Wisconsin football has a glaring offensive line problem: Can it be fixed?
Wisconsin’s offensive line is no longer a strength. Young, out of position, and rotating frequently: what must happen for the Badgers to fix it?
Offensive line depth was once the calling card of Wisconsin football. For decades, it wasn’t just a strength, it was the backbone of the program.
NFL-ready tackles and guards were churned out like clockwork, and the Badgers could roll wave after wave of veteran linemen into the trenches. If an injury happened, the next man up wasn’t just serviceable. More often than not, that player was a third or fourth-year guy who had waited his turn, developed, and was ready to play at a high level in the Big Ten.
That’s not the reality anymore. In the transfer portal and NIL era, the offensive line is the position group that’s taken the biggest hit in Madison.
If a younger lineman doesn’t see a clear path to the field within his first two years, he’s often out the door. If a veteran hasn’t cracked the lineup by Year 3 or 4, he’s likely looking for another opportunity somewhere else. That’s their right, but the ripple effect has left Wisconsin scrambling.
The result? A position that used to be the program’s greatest strength is now a glaring weakness. And that weakness was exposed in Tuscaloosa.
From strength to liability
Heading into the spring, there was real optimism about this group.
Wisconsin looked like it had the makings of a solid starting five. Former blue-chip recruit Kevin Heywood was set to step in as the heir apparent to Jack Nelson at left tackle, who was selected in the 2025 NFL Draft. Joe Brunner was back at left guard. Jake Renfro was penciled in at center. Riley Mahlman, a multi-year starter at right tackle, was back for one last rodeo. Even the right guard spot wasn't a huge concern because it promised competition. On paper, that’s a unit you could build an offensive identity around.
But the torn ACL Heywood suffered in Spring changed everything. That injury set off a domino effect that the Badgers have yet to recover from.
Forced to scramble, the staff went into the transfer portal and landed Davis Heinzen, a veteran from Central Michigan in the spring. Let’s be real: when you’re hunting for offensive linemen in April, especially in the Big Ten, you’re not likely to find great long-term answers. You’re plugging leaks at best.
Heinzen showed as much with a disastrous opener against Miami (OH), where he was credited with allowing five pressures and two sacks across 39 pass-blocking snaps. He finished with a 47.8 pass-blocking grade and a 63.2 overall offensive grade, per Pro Football Focus.
Wisconsin had no choice but to look inward and find another answer.
Unfortunately, that meant reshuffling the entire deck. Mahlman flipped from right tackle to left. Emerson Mandell, a redshirt freshman who had won the job at right guard, was kicked out to right tackle. Fellow redshirt freshman Colin Cubberly was plugged in at guard. Renfro tried to gut it out through injuries, with Kerry Kodanko and Ryan Cory cycling in when he couldn’t finish. Suddenly, the group went from “pretty experienced” to very young, very out of position, and very unfamiliar with each other.
What followed against Alabama wasn’t surprising, but it was jarring.
This line hasn’t just struggled with physical mismatches, it’s failed to execute the basics in many cases. Alabama attacked them with stunts and twists from the first snap, and Wisconsin simply couldn’t pass them off. Plays that should have been routine assignments turned into free runs at backup quarterback Danny O'Neil. That’s not just about size and strength. That’s about continuity, communication, and experience playing side by side. Right now, Wisconsin doesn’t have any of those things.
Against the Crimson Tide, the breakdowns showed up clearly in the numbers. Wisconsin’s offensive line was credited with giving up 11 total pressures, four charged to Mandell (2 sacks allowed), three to Colin Cubberly, and one apiece to Kodanko, Renfro, Brunner, and Mahlman. Mandell’s struggles stood out most, as he finished with a 26.8 pass-blocking grade and a 49.5 overall offensive grade, often looking a step slow against Alabama’s speed off the edge.
To be fair, it wasn’t as if anyone on the unit stood out for the better. Mahlman graded out as the best of the bunch with a 59.0 offensive mark, which tells you everything you need to know.
Luke Fickell believes the biggest issue wasn’t the scheme itself, but rather the youth struggling to adjust when their alignment wasn’t as clean.
"We've got to be better at pushing the ball down the field some," Fickell said. "Give those guys some opportunities to maybe not have as many loaded boxes. We've got to ID these things a bit better, but I think it really just comes down to those guys working in unison. Sometimes, that is where some of the youth makes it more difficult. When guys are misaligned, ‘oh, that wasn’t the look I worked on all week,’ and then you get into games against teams like that, who maybe weren’t all aligned perfectly. And when you’re an older guy, you keep moving forward. For young guys, that is where the game can be a little bit fast.
"We know there are some spots out there, and those guys just need to work in unison together, and trust in one another too, so that we can give some of our backs a little better chance."
Through three games, Wisconsin has carried the ball 108 times for 410 yards, averaging just 3.8 yards per rush as a team. The longest run of the season didn’t even come from a running back; it was slot receiver Trech Kekahuna’s 61-yarder on a reverse against Middle Tennessee State.
Dilin Jones leads the team with 29 carries for 134 yards (4.6 YPC), but his longest run is only 13. Freshman Darrion Dupree has 92 yards on 21 attempts (4.4 YPC), and Cade Yacamelli has chipped in 56 yards on 14 carries (4.0 YPC). The talent is there in the backfield, but the offensive line hasn’t given these backs the space to showcase it consistently.
All said, Fickell admitted the hurdle is that these young offensive linemen are being thrown into the fire before they’re truly ready.
"What a lot of offensive linemen are, are just not quite college ready," Fickell explained. "That doesn't mean how big they are, how strong they are, or even just what they do in the weight room. There are plenty of guys that walk in here, and are plenty strong in the weight room... These guys are being thrust into a situation, an opportunity, as I look at it, that they have to grow even faster. That is where I look at it, that every snap of every day and every game, we have to take full advantage of it. Those guys are doing a great job at that, and there is a lot of growth."