Wisconsin Football 2018 Postseason Awards

ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 13: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers look on during warmups prior to playing the Michigan Wolverines on October 13, 2018 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 13: Head coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers look on during warmups prior to playing the Michigan Wolverines on October 13, 2018 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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Wisconsin Football
MADISON, WI – NOVEMBER 18: Chris Evans #12 of the Michigan Wolverines is brought down by Ryan Connelly #43 and T.J. Edwards #53 of the Wisconsin Badgers during the fourth quarter of a game at Camp Randall Stadium on November 18, 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Wisconsin Football had some very deserving candidates for our postseason awards.

The Wisconsin Football season has just about come to an end. All that’s left is to play in the Pinstripe Bowl against the Miami Hurricanes, the same program the Badgers faced last year in bowl season. Almost nothing Wisconsin does in that game can change the way this season will be remembered though.

This was supposed to be a year where Wisconsin could compete for a national championship. Winning the Big Ten West was a given and fans spent all offseason wondering how the Badgers matched up against Ohio State as the likely opponent in Indianapolis. Those hopes and dreams never came true and Wisconsin struggled to a 7-5 record with several disappointing losses along the way.

But this team also stepped up in big moments and gave fans some great things to cheer for this year. Jonathan Taylor currently sits 11 yards shy of the 2,000-yard mark and just won the Doak Walker Award for the most outstanding running back in college football. Wisconsin now has four such awards, the most of any school in the country.

Wisconsin also gave fans the great joys of beating Iowa and Purdue on the road in games that were instant classics. Unfortunately, losses to Northwestern, BYU, and Minnesota takes some of the fun out of those wins. But they were incredible to watch in the moment nonetheless.

The team performance may not have been all fans had hoped for, but outside of Taylor, there were plenty of other individual performances that deserve to be singled out. We’ll start with the most obvious.