Wisconsin’s running back room is headed for a very different look in 2026, and the Badgers aren’t hiding what they want from it: one clear lead back, with the rest filling in around him.
That’s a sharp turn from last season, when Darrion Dupree led the team with just 363 yards and two touchdowns on 4.4 yards per carry. As a group, Wisconsin finished 115th in the country in rushing offense at 116.7 yards per game, a number that pushed the program into a busy offseason makeover.
The changes started up front. Wisconsin added five offensive linemen through the transfer portal and brought in Eric Mateos as a young, promising offensive line coach. Then came the backfield overhaul: Abu Sama from Iowa State, Bryan Jackson from USC and Nate Palmer from TCU arrived in the winter, and JUCO transfer Juju Pope joined in the spring.
That influx gives Wisconsin a much deeper and more varied stable of runners, and the coaching staff clearly expects the ground game to look different this fall. Add in the legs of Old Dominion transfer quarterback Colton Joseph, and the Badgers have reason to believe the run game can be much more dangerous than it was a year ago.
Still, the big question is how the carries will be split. Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes laid out the vision without attaching names to it.
“In an ideal world, we have somebody who becomes our primary ball-carrier. The other three supplement that position, and you end up playing three or four guys," he said.
"For my personal liking, I’d like to see one guy become the bell cow that we wanna hand the football to more than anyone else, and then see those other guys do things that supplement that. We’ll see how it goes."
Luke Fickell made it just as clear after Wisconsin’s first practice of fall camp that this won’t be a free-for-all.
“I’m not going into game one giving all these guys an opportunity. That’s not how the game is played. These guys are gonna have to earn their opportunities," he said.
All signs point to Abu Sama as the early favorite to handle the biggest workload. He’s the most experienced back in the room and one of Wisconsin’s most important transfer additions. Dupree and Jackson look like the next names in line, while Grimes also singled out Palmer when speaking to reporters.
The overall picture is pretty straightforward: Wisconsin wants a rotation, but it also wants a centerpiece. Sama looks like the best bet to be that guy, with the other backs used in specific roles rather than all being given equal chances, especially with Notre Dame waiting in Week 1. Fickell’s comments suggest the job will be sorted out before the opener, and not every runner in the room will get a crack once the season starts.
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