Wisconsin Football: Sebastian Cheeks Has a Home at Outside Linebacker
MADISON, Wis. — Sebastian Cheeks knows he’s not the biggest, not the fastest, nor the strongest in Wisconsin’s outside linebacker/edge room. Part of a revamped position group for the Badgers this past off-season, Cheeks watched the coaching staff covet a different body type in order to adjust to the rigors of the Big Ten Conference and address some of the issues that plagued the team a season ago. But what Cheeks can control is how quickly he gets off the line of scrimmage when that ball is snapped. Ask anyone on the Badger roster… nobody gets a better jump than Cheeks.
“It all starts with get-off. Everything else works itself out,” Cheeks told reporters.
Cheeks (6-3, 240) is not a small guy by any means. But when it comes to lining up off the edge and sometimes playing with your hand in the dirt, Cheeks doesn’t exactly scream imposing pass rusher. Heck, among the players working with outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell this season, junior Tyreese Fearbry (6-4, 250 with length) is one of the smaller bodies in that room. As they say, ‘it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’
“I may have a smaller base. I may have short arms, but I’m physical and I can strike,” Cheeks explained. “It allows me to play within the fundamentals of the position.”
Cheeks is an interesting story. Once a huge recruit former former head coach Paul Chryst, the Skokie, Ill. native had Wisconsin in his final group, but opted to take his talents to North Carolina, where Cheeks spent one season before hitting the transfer portal. Wanting to come closer to home and play for a head coach with a defensive background, this time, the former four-star prospect picked the Badgers, ahead of the 2024 season.
“Coach ‘Fick’ (Luke Fickell) is a defensive-minded guy,” said Cheeks. “It’s something that he takes a lot of pride in. Understand, he has his eyes on you. That’s something that was big for me. When I came over here, defense was a critical point of what makes Wisconsin football and its brand.”
An outside linebacker recruit in high school, Cheeks moved to inside linebacker to start his Wisconsin career. Due to injuries, that didn’t last very long. Roughly midway through fall camp, Cheeks, who admittedly at the time, thought he was always recruited incorrectly and should have been an inside linebacker, switched positions again.
“I give a lot of credibility to these coaches,” Cheeks said. “Just helping me in terms of the techniques and fundamentals when you come down on the edge. Then obviously, coach ‘Fick’ seeing that in me, when guys go down, he saw me as a player who can step up. I’ve kind of just taken it full-on.”
In Thursday’s 17-0 season-opening win over Miami (OH), Cheeks had his best performance yet. In just 31 defensive snaps, Cheeks had 4.0 tackles and three quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus.
“I was excited to see what Sebastian did Thursday night,” Fickell told Badger Blitz. “I wasn’t surprised, but I was really, really encouraged, because I had seen this consistency, seen this nature, this knack to be able to rush the passer, but also his ability to be physical against the run too.”
In the spring of 2024, Cheeks knew the move was going to work out.
“I could feel like I was dominating. Not just doing my job, but dominating,” he said. “Guys were turning their heads and like, ‘Damn, you just moved positions.’”
Also in going in Cheeks’ favor, he’s arguably the most versatile outside linebacker Wisconsin has. His time spent at inside linebacker gave Cheeks a different perspective of the game, but he’a also valuable against the run and able to drop back into coverage. On Thursday alone, Cheeks had 20 pass rush snaps, nine snaps against the run, and two coverage snaps. In 2024, Cheeks had 123 total snaps. 77 were against the pass while 46 came on rushing downs.
“Things I was able to learn at inside linebacker allow me to see the backfield formations. It lets me play faster,” Cheeks explained. “When I can diagnose a play faster, it allows me to do those things that put edge rushers in good positions.”
It doesn’t sound like Wisconsin will be moving Cheeks again.
“He’s found a home, not just at Wisconsin, but a position, I think, suits him well,” Mitchell said during fall camp. “We’ve got a lot of body types in there. Maybe not prototypical in terms of the length, but as good as it gets in terms of athleticism and get-off.”
Cheeks started to emerge late last season, playing a then-career high 28 snaps in the regular season finale against Minnesota. In 11 appearances, Cheeks finished the 2024 campaign with 12.0 tackles and 2.0 sacks, one off the team lead. The Badgers expect Cheeks to blow past those marks this fall.
“He’s still young at what he’s doing, but I know he’s in the right position,” Fickell continued. “I know he’s going to get better. Maybe he doesn’t show it all the time, but he’s a perfectionist. He’s always working at it. I think he’s just scratching the surface. I’ll tell you this, he’s a guy that people are going to have to know. He’s got some versatility.”
