All Badgers

Wisconsin Badgers round out defensive line with transfer who just played in FCS National Championship

The Wisconsin Badgers added an ironman to their defensive line in the transfer portal who was a force to be reckoned with at the FCS level.
Lorin Cox|
Wisconsin Badgers defensive line coach E.J. Whitlow added another big body in the transfer portal Friday with Illinois State's Jake Anderson
Wisconsin Badgers defensive line coach E.J. Whitlow added another big body in the transfer portal Friday with Illinois State's Jake Anderson | Mark Stewart / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

In this story:

Wisconsin Badgers

The transfer portal was critical to the Wisconsin Badgers building one of the best run-stuffing defensive lines in the country this season.

Defensive line coach E.J. Whitlow is back at it this winter, adding another big body up front on Friday with Jake Anderson from Illinois State.

The official Wisconsin Badgers football account on X (formerly Twitter) announced his signing and quickly deleted the post Friday afternoon.

Sign Up For the Wisconsin Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Wisconsin Badgers Newsletter

He flew under the radar as an FCS talent whose visit to Wisconsin wasn't widely reported.

His Redbirds just played in the FCS National Championship game on Monday, losing a heartbreaker in overtime after coming back from a 14-point deficit.

Anderson is listed at 6-foot-5, 295 pounds and primarily played nose tackle for Illinois State.

Defensive tackle with endurance

He was an ironman for the Redbirds with a remarkable endurance to stay on the field without rest.

According to PFF, he played 609 snaps in the regular season. That would have ranked as the 13th most snaps of any defensive tackle in the FBS this season.

The Badgers had only three defensive players play more than 600 snaps this season: cornerback Ricardo Hallman and safeties Austin Brown and Matt Jung.

No Wisconsin defensive tackle played more than 400 snaps this season. Anderson has played over 600 in each of the last two seasons, grading out as a quality run defender by PFF with pass rushing upside on the interior.

His 27 stops this season was tied for eighth-most by an FCS defensive tackle this season.

Related: 2026 Wisconsin Badgers Transfer Portal tracker

He slots in a Badgers defensive line that graduated four seniors on the interior and could lose another one as Charles Perkins announced his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Wisconsin has added two other transfer defensive tackles so far in Junior Poyser from Buffalo and Hammond Russell IV from West Virginia.

Anderson should have the opportunity to compete with them and the Badgers' few returning linemen for significant roles in the rotation up front.

More Wisconsin Badgers News:

Published | Modified
Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

Home/Recruiting