Wisconsin's Sebastian Cheeks Leads NCAA in Key Statistic Through Week 5

Ahead of the 2026 season, one of the biggest question marks on Wisconsin's defense was the outside linebacker room.

With just one player with production in a Badgers uniform returning — fifth-year senior Sebastian Cheeks — the position was essentially an unknown quantity following the departure of productive pass-rushers Mason Reiger and Darryl Peterson.

From an outside perspective, Cheeks taking a big leap ahead of his final year of college ball was going to be vital. After a 24-tackle, three-sack season in 2025 in which he logged 27 pressures with a 14.4% pass-rush win rate, we knew the former North Carolina Tar Heel was a capable player in a vacuum.

But again, as the lone returnee with real experience and production in the Cardinal and White, the general consensus from outside the program was that Cheeks was going to have to take a big step forward and really come into his own.

That was the consensus inside the program as well.

"How much growth is Sebastian gonna have going into his last year," defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said early in spring ball. "DP (Peterson) had huge growth going into his last year. Can we have something similar out of Sebastian?"

Tressel doubled down on those comments at the team's local media day ahead of fall camp.

“They’re all gonna get the opportunity to be the next Mason Reiger, but Sebastian, this is your room. Let’s do it," he said.

It's safe to say Cheeks has taken the leap Wisconsin's defensive coaches publicly challenged him to and then some.

Cheeks is tops nationally in pressures

Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Through five weeks of the season, Cheeks is your NCAA leader in pressures with 27, per Pro Football Focus. With a pass-rush win rate of 23.9%, he also has one of the better pressure rates in the country amongst every defender in college football.

There's also plenty of players also near the top of the country in pressures but who have significantly more pass-rush opportunities than Wisconsin's top quarterback hunter. Cheeks has 117 pass-rush snaps this fall, but for instance, the next closest Power Four defender in pressures, Missouri's Daeden Hopkins with 23, has 139 pass-rushing snaps.

Pressures vs. Sacks

Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is a noted proponent of pressures as a greater-than-or-equal-to entity than sacks.

“Pressures are even more important. Tipped balls are even more important, sometimes, than sacks," he said after the Michigan State game, a refrain he's repeated several times in Madison.

While Cheeks only has 2.5 sacks this season, that number doesn't reflect the amount of havoc he's caused. A perfect example? Against the Spartans on a third down, he got a perfect jump on Michigan State's left tackle, flying into the backfield for an immediate pressure. While he couldn't wrap up quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, he forced the gunslinger to step up into the pocket — and into the waiting arms of defensive lineman Charles Perkins for a sack.

Pressures can also cause quarterbacks to make poor decisions, throwing the ball into coverage or otherwise. I tend to agree with Fickell that sacks are overrated and pressures are more important, and right now, Wisconsin's defense has statistically the best player in the country at creating pressure.

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