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Badger Bits: Salt Lake City RB Ula Tolutau becomes 6th member of 2014 recruiting class

Wisconsin gained its second recruit in as many days on Thursday, picking up a verbal commit from Gary Andersen's old stomping grounds.

By Mike Fiammetta

Wisconsin picked up its sixth commit of the 2014 recruiting class on Thursday, as Salt Lake City (East) running back Ula Tolutau gave his oral commit to head coach Gary Andersen.

Tolutau is a 6-foot-1, 230-pound running back who projects as a fullback in college. It'll be a while before he's on campus, as he plans to take a Mormon mission trip before arriving at Wisconsin. First-year defensive line coach Chad Kauha'aha'a recruited Tolutau, leveraging his Utah connections to bring the 3-star recruit -- his first commit overall -- to Madison. Apparently, getting Tolutau out east -- relatively speaking -- wasn't too difficult considering his desire to move on from his home state.

"I kind of wanted to go out of state, Wisconsin was always a dream school," Tolutau said. "Coach Andersen just happened to be the coach, so I just pulled the trigger."

"You know, if you are a running back, from my point of view, that is where you want to go," he said. "What they did with Montee Ball and they have that huge offensive line. It is a powerhouse running school."

Per Badger247, Wisconsin's class moved up six spots with to No. 24 nationally with Tolutau in the fold. The Badgers also stayed put at No. 6 among Big Ten classes.

Tolutau says he'll visit Wisconsin for either the BYU game on Nov. 9 or the Penn State game on Nov. 30, the regular-season finale.

LINKS:

Wisconsin softball pushed North Carolina to extra innings in its first game at NCAA tournament regionals in Oregon, but fell short, 3-2. The game was the Badgers' first NCAA tourney appearance since 2005 and nearly their first regional win since 2001 after Marissa Mersch hit a game-tying solo shot in the bottom of the seventh. Wisconsin also endured an hourlong rain delay, but North Carolina ultimately proved to powerful in knocking nine hits to the Badgers' four. Wisconsin gets BYU next in the double-elimination tournament, with first pitch slated for 4 p.m. CT Friday.

The 2013 LOTT Impact Trophy watch list was released on Thursday, and Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland made the cut. 42 players from 37 schools made the list for the award, which honors the top defensive player in the nation. Other Big Ten players include Michigan State linebacker Max Bullough, Northwestern DB Ibraheim Campbell and LB Damien Proby, Iowa LB James Morris, Ohio State CB Bradley Roby and LB Ryan Shazier.

This is a couple days old, but this radio interview with Gary Andersen is worth a listen. Among the interesting tidbits is how Andersen sold his defense to the Badgers' returning players (around the 5-minute mark).

If you're interested, here's what the north end of Camp Randall is looking like as renovations continue. This area will be part of the built-out Fetzer Academic Center for student-athletes.

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