Just two days into fall camp, Sebastian Cheeks is already standing out in a way that goes beyond the usual practice buzz. The graduate senior is starting to look like one of the Badgers’ most important voices, and outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell made it clear Friday that the role Cheeks is taking on matters as much as the plays he makes.
Mitchell said Cheeks has embraced that responsibility inside the room.
"Well, the first thing Sebastian does a good job is really accepting a leadership position in the room and try to accept a leadership position in there," Mitchell said. "I do commend him for that.
He's really trying to take on more than himself. He's trying to have influence in other people."
That growth has been gradual since Cheeks arrived in Madison from North Carolina in 2024. In his first two seasons with Wisconsin, he moved from 12 tackles and two sacks in 2024 to 25 tackles and three sacks last season. Now, after steady improvement, the expectation is that his final year with the Badgers brings another jump - not only in production, but in command of the defense.
Mitchell pointed to Darryl Peterson as the kind of leap he wants from Cheeks in 2026.
"My goal, okay, my mission, my responsibility is the jump that Darryl Peterson took from his junior to senior year. We need Sebastian Cheeks to take that similar type of jump."
There’s also been a noticeable push in Cheeks’ pass-rush development. Mitchell said Cheeks took part in the Sack Summit in Las Vegas and came back with sharper tools.
"He went out to the sack summit, got one of the guys that got invited out to Las Vegas to be a part of that sack summit," Mitchell said. "He's been working with some people and doing some things on his own and I've seen much better hand hand usage in the top end of his pass rush."
That work is showing up in more ways than one. When Cheeks isn’t trying to get to the quarterback, he’s helping the other edge rushers around him. During practice, he could be seen working with Nicolas Clayton, Jaylen Williams, and others on technique and offering guidance.
The production piece is still the next hurdle. Mitchell said Cheeks was better last season than the numbers suggested, but the edge-rush standard is ruthless: sacks get the attention, and missed chances get remembered too.
"It's really the pass rush, and I think the other biggest thing too is he's got to finish. You know, it's that finish on the quarterback," Mitchell told reporters.
"So that's something that we've talked about, and that's the hard part about fall camp. We are, you know, we're staying away from the quarterback."
"So, how do I try to create opportunities in practice where we can work on finishing on the quarterback? Because if you look at his tape last year, there's probably five, maybe six sacks that he missed because he didn't finish, you know what I mean? And if he had made those five or six sacks, everybody would be talking about him."
There’s one more wrinkle that makes Cheeks’ rise even more interesting: he didn’t arrive in Madison as an edge rusher at all. He came in as an inside linebacker and moved to edge just last season. With a full season in that spot now behind him, Wisconsin is expecting a bigger impact from him in 2026, both as a pass rusher and as a leader in the room.
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