B5Q Blogopean Union: Sometimes recruiting can be fun!

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Rutgers).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow.

Hello all, it me, Drew, again. I am now the proud father of two daughters and the proud of owner of very little sleep. I am hoping for everything to be business as usual around these parts but please bear with me as I get situated.

As always, thanks for the support and for reading the site!

• I know we (or maybe just me) like to clown on college baseball around here because, well, Wisconsin doesn’t have a team and it’s easy to make fun of things like Michigan, BUT, Vanderbilt won on Tuesday night. Which sets up a winner take all game on Wednesday night, which should make for some excellent tv watching.

In B1G solidarity...Go Blue. Yuck, I feel gross.

• The Badgers had a freaking bonkers recruiting day for football on Tuesday. Paul Chryst has really surprised everyone with how effective his Coach Dad persona makes high school kids and their parents feel at home in Madison. Wisconsin got their quarterback for the 2021 cycle and two linebackers for the 2020 class. One, from Arizona, and the other, from Michigan.

What has been just as surprising as Chryst being a dynamite recruiter has been from where he is getting kids to commit. Gary Andersen expanded the reach of Wisconsin out west and many assumed that would fall by the wayside after he left but...it hasn’t. Chryst is routinely pulling kids from California and Arizona and he has also made inroads into Michigan which is a state that had mystified the Badgers for years.

Also thought this might be of interest to everyone in regards to recruiting rankings and on-field success.

• Man, I’m not even a Brewers fan but they need to call this dude back to the majors, like, yesterday.

• We mentioned that Ethan Happ got picked up by the Chicago Bulls for their Summer League team, which is awesome, but the Badgers men’s hockey team also had a successful weekend at their draft.

Besides Turcotte, forward Cole Caufield was selected 15th overall by the Montreal Canadiens, Ryder Donovan was picked with the 110th pick by the Vegas Golden Knights and Owen Lindmark was drafted by the Florida Panthers with the 137th pick.

All in all, a great weekend for the Badgers hockey team, which appears to have a bunch of high-end talent for the upcoming season.

• Dana Rettke is a boss. That’s it. That’s the bullet point.

• Is winning trophy games enough for Iowa this year? My favorite part was when they mentioned how Wisconsin has a three game winning streak against the Hawkeyes.
• Penn State received a verbal commitment from a 3-star linebacker who also plays another position!
• If you want to take a peak at some recruits who will most likely outperform their star rating. Here’s all the newcomers at Northwestern!
• Can Rutgers beat Boston College? I don’t know and I don’t care to find out.
• This was discussed in the comments here recently and The Champaign Room dives in deeper. Why are all these players from Southern Cal transferring to Illinois?
• Michigan State lost out on a recruiting battle for a 4-star QB to Louisville. That’s a bummer, but what’s even worse is that the young man’s name is CHUBBA PURDY! I will be following his career closely because a guy with a name like that is definitely going to do something crazy.
• #9WINDIANA
• The Gophers got another 2020 recruit. That’s about 405 for this class. How many scholarships do they have?