The 2026 high school football season kicks off Tuesday, Aug. 4, with the first official day of practice across the state, 16 days prior to the first night of games on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Last season, two Milwaukee-area programs won state titles at Camp Randall Stadium with Grafton’s last-second victory to win the Division 3 state crown, while Arrowhead stole victory from the jaws of defeat in the Division 1 state title game against Bay Port.
To kickstart this season’s preseason coverage, we’ll take a look at some of the top players across the area within each position group heading into the 2026 season. With four groups down on offense, here’s five of the top defensive linemen, listed in alphabetical order, along with 10 other names to know this campaign.
Lincoln Hanson, sr., Oak Creek
After a productive junior campaign for the Knights in 2025, senior defensive end Lincoln Hanson could continue to improve his stock for one of the Southeast Conference title favorites in 2026. As a junior, Hanson tallied 47 total tackles (fourth on the team) with 14 tackles for loss and four sacks, leading to an all-Southeast Conference second-team selection. With the Oak Creek defense losing Landon Di Villo, Brady Giuli and Jackson Villarreal, getting Hanson and fellow senior Corbin Jansen (56 tackles, 11 TFL) back as foundation pieces for 2026 will be a big boost.
Isaac Miller, sr., Catholic Memorial
The shift toward more in-state recruiting from the Badgers has been on full display in recent months and one of Wisconsin’s splashes on the trail was landing mammoth defensive end Isaac Miller. As a junior, Miller tallied 46 total tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks for the Crusaders last year. He’s a mountain of a young man who the CMH coaching staff has had high hopes for since his arrival to the program. The junior class last season was the core of its state semifinalist campaign in 2025. The CMH defense gets the likes of Miller, Will Schmitzer, Khalil Jones, Naverion Flowers, Zy’aire Smith, Dustin Roach and Jesse Sobczak all back in 2026. That sounds dangerous for the field in Division 3.
Zach Safka, sr., Greenfield
After a 5-1 start to the 2025 campaign, the Hustlin’ Hawks limped to the finish line losing four of their final five games. Granted, two of those losses came to D2 state runner-up Notre Dame in the first round of the playoffs and to D3 state champion Grafton in conference play, but someone who stood out last year was junior Zach Safka. The team’s leading tackler with 66 total tackles (46 solo), Safka tallied 16 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks on his way to all-Woodland Conference second-team honors.
Carson Weist, sr., Saint Thomas More
Saint Thomas More had its share of struggles in 2025, including a stretch of six losses in seven games after a Week 1 victory over Cudahy, but Carson Weist was a monster for the STM defense. Weist was second on the team in tackles (56) with 20 tackles for loss, eight sacks and three fumble recoveries on his way to a first-team all-Metro Classic Conference selection as a junior. He was the lone junior out of the four first-team selections at defensive end last season and enters 2026 as one of the favorites to win the MCC’s defensive player of the year award if he can match this kind of production.
Keith Willingham Jr., sr., Arrowhead
The defending WIAA Division 1 state champions have lost four of their five leading tacklers from last year’s title team, including the three players who tallied 11 of their 14 total interceptions from last year’s action. Army commit and Journal Sentinel defensive player of the year Brendan Foley is an irreplaceable presence in the Arrowhead defense, but there’s a returner who finished one-half sack behind Foley for the team lead as a junior in 2025. Keith Willingham Jr. was a bit of an overlooked athlete in a defense that didn’t allow a team to score more than 23 points in a game until the second round of the D1 playoffs. The second-team all-Classic 8 Conference selection tallied 32 tackles off the edge with nine tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in 2025.
Other Milwaukee-area defensive linemen to know in 2026
Chase Armstrong, sr., Pius XI Catholic; Platt Breitzman, sr., Oconomowoc; AJ Chromy, sr., Franklin; Ryan Dahms, sr., Sussex Hamilton; Turner Doering, sr., Brookfield Central; Jonas Jones, sr., Milwaukee Academy of Science; Isaiah Kaehler, sr., Milwaukee Bay View; Colton Markohn, sr., West Bend West; Zac Meulemans, jr., Marquette; Demarcus Mitchell, sr., Milwaukee Lutheran.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Top high school defensive linemen ready to bring the heat in 2026
Reporting by Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Michael Whitlow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
