Wisconsin football: Chris Borland named one of the best B1G LBs of the decade

Big Ten Network is going through, position by position, and naming the best football players of the past decade from the B1G. They announced the running backs earlier on Monday, with Jonathan Taylor obviously making the cut, and later on Monday the panel of 24 network analysts who did the voting selected their three linebackers.

Wisconsin Badgers legend Chris Borland was on of those three selections.

Borland’s career accomplishments in Madison are many, including winning B1G Defensive Player of the Year and Linebacker of the Year in 2013, being a first-team All-America selection in 2013, being named consensus all-B1G as a senior and a sophomore, being named the B1G Freshman of the Year and a national freshman All-America selection.

He finished his career ranked No. 6 all-time at Wisconsin in total tackles (420), No. 5 in solo tackles (234), No. 4 in tackles for loss (50.0) and tied for No. 8 in sacks (17). He also set the B1G record with 15 forced fumbles in his career, the second-most in FBS history. And lastly he was a five-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honoree, tying Penn State’s Paul Posluszny for most defensive weekly honors in conference history.

Borland went on to be selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL Draft but retired after only one season due to concerns of CTE and “because of concerns about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma.” He recorded a 49ers-high 108 tackles with one sack and two interceptions during his rookie season. He was named NFL Rookie of the Week in Weeks 10 and 11, and was the Defensive Rookie of the Month for November.

We will keep you posted as more Badgers are selected for the BTN All-Decade team throughout the week.