Luke Fickell added linebacker depth last year out of Western Carolina. A player who used his redshirt sophomore year to record 61 tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss. He put himself on the map and allowed himself to jump to a Power-4 team. Wisconsin was able to grab him and bring him in, but he never played and never worked out. Now, Antarron Turner is back in the portal.
This isn't surprising, but it does continue to move the position of linebacker further and further up the "needs help in the portal" list. It was one of the lowest-priority positions going into the offseason, but it may now be in the top 5 in terms of depth needs.
I’ll be entering my name in the transfer portal on Jan2 with 1 year of eligibility remaining 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/6fg49N6Isk
— Antarron Turner (@AntarronTurner) December 15, 2025
Wisconsin will need to add value and depth to Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano
Related: Wisconsin football transfer portal tracker: Who's out, in, and the speculation
Yes, Wisconsin does have stud true freshmen (now sophomores) linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano. However, they can't play all three positions by themselves, and they need depth around them.
The Badgers will be losing Christian Alliegro, Antarron Turner, and Curtis Tackett to the transfer portal when it opens on January 2nd. Wisconsin also had one player, Garrison Solliday, who graduated (though he never played). Now, they are going to be looking for a few players to bring back in to pair and provide depth for the star true freshmen.
Sebastian Cheeks and Thomas Heiberger are still players who provided meaningful value in 2025 and plan to return (as of now). Both of those will help, but the position is remarkably thin right now.
For Turner, it just never quite worked at Wisconsin. The jump from Western Carolina to Wisconsin proved to be too much. He will now be looking for another option with only a year left to play. His senior year, he was hoping to bring back some of the magic he had at Western Carolina.