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Under Andersen and Aranda, the Badgers have expanded the personnel rotation at every position. Seven different players had quarterback sacks against Northwestern. The more, the merrier? "I think it helps everybody," Southward said. "Everybody is a little more involved. It keeps everybody a little fresher." 34 juiced up." Borland, a senior linebacker, is the glue for everything Aranda is doing on defense. He has 56 tackles, or double what anybody else has on defense. He has 29 more than Michael Caputo, who has 27. "He's a matchup guy for us," Aranda said of Borland. "I've never been on offense but I'm assuming when you're on that side of the ball and you have a special player ― like an Abby (Jared Abbrederis) or a Melvin Gordon ― you just look for matchups. That's what we're doing now with Chris." The tough-minded Caputo, meanwhile, has begun to emerge as an indispensable moving piece, whether he's lining up as a traditional safety or functioning as a hybrid linebacker-slash-safety. "The more spots you put him, the more success he has, the more expanded role you allow him," said Aranda. "His role has grown and grown and grown. He's one of our biggest playmakers right now. "When you're facing spread teams, you want guys // VARSITY October 17, 2013 who kind of fit his (Caputo's) skill set; guys who can play low and who have a feel for the underneath zones. "You want guys that can play man-to-man when called up; that are instinctive and aggressive blitzers and good open field tacklers. He's a little bit of a rare bird in terms of combining all those qualities. "What he brings more than anything is the attitude and the toughness; he just grits his teeth and all of those things carry over when he's in our loose huddles and on the sidelines. "I look at him with his determination the way I look at Ethan Armstrong. It's kind of the same way I look at Chris Borland. You're going to have to truly beat those guys, you know what I mean?" The message? Those guys usually won't beat themselves. "I'm really thankful for Ethan and his approach to what we're doing," Aranda continued. "I know in the past he has been comfortable at the inside 'backer spot. "And I know we're asking him to do other things and he has embraced it. He's a guy who can allow us to be in space, who can cover down, who can tackle, who can rush the passer occasionally. "That guy, depending on the defense we're calling, is a strong safety, is an outside linebacker, is a defensive end, is an inside linebacker. It takes special guys to do that." Against Northwestern, Brendan Kelly and Vince Biegel were on the field together. Up until then, Kelly, a sixth-year senior, and Biegel, a redshirt freshman, had been stacked at boundary linebacker. "The strength of those two guys, without doubt,