Wisconsin Football: Keeanu Benton to skip bowl, prep for NFL Draft

Keeanu Benton has been a rare player for Wisconsin. When he entered Wisconsin he was one of the lowest-rated players in the 2019 recruiting class. However, he quickly proved that those numbers meant nothing as Benton shot up the depth chart from his first steps on campus.

Benton would go on to be a four-year starter for Wisconsin and one of the top nose tackles in school history. Hopefully, us Badgers fans have enjoyed watching him because we will not see him in a Badger uniform again as Benton has opted to skip the bowl game and prepare for the NFL Draft.

Of course, this isn’t shocking news. I do believe Benton had the option to take an extra year but we all knew he would be off to the NFL following this season. Last year Benton could have entered the draft and likely been a pretty solid mid to late-round pick but he opted to return. Now, Benton will be off to the next level and I am so excited to see where he ends up and what he produces.

Benton finishes his Wisconsin career with 80 total tackles, 9 career sacks, and 2 forced fumbles. However, Benton’s presence is hard to define with just stats. While he may not have racked up the numbers he was responsible for opening a lot of plays for the guys around him. Nose tackle is sort of a thankless job at times, but Benton was one of the best of them in each of his four seasons.

With Benton out of the bowl game, Wisconsin fans will likely get their first look at Curt Neal at nose tackle in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl game.