Wisconsin football recruiting: Updates on Mon Denson, St. Thomas Aquinas interest

Hope you had a nice Memorial Day. Due to the holiday, we're bumping this week's recruiting notebooks back one day each, so we'll be on a Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule for those keeping score at home.

Because of the long weekend, news is a bit slow, particularly compared to last week, which saw the commitment of David Pfaff. Given that, let's run through what we're hearing about a collection of prospects both new and familiar.

More interest at St. Thomas Aquinas

247 Sports reports another name the Wisconsin is interested in at one of their favorite Florida schools: safety Tyson Cisrow. The 6'1, 185-pound Fort Lauderdale native sports several offers from the likes of Penn State, Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Utah and West Virginia, though the Badgers haven't quite jumped in yet. 247's report ($) indicates an offer could make Wisconsin Cisrow's favorite, though things are still in the early stages. Regardless, Cisrow's considered a three-star prospect by Rivals. You can see on his Hudl profile that he's a defensive back willing and able to deliver quality hits and chase ball carriers all over the field. A few of the interceptions in there came on balls thrown directly to him, but a few show impressive ball skills that could translate well in the college game.

Wisconsin's offers already out to St. Thomas Aquinas include running back Jordan Scarlett (one of their top targets at this point), cornerbacks Damon Arnette and Rashard Causey, and outside linebacker Chris Hart.

Badgers staying on top Georgia running back

One name we haven't introduced yet -- though B5Q reader BlackPack-fan's been onto him for a while -- is Lagrange, Georgia running back Mon Denson. This is Thomas Brown territory once again, and 247 reports ($) Wisconsin's running back coach is in weekly contact with the 5'11, 207-pound rusher. Denson, a top-50 running back per 247's composite rankings, had a top two of Wisconsin and North Carolina earlier in the spring, but a continual flood of offers since then -- he added Indiana, Iowa State and Kansas State in the past week -- has opened up his recruitment. Denson says he has no timeline for making his decision, so an official visit in the fall could be the deciding factor.

In his Hudl highlights, you can see Denson running a variety of sweep looks and getting to the outside with ease. Seems like he'd be a natural fit in the Gary Andersen offense post-Melvin Gordon. A few runs in there (I'm looking at around 1:20 now) also show some impressive power and after-contact effort.

New offer

LB Chris Orr
6'0, 212 lbs.
DeSoto, Texas
NR

This was a nice find by Rex, as mentioned in Tuesday morning's Badger Bits. The Badgers offered Orr on Monday, and with Nevada and North Texas the only other schools that have offered, Wisconsin jumps to the top here. Orr's father, Terry, was a former Texas standout and NFL tight end for eight years. Three of the four Orr sons have already graduated from DeSoto, which ESPN profiled in a nice feature back in June 2012.

More links

These are mostly paywalled stories, so apologies for that. Such is the nature of recruiting coverage. We're always in the comments, though, ready and willing to talk and answer any questions. As you've probably noticed, too, we also have a ton of readers incredibly knowledgeable about the Badgers' recruiting efforts. That should be more than enough to get us through these slower periods.

• At the bottom of his latest recruiting mailbag, 247 Sports' Evan Flood ranks what he believes to be the Badgers' top 10 targets ($) if you're interested in learning more about a few different names.
• BadgerNation.com talks to Tallahassee (Amos P. Godby), Florida offensive tackle Brendan Loftus about his love for Wisconsin's o-line tradition ($). We've talked about the rangy lineman a few times in recent notebooks.
• Pompano Beach (Monarch), Florida cornerback Ronnie Hoggins is drawing more interest, though he told BadgerNation that Wisconsin would be his favorite right now ($) if he had to pick one. This recruitment still seems more open than not, however.
• A quick basketball update: Rice Lake, Wisconsin power forward Henry Ellenson picked up an offer from North Carolina last week and later had an impressive showing at the EYBL Circuit event in Minneapolis. Ellenson also gave the latest on his recruitment ($) to 247, and it's clear the race for the four-star big man is heating up.