5 reasons Wisconsin makes the College Football Playoff

2. Sophomore RB, Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor set foot on campus last year as a relatively unknown true freshman. He’d been a four-star recruit but hadn’t received offers or drawn much attention from the traditional blue blood programs of college football.

Taylor carried the ball nine times for 87 yards in his first game against Utah State. When he the saw bulk of the team’s carries in Week 2, he went off for 223 yards and three touchdowns. He would finish the season 13 yards shy of 2,000 yards as one of the leading running backs in the country.

In 2018, as still just a sophomore, Taylor enters the season as a top-three Heisman favorite and again, expected to be Wisconsin’s bell cow at running back. At 5-feet-11, 215-pounds, Taylor is a complete back who wears defenses down between the tackles but can also bounce outside, beat everyone to the edge and take off.

He’s fast, physical, makes people miss and can also run them over. Although he wasn’t used a ton as a receiver out of the backfield in 2017, he is capable and he’ll probably see the ball more as a receiver this season.

Wisconsin will have him to lean on this year and he’ll be a big part of whatever they accomplish in 2018.

1. The best offensive line in the country

I hope everyone is sitting down – Wisconsin’s strength this season is going to be the offensive line. So obviously this is the one thing Wisconsin can count on just about every season. They’ve had great offensive lines, send droves of 300-pounders to the NFL, and that hasn’t translated to a top-four team that’s in the national title picture.

This year’s offensive line has people asking if they could be the greatest in program history. Keep the history and all the players they’ve sent to the NFL in mind to give context to just how good that means this team could be. And there may not be five clear starters either.

They return three All-Americans in Michael Deiter, who played left tackle last year, left guard, Beau Benzschawel and right tackle David Edwards. Tyler Biadasz was a freshman All-American last season, as the team’s starting center. Past that, there are five other players who have played meaningful snaps in 14 games or more. There are also a few young players who coaches are very high on coming into the season.

One of the biggest challenges facing Wisconsin heading into 2018 is the challenge Paul Chryst and his offensive coaches will have deciding who to start and how to rotate players along the front five. With a dominant running back returning and an experienced quarterback, they’ll have the kind of team behind them that will take advantage.