Wisconsin football recruiting: DL Kraig Howe commits to Badgers

When Dayton, Ohio (Archbishop Alter) defensive lineman Kraig Howe decommitted from Pitt on Jan. 14, the notion of a pledge to Wisconsin and former Panthers head coach Paul Chryst grew in likelihood.

Coming from the same high school that produced former Badgers Chris Borland and Connor Cummins, the three-star standout is visiting Madison and the university this weekend.

It apparently didn't take too long for Howe to pull the trigger while in town to verbally commit to Wisconsin.

Proud to announce that I committed to the University of Wisconsin... On, Wisconsin!

— Kraig Howe (@KraigHowe) January 24, 2015

Aside from the initial interest from Pitt, Howe had offers from Boston College and Iowa State, along with Big Ten rivals Minnesota, Illinois and Northwestern. There was a previous relationship between the 6'3, 262-pound Howe and Chryst, whom Howe previously committed to at Pitt.

B5Q's Andrew Rosin wrote last weekend about the probability of Howe joining UW:

Howe officially announced his de-commitment from Pitt on Wednesday, and the logic would dictate that the Badgers, who have been gaining momentum since they made their move to offer the three-star Dayton (Archbishop Kettering) defensive tackle, will end up adding him to help shore up the line. The plan is that he will visit Madison($) on Jan. 24 and 25. At that point, it's likely to follow up with a commitment.

Howe now joins a class with a deep set of defensive linemen -- at least for now -- that includes Nate Howard, Olive Sagapolu, Elu Aydon, Jake Pickard and David Pfaff.

Both Scout ($) and 247 Sports ($) have articles up about Howe's reasons for committing to Wisconsin. Pfaff has already welcomed Howe already to via Twitter.

@KraigHowe welcome to the badger family! #badgerbadboys #OnWisconsin

— David pfaff (@dpfaff21) January 25, 2015

Here's Howe's Hudl tape for your perusal: