Wisconsin football recruiting: OL Patrick Kasl commits to Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers' recruiting class of 2016 is riding a wave of momentum in the past week.

Since last Monday, head coach Paul Chryst and his coaching staff have secured verbal commitments from Amherst, Wis., defensive lineman Tyler Biadasz, Carmel, Ind. outside linebacker Noah Burks and, per reports, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., inside linebacker Dallas Jeanty.

Now make it five commitments.

Forest Lake, Minn., offensive linemen Patrick Kasl committed to Wisconsin last week, as first reported by BadgerNation.com's Ben Worgull Monday evening.

The 6'6, 278-pound Kasl, a two-star recruit by 247Sports' composite rankings, previously had offers from Eastern Michigan, Wyoming and Yale. Though he didn't receive any Power Five offers early in the recruiting process, Kasl performed at the Opening Regional in Chicago earlier in the spring and performed very well -- earning a spot in the "Final 5" matchups between offensive and defensive linemen (video footage starts at the 40-second mark) and drawing praise from those in attendance.

Patrick Kasl (6-6, 278) had heckuva day. New high OL Nike Football Rating for 2015, made #Final5 5.25 40 4.3 Sh 42 PB 28.5 VJ 106.83 Rating.

— Todd Huber (@ToddHuberSS) May 4, 2015

He attended Wisconsin's second Sunday camp in early June and was offered thereafter.

As noted by Worgull, Kasl stopped in Madison on his way to the Chicagoland Showcase this past weekend and decided to verbally commit to Wisconsin.

"I was kind of thinking about committing and it just kind of happened," Kasl told BadgerNation. "It just felt right. I really like the coaches, I really like the campus and they have a great engineering school, which is what I am planning to do. Wisconsin has a great offensive line tradition, which is very appealing to me. It’s just a great school that is pretty close to home."

Kasl would be the ninth known verbal commitment for the class of 2016, if the situation with Jeanty continues as expected.