone in 2026.
Last season was his best yet: 25 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, 27 pressures, and a 14.4 percent pass rush win rate, according to PFF. He finished second on the team in pressures and gave Wisconsin a steady presence coming off the edge.
Now entering his redshirt senior year, Cheeks is expected to lead the outside linebacker room. Fickell said the growth has been obvious.
“Sebastian has grown incredibly,” Fickell said of Cheeks at the Big Ten Media Days. “I think that he’s a great example of some of the things that we’ve done within our program. I know it doesn’t show to everybody, but when these guys continue to return understanding, you know, where they have grown and what they have been able to do, they recognize the efforts that have been put in to make them who they are.
“And we’re looking for a big year out of Sebastian. I mean, he is in a position for us that has to be a disruptor.
He’s a guy that has to create havoc for us defensively. We’ve been pretty darn good, especially late in the year last year defensively, and Sebastian had a big part of that.
But he’s got to have a greater part of that going into this fall here soon.”
At 6-foot-3 and 243 pounds, Cheeks brings the kind of size and physicality Wisconsin wants on the edge, and he’s already shown he can get after the quarterback. Now the next step is leadership, and Wisconsin is treating him like one of the faces of the program. He represented the Badgers at Big Ten Media Days with receiver Chris Brooks Jr. and safety Matt Jung.
And while Cheeks is the headline name, the room around him has plenty of options. Wisconsin can mix in the jumbo edge types in Justus Boone, Micheal Garner, Jaylen Williams, and DeNigel Cooper, lean on upperclassmen trying to break through in Tyreese Fearbry and Liam Danitz, or keep developing the younger pass rushers such as Nicholas Clayton, Jayden Loftin, Sam Lateju, and Yaahya Gaad.
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The choice fits the way Badgers fans have long viewed that stretch, when Barrett kept showing up in the biggest moments and left a lasting imprint on the rivalry. ESPNs list also found its way around the Big Ten in a few other places, including Minnesota, where former Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema was named the Gophers villain after beating them throughout his tenure and continuing to have their number at Illinois. [Read more 🡒]