Wisconsin football: J.J. Watt is one of the decade’s best in the B1G

Friday was the final day of the Big Ten Network’s week-long reveal of their all-decade first team for B1G football. On Thursday, the defensive line was announced and Pewaukee native, and Wisconsin Badgers native, J.J. Watt was awarded a spot on the first team.

Despite only playing two seasons in the B1G, Watt was still able to make enough of an impact that he had to be on this team. His junior season in 2010 was one of the most disruptive in Wisconsin history, with Watt recording 21 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, one interception, nine passes defended and three blocked kicks.

For his career, Watt had 106 total tackles (36.5 for loss), 11.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, one pick, 14 passes defended and four blocked kicks (which places him third on UW’s all-time list). He was named the Lott IMPACT Tophy winner as a junior and was also named a second team all-American by Sports Illustrated and the AP. He was consensus firs team all-B1G as a junior and honorable mention all-B1G as a sophomore.

This sentence from his official UW bio shows how Watt could alter a game all by himself: he was named “Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after recording seven tackles, 3.0 TFLs for a loss of 19 yards, 1.0 sack for 12 yards, forcing two fumbles — both of which UW recovered — blocking an extra point and recording three quarterback hurries — all of which resulted in interceptions for the Badgers.”

After college, Watt went on to be a first round pick of the Houston Texans in 2011 and he won the NFL DPOY award three times in his first five years. He’s made the Pro Bowl five times, been first team All-Pro five times, led the league in sacks twice and named to the NFL all-decade team as well.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Not bad for a 2-star TE recruit who started off at Central Michigan, eh?