Wisconsin football recruiting: Big weekend coming up for the Badgers

June is a rough month for the average college football fan. There hasn’t been a meaningful game played since Clemson stomped Alabama in January and the first game of the new season isn’t for another two months! Luckily, we at Bucky’s 5th Quarter aren’t “average college football fans,” we are above average in both looks and hunger for knowledge on OFFICIAL VISITS FOR ‘CROOTS!

The 2020 recruiting class is slowly taking shape for the Badgers. With Monday’s commitment by defensive end Cade McDonald, UW is up to eight hard commits and six of those are linemen. It is basically the best, most Wisconsin, class ever. In fact, 247Sports has the Badgers class rated as the 26th best in the country ahead of teams like Louisville, Kentucky and Duk...wait, we are talking about football aren’t we? Sorry everyone! I meant to say, the Badgers are ahead of teams like Auburn, Tennessee and Southern Cal. There...much better.

While the class is in great shape currently there is always room for more players to join and that is where official visits come in to play.

And that’s not even all of them! Let’s take a look at which players will be on campus this weekend. All star rankings use the 247Sports Composite.

Cole Dakovich, 3-star OLB (or TE, maybe), Waukesha, Wisconsin (Catholic Memorial)

Dakovich is the only player visiting this weekend that is committed to the Badgers. Hopefully he’s an excellent salesman and can convince some of his compatriots to join him. At 6’5” and 220 pounds, I’d be inclined to listen to what he had to say.

(Editor’s note: after this post was published, Dakovich changed his official visit to next weekend, June 14th.)

Malik Reed, 3-star OLB, Chandler, Arizona (Chandler)

Reed is a 6’1” and 215 pound linebacker prospect that could look great after a year in a college weight room. Judging by the highlights in his 7-on-7 film he is definitely quick enough, especially in pass coverage, to make a difference at OLB.

Nash Hutmacher, 3-star OG/DL, Chamberlain, South Dakota (Chamberlain)

This young man is 6’5” and weighs 285 pounds. He can also throw things very, very far.

I can’t even comprehend the strength it takes to do something like that, which is why I never played offensive line at any level of football (except flag). The Polar Bear, as he is known, is deciding between the Badgers, Oregon and Nebraska.

Jordan Turner, 3-star OLB, Farmington, Michigan (Farmington)

Turner just announced his final five schools and Wisconsin made the cut. Turner has ideal size, at 6’3” and 220 pounds, for the ILB position at UW and ran a 4.84 40-yard dash at The Opening Regional in Ohio on March 31st, so he also isn’t the slowest guy on the field.

Nick Herbig, 4-star OLB, Honolulu, Hawaii (St. Louis School)

Rated as the 17th best OLB in the nation by 247Sports and the 232nd best player overall by Rivals, Herbig comes to Madison for his official visit with a lot of hype.

At 6’2” and 215 pounds, Herbig has the frame to add weight while maintaining explosiveness as a pass rusher. The Badgers are duking it out with a number of PAC-12 schools for his services, most notably Washington, Cal and Stanford.

Daniel Jackson, 4-star WR, Mission, Kansas (Bishop Miege)

If the town of Mission, Kansas sounds familiar to you, then you’ve probably spent too much time staring at Graham Mertz’s bio because that’s where he is from! Mertz and Jackson even played together at Bishop Miege before Mertz transferred to Blue Valley North. That’s gotta be a good sign!

At just under six feet tall, Jackson profiles as a shifty, slot-receiver type. He’s had a bunch of interest from Iowa State and Minnesota and he’ll visit each of them, in subsequent weekends, after he leaves Madison.

Kalel Mullings, 4-star OLB, Milton, Massachusetts (Milton Academy)

Mullings seems like an excellent player who oozes talent (rated the 106th best in the country by Rivals) but he appears destined for pastures that, uh, aren’t in Madison. Stanford, Michigan, Boston College, Clemson and Northwestern have all piqued his interest AND I HOPE HE LOVES WHEREVER HE CHOOSES!

DeaMonte Trayanum, 4-star RB, Akron, Ohio (Archbishop Hoban)

Any time a highly regarded running back DOESN’T consider Wisconsin I get personally offended. It would appear, however, that Trayanum is at least going to do his due diligence on Running Back U.

Trayanum mentioned to 247Sports about what he wants out of his visit to UW, “I want to learn a lot, take in a lot of information about Wisconsin, and see how I fit in there,” he noted. “I have a good relationship with (assistant coach) Joe Rudolph and the whole staff. They think I’m a back that can come in and carry on the tradition at Wisconsin.”

Penn State, Arizona State and Ohio State are also high on Trayanum so we’ll see how things go.