Badger of Honor
Fansided

Wisconsin Football: Keeanu Benton is the unsung hero of this defense

By Dillon Graff

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 25: Keeanu Benton #95 of the Wisconsin Badgers chases Jack Coan #17 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Soldier Field on September 25, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 41-13. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 25: Keeanu Benton #95 of the Wisconsin Badgers chases Jack Coan #17 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Soldier Field on September 25, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Notre Dame defeated Wisconsin 41-13. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Coming out of high school, Wisconsin football nose tackle Keeanu Benton wasn’t exactly a highly sought-after recruit – at least not outside of Wisconsin. Benton attended Janesville Craig High School in Wisconsin where he would end up ranked the 1,238th overall ranked prospect in the 2019 class – and the 85th ranked nose tackle. He was also the second lowest-rated recruit in the Wisconsin football 2019 recruiting class, per 247Sports.  And like we hear time and time again, the recruiting rankings didn’t exactly get this one right. While recruiting is an imperfect science, the badgers were a significant beneficiary of this miss.

Fast forward to the present day and Benton has been a three-year starter at nose tackle and is squarely on the radar of NFL teams. His rapid development has sometimes gone under the radar due to the thankless nature of his job as a nose tackle. But I can assure you, his coaches and teammates are all abundantly aware of just how impactful he has been.

Keeanu Benton has played far more often in the Wisconsin 2-4-5 defensive set – which is essentially the base defense under defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard. Through the first three games this season, the badgers have committed to letting Benton impact games as a pass-rusher – evidenced by the 70 pass-rush opportunities he’s already been given (only 82 all of last year).

With Benton being used more heavily to disrupt the pass rush, he’s attracted a lot of attention and being forced to eat up blockers (often double teams) which frees up other pass rushers to win their one on one match-ups. Now through just three games, this Badgers’ defense has been credited with 10 sacks (0.5 sacks via Benton) – which is only one sack off last season’s sack total of 11. This is a substantial improvement from a season ago and the improved pass-rush is playing a large role in the defense’s overall success.

Keeanu Benton has become a much more potent pass-rusher for this Wisconsin defense, regardless of what his stats say – his impact is being felt. Some of this added success could be attributed to the fact the Wisconsin football defensive line coach Ross Kolodziej has developed and been able to rotate six defensive linemen to help keep them fresh.

One thing is for certain, Keeanu Benton is an absolute wrecking ball for this badgers defense and he’ll be playing his football on Sundays soon enough. Until then it’s important to show love to one of the unsung heroes of this already stellar defense – who just happens to play nose tackle.