Wisconsin Football: Wisconsin Badgers All-Time Team
By Jim Oxley
All-Time Team: Defensive Ends
Tom Burke: From 1995-1998, Tom Burke tore up opposing Big Ten offenses. He still holds the Wisconsin record for most tackles for a loss in a single season, totaling 31 in 1998. He also holds the Badgers record with 22 total sacks in the 1998 season.
He’s second on the all-time Wisconsin Badgers sack total list with 32 QB sacks (one behind school leader Tarek Saleh), and is third all time in Wisconsin history with 54 career tackles for a loss. He’s also tied with a slew of Badgers for sixth all-time with 4 career forced fumbles, and is tied for seventh all time with a pair of blocked kicks in his career.
He had a 5-sack game against Iowa in 1998, and was UW’s tackle leader in 1997 (86 total) and 1998 (100 total).
In 1998 he was named a unanimous consensus All-American, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year, and a Football News Player of the Year semi-finalist.
Erasmus James: One of the best in school history at getting to the passer, Erasmus James totaled 18 sacks in three seasons at UW (2001-2002, 2004), the seventh best total in school history.
James is also the 15th leading tackler in school history, with 149 in his career, and sits tied with Joe Schobert behind only Chris Borland with 7 career forced fumbles.
In 2004 James was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and was a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Rotary Lombardi Award, the Bronko Nagurski Award and the Ted Hendricks Award.
Next: All-Time Team: Middle Linebackers