Wisconsin football recruiting: Waiting for camps

So after a day spent making friends and enjoying some ice cream sandwiches, it's time to get back to that old recruiting grind. And it seems as if the days of offers have fallen by the wayside.

This is not a bad thing. For you, it means less blocks of text to sift through for the same great news flavor. For us, it means time to take a breath and not have to sift through all sorts of crazy lists of offers because Thomas Brown found a school in Georgia he hasn't visited yet.

As it is, we'll do some catch 'em-ups. And yes, there was an offer. But only one. Or two.

Or three, because hey, David Pfaff committed.

Catching up with...

Mohamed Barry: This Loganville, Georgia, safety prospect received an offer from Wisconsin based on a good Hudl profile and the fact he came from Georgia. In fact, the Badgers were able to hold the lead for Berry. That being said, the conventional wisdom might be changing. The 247 Sports Crystal Ball is showing Syracuse gaining ground on Wisconsin, and it's definitely going to be a race that could heat up in the summer.

Javarius Davis: Davis tweeted that he was planning on committing at some point in June. The Badgers look to have a real chance to win a commitment from this three-star athlete prospect, but he has a pretty solid top five as Clemson, Louisville, Maryland and North Carolina are all in on him. Sure, the Badgers do have his cousin in current third-string quarterback D.J. Gillins, but there's definitely enough interest that Davis becomes a get.

T.J. Simmons: Drew mentioned that the Badgers made an offer last week, and that perhaps the proclaimed 'Speedie' Simmons would be a bit of a long shot for the Badgers to make up ground with. Well, Simmons announced his top five and the Badgers are in it for the Lakeland, Florida, prospect. Of course, his other four are current leader UCLA, Florida, Notre Dame and Ohio State. So the shot might yet be long. But this is a race the Badgers are in.

Of course, we couldn't get to all the offers we wanted to get to last week. We're adults. With day jobs. And we have to miss analyzing some prospects along the way. No one's fault. But sometimes, the Badgers gain traction. And that's when we have to take a closer look.

DE/OLB Marcus Brunson
6'0, 190 lbs.
Daytona Beach (Mainland), Fla.
NR

Brunson was mentioned in passing as an unheralded recruit last week, and that's fair. Wisconsin was his first offer. But on closer inspection, there's a lot to like here. Statistically, Brunson was ridiculously active as a junior: 135 tackles, 25 for loss and 16 sacks. Those are the numbers of a potential monster. And yeah, he set up on the defensive line as a junior like he was some sort of potential Corey Moore. But the Hudl profile showed two things.

1. He set up in a two-point stance as often as he was in the three-point stance. This shows that, at the very least, he's not going to have issues playing linebacker as an attacker. Coverage? That's as yet unseen. But I said there are two things.

2. He can fight off blocks. It's not just motoring past people and using pursuit angles to blow people up; he flashes a move or three in a passing situation and he can hand-fight through the blocks of the running backs.

Put it this way: Brunson still hasn't broken big quite yet. Though his offer sheet is growing (Cincinnati, Temple and Tennessee State have offered this week and West Virginia is showing interest) he is still an under-the-radar prospect. That being said, as of now he's in the Leon Jacobs and T.J. Edwards level. The pedigree's not there. but he's interesting.

Very interesting.

The new offer(s)

There were so many offers last week, one might say the Badgers gave them all out. But we're about to slow it down... at least until the high school camps start rolling out. There is an offer. An offer or two. Two with a commit.

ILB Nick Thomas
6'3, 225 lbs.
Bradenton (IMG Academy), Fla.

It was always a question of when Thomas was going to get his first offer. The Badgers got it out first, but his interest list has some very interesting teams. (I mean Baylor AND Oklahoma). As it goes, if you have a linebacker that's No. 44 in your program and flashes good gap-filling pursuit skills being recruited by Wisconsin, the name Borland will be whispered through the trees. The first offer advantage should go a long way here, but Thomas is a native of Kansas. The siren song of the other large misnomer conference could well bring him further west than we'd like.

Davante Davis
6'3, 200 lbs.
Homestad (Booker T. Washington), Fla.
NR

The Badgers aren't exactly certain where they stand here. Davis is committed to Syracuse, but like Jordan Scarlett, the offer sheet leads to it seeming like more of a matter of "when" than "if" he visits flip city. In the past two weeks, he's received offers from Louisville, UCF, South Carolina, Ohio State and West Virginia. As a listed 6'3 cornerback, it's entirely possible that more offers are coming for Davis. So, it's wait-and-see here, but he's definitely worth checking.

Correction: This article has been updated to include the proper last name for Nick Thomas, a linebacker at IMG Academy in Florida. The initial article wrote his name as "Nick Martin." We apologize for the error.