The Eric Mateos file: What the film says about Wisconsin football's new OL coach
Breaking down the tape from Arkansas' 2025 offensive line, led by the newest member of the Wisconsin Badgers' coaching staff Eric Mateos.
Set to be on its fourth offensive line coach in five seasons, the Wisconsin football program is in desperate need of stability in the trenches.
It also desperately needs its offensive front to get back to the physical, punishing play style that powered Badger teams of old.
Enter Eric Mateos.
The former Arkansas offensive line coach, who also held the same title at Baylor, BYU, and Texas State, is the first addition for head coach Luke Fickell in an offseason that should be full of them. The 2011 Southwest Baptist graduate worked with Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator, Jeff Grimes, in both Waco and Provo.
“I’m so excited to add Eric to our offensive staff,” Grimes said. “He’s a phenomenal person and one of the best offensive line coaches in the entire country. I believe his demeanor and coaching style fits Wisconsin football and is just what we need to help us build a physical offense for this 2026 season.”
Though the Hogs are coming off a dismal 2-10 campaign, their offensive line was a big bright spot. They finished the season as the No. 2-ranked offensive line in the nation according to ProFootballNetwork.com. Their rushing offense ranked No. 26 nationally (191.9 yards per game) despite constantly being in shootouts and playing from behind.
Going back and watching hundreds of snaps from Arkansas’ offense in 2025, it’s clear that this unit was the heartbeat of the team. Very rarely was a bad Razorbacks’ play due to a poor rep from the offensive line — even when they allowed a sack:
Arkansas surrendered 29 sacks this season, bad enough to place it outside the top-100 nationally in terms of sacks allowed. But this is actually a great pocket — if quarterback Taylen Green stepped up into it instead of immediately bailing and spinning directly into pressure.
These kinds of plays littered the Arkansas offensive tape. Green is a breathtaking athlete, but he frequently relied too heavily on said athleticism rather than actually playing quarterback. With that said, many of the sacks the Hogs’ offensive front “allowed” were actually entirely or almost entirely on Green.
Obviously, Wisconsin is getting the coach, not the players who populated the Hogs’ offensive front. So while it would be disingenuous to suggest the Badgers are copy-and-pasting an offensive line from Fayetteville to Madison, overarching takeaways about style and technique are what’s pertinent here. With that being said, on a rep-to-rep basis, I really liked how Arkansas played in pass protection.
In the above rep against Notre Dame, the Irish send five men after the quarterback, stunting their weak-side edge rusher (#44) into the B-gap while an inside linebacker (#27) rushes the left tackle.
And yet, not even a whisper of pressure. Green isn’t even breathed on. It’s a great job of the linemen winning their individual reps, yes, but it’s an even better job of blocking as a unit. Watch the left guard and left tackle seamlessly pass off their respective defenders to one another, while the center blocks multiple Irish defensive linemen. This isn’t a heavy rush or an exotic blitz, but it’s still a flawless job of walling off pressure and keeping the quarterback’s pocket pristine.
Arkansas’ offensive line didn’t pass protect as five players. Instead, it pass protected as one, cohesive unit, and that’s props to Coach Mateos.