Wisconsin football recruiting: DE Luke Benzschawel becomes Badgers' 3rd commit for 2016

Wisconsin's growing into a program that cares about recruiting into something that's more than "hey, they got a guy." And when you're looking at a prospect that commits minutes after he receives his offer with no sort of ranking behind him? There are going to be some prospects that aren't going to pop for everybody.

That said, Wisconsin has this tendency to find prospects in the strangest of places. The last time they went to Grafton, Wis., they found a two-star prospect. He was sort of a lanky kid, he needed to put on some weight if he was going to become an offensive lineman. A year later, redshirt freshman Beau Benzschawel looks like a contender to be on the two-deep depth chart.

So to answer your first question, Luke Benzschawel is indeed Beau's brother, and the junior committed to head coach Paul Chryst Wisconsin Friday afternoon on an unofficial visit.

I've just given my verbal commitment to the University of Wisconsin #OnWisconsin #DreamComeTrue

— Panther (@LukeBenzschawel) April 11, 2015

The younger Benzschawel currently comes in at 6'7 and 220 pounds, so there is some projectability and time in the weight room that would likely be needed before the Badgers would see full dividends. With that said, his varsity head coach considers him one of the more athletic offensive linemen in the North Shore conference, and he did end his junior season with 87 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, and 4 pass breakups. The Hudl profile below shows someone with fluid athleticism and the ability to move people off the ball despite being underweight for the trenches.

Long story short -- while the odds of him stepping on the field and starting from day one are in the infinitesimal "disaster would have to escalate quickly" sort of level, Benzschawel has the toughness to handle the trenches and the frame that would handle a year or two in a college weight room and be able to keep his fluid athleticism. Don't sleep on him.