Dangerous Wisconsin football weapon identified as 2024 star

Spring football is over. The transfer portal is closed. The calendar says June. Do you know what this means? College football is almost here. It's now been five months since Michigan beat Washington in the national championship game in Houston, and we've made it through the toughest part of the offseason. We're well past the halfway mark and now there's nothing but enthusiasm to get us to the finish line. We're less than three months away from the start of the college football season and Wisconsin football is ready. Badgers fans can't wait to see their team take the field for the first time.

The 2024 college football season is shaping up to be one of the most exciting seasons in a long time, and that's because of all the changes coming to the game in 2024. Let's start with the expanded College Football Playoff.

It will be interesting to see how the first year of the new 12-team College Football Playoff plays out. The era of the four-team playoff is over, and having eight more teams participate will make a huge difference.

First of all, college football fans can breathe a little easier during the regular season. There's no worse feeling as a fan than seeing your team lose a huge game in the first few weeks of the season, before conference play even begins. In the era of the four-team playoff, that's as demoralizing as it gets. You know that one more loss is the nail in the coffin, and even with one loss (or in Florida State's case, zero), there's no guarantee you'll make it. Now, feeding five teams that go 10-2 should be pretty safe, and even some teams at 9-3 will probably be able to pull that off.

The other big change is more football and a longer season. The College Football Playoff Committee recently released the 2024 playoff schedule, and it's going to be an exciting month. Instead of three total playoff games played in the span of a week, we'll see 11 games spread out over a month. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Another major change in the world of college football this year will be new conferences. The Pac-12 disappeared as everyone except Oregon State and Washington State found a new home. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are now part of the Big Ten, Cal and Stanford have joined the ACC, and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are part of the Big 12.

The Big 12 lost two teams, however, as Oklahoma and Texas moved to the SEC.

Overall, big changes are coming to college football and it should make for an exciting season. Things are going to be different, and not everyone is a fan of the new changes, but there will be more football and more good matchups. It's a plus.

Wisconsin football has an important season ahead

We're going to discuss a potential star for the Badgers, but first, let's look at how the Wisconsin football team got to where it is currently.

It was a bit of a surprise when Wisconsin moved on from Paul Chryst in 2022. The Badgers had a lot of success with Chryst and they competed/won the Big Ten West quite often. They didn't have a very good year in 2021 and 2022 got off to a rough start as well, and Wisconsin wasted no time moving on. They went and hired Luke Fickell from Cincinnati, and that was considered a home hire.

Luke Fickell was one of the hottest names on the coaching market when he arrived at Wisconsin. He had been fantastic in Cincinnati as the Bearcats were consistently ranked, and he even took them to the College Football Playoff. Cincinnati is the only non-power five team to reach this point, and now that the playoffs are expanding, they can still say they were the only team to do so during the four-team era. Fickell made that happen, so the Badgers got just about the best coach they could have asked for.

However, the first year didn't really happen at Madison, but you can't judge a head coach based on one year at one school. It wasn't so bad either. Wisconsin football finished the season with a 7-6 overall record and a 5-4 mark in Big Ten play. They played LSU in their bowl game and dropped that one to end the season. It could have been worse.

It wasn't a good year, but now the focus is on the 2024 season. The Big Ten is expanding as Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA join the conference, and it's not a good year. There will be more divisions. Not to take any credit away from Wisconsin, but some of their Big Ten title appearances were simply because they played in the worst division in college football. The Big Ten West no longer exists and reaching the top of the Big Ten will be extremely difficult.

It's a big season for the Badgers, and they need people to step up. Here's a player who could be poised for a breakout season.

Tucker Ashcraft, TE

There is a certain brand of football that is played in the Big Ten, and Wisconsin football embodies it as well as anyone. They're going to play big-mouth football, which means they like to use their tight ends. Yes, a lot of that usage is in the running game, but when teams like the Badgers pass, they like to get their tight ends involved.

Tucker Ashcraft is expected to be the starting TE for the Wisconsin football team in 2024. He just played his first season with the Badgers in 2023, and it was a quiet season. He had eight catches for 86 yards and one touchdown.

As the starting TE on a team like Wisconsin, Tucker Ashcraft could be poised for a big season. The Badgers also brought in Tyler Van Dyke from Miami this offseason, so they should have solid quarterback play.

Overall, the recipe is there for Tucker Ashcraft to have a big season, and the Badgers will need him to be good if they want to have a successful year. They use their TEs a lot, so he will have a good opportunity to put up good numbers.