Wisconsin football recruiting: season updates

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!

Current Football Commits

• 2021 3-star QB commit Deacon Hill (Santa Barbara, Calif.) helped his team to a massive upset last Friday. But first, take a look at the arm strength here! That’s a 69-yard TD, mind you. So nice.

Next, Santa Barbara beat Lompoc 27-21 to give Lompoc their first conference loss since 2010! Here were the stats I could find for Hill’s game.

• 2021 4-star OT Riley Mahlman (Lakeville, Minn.) has 28 tackles (eight for loss), four sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one block on defense this year. Lakeville South finished in a three-way tie at 5-1 for first in the Metro South Conference with Lakeville North (who they beat) and Rosemount (who they lost to).
• 2020 3-star TE Cam Large (Dedham, Mass.) had four sacks, a TFL and a rushing touchdown in his game last week against Buckingham Browne & Nichols High School.

• 2020 3-star DE James Thompson, Jr. (Cincinnati, Ohio) had a sack and a couple of tackles. I also liked how he was able to get out to the sideline to make tackles on WR screens. Exciting athleticism imo.

• 2020 3-star ATH Preston Zachman (Catawissa, Pa.) had an awesome game as a signal-caller for Southern Columbia. Look at this pass!

Zachman had a perfect passer rating in their win over Montoursville and went 8-for-9 for 132 yards and two scores.

Zachman also pulled a Deacon Hill and was lead blocker for his tailback who had to reverse field for a monster gain. YOU LOVE TO SEE IT!

• 2020 3-star LB Jordan Turner (Farmington, Mich.) is finally healthy again and had a big game (a pair of forced fumbles, a near interception and at least five tackles) for Farmington against North Farmington, however his team lost 13-9. I don’t know if we’ve reported this already, but Turner mentions in this post that he’ll be enrolling early at Wisconsin this January.

“I like their defense,” Turner said. “It’s basically what we do, they run a 3-4, plus they can go like to a nickel formation, so it fits me. I’m going early, so I’ll be there in January. Their coaching staff is amazing. They’re friendly and they really care about you. Some of these programs say they want you, but they don’t show you it.”

• 2020 3-star CB Max Lofy (Colorado Springs, Colo.) showed off his returner skills last week. There may be an opening at punt returner once Jack Dunn graduates.

• 2020 3-star WR Isaac Smith (Collierville, Tenn.) had an 86-yard catch and run for a score.

I don’t know how the rest of the game went, but that’s pretty impressive.

• 2020 3-star LB Aaron Witt (Winona, Minn.) had a sack and one QB hit that looked like he killed the poor kid (last highlight).

• 2020 3-star LB Malik Reed (Chandler, Ariz.) had four tackles against Brophy College Prep High School.

• 2020 4-star LB Nick Herbig (Honolulu, Hawaii) and his nationally ranked St. Louis High School Crusaders are off until Nov. 1. The team is 9-0 and currently ranked No. 7 in the country by MaxPreps.