Wisconsin football sees growth from under-the-radar DL Nolan Vils
Wisconsin Badgers DL Nolan Vils is emerging as a potential rotational piece after reshaping his body and earning praise from E.J. Whitlow.
The University of Wisconsin football program knew changes were coming along the defensive line.
When you lose veterans like Ben Barten, Jay’Viar Suggs, Parker Petersen, and Brandon Lane from the interior, you don’t just need to replace that production — you’re replacing experience, physicality, and a group of players who understood what it took to survive in the trenches of the Big Ten.
That’s part of why Wisconsin attacked the transfer portal the way it did this offseason. After struggling badly against the run in 2024 — finishing 89th nationally in defensive EPA per rush, according to Game on Paper — the Badgers made a significant jump to 25th in 2025. That happened after Mike Tressel and the staff prioritized more size and physicality up front.
It was an acknowledgment that the lighter, athletic-based defensive fronts that worked at Cincinnati weren’t translating the same way in a Big Ten conference built around grown-man football at the line of scrimmage.
The Badgers brought in a handful of experienced bodies from the portal to help reshape the room under position coach E.J. Whitlow, including Junior Poyser from Buffalo, Hammond Russell IV from West Virginia, Jake Anderson from Illinois State, and DeNigel Cooper from Appalachian State. Those players joined the program with meaningful college snaps already under their belts, which lowers some of the projection involved.
That said, the philosophy seems pretty clear. Wisconsin wants size. They want veterans who have proven themselves. And they want enough depth to rotate fresh bodies and hold up physically against the kind of rushing attacks that this conference throws at you over the course of a season.
Even though most of the attention naturally shifts toward the portal additions, there’s also a returning player quietly working his way into the conversation: Nolan Vils.
The 6-foot-2, 304-pound Prairie du Sac native might not be the first name fans think about when discussing Wisconsin’s defensive line room. Even so, internally, Vils has put himself in a position to compete for a rotational role heading into fall camp.
Vils appeared in eight games during the 2025 season, primarily in heavy personnel packages, and logged 34 defensive snaps. The production was limited — just one assisted tackle, which came against Middle Tennessee State — but the underlying metrics showed some encouraging signs for a player still developing physically and learning the position at this level.
According to Pro Football Focus, Vils finished with a 62.8 overall defensive grade, including a 65.6 mark against the run and a 69.7 tackling grade. Those aren’t eye-popping numbers, but for a rotational player seeing limited action inside, they reflect someone who largely held his own when given opportunities. For an unranked in-state player who joined the program as a walk-on in 2023, it’s hard to ask for more than that.
