Wisconsin football recruiting: big decisions riding on some friendly wagers

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 (or more often since we are in Uncertain Times and there aren’t actual sports going on) 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!

Madden wager

• 2021 3-star CB commit Al Ashford (Englewood, Colo.) announced on Twitter over the weekend that he was going to be playing 2021 3-star WR Markus Allen (Clayton, Ohio), who recently decommitted from Michigan, and if Ashford won then Allen had to commit to Wisconsin.

The original tweet from Ashford, which said the game was happening on Sunday, has been deleted because they were moving the game to Monday night. Well,,,that didn’t happen either due to some technical difficulties at the Ashford house.

Smh @ Ashford’s dog.

Allen’s re-opened recruitment has the Badgers, West Virginia and Cincinnati as the new favorites to secure his commitment. Hopefully Ashford’s Madden fingers are quick and can push Allen in the right direction.

Weightlifting wager

• 2022 4-star DE prospect Isaac Hamm (Sun Prairie) announced on Twitter that he and newly reclassified 2021 4-star S commit Braelon Allen (Fond du Lac) will be participating in a squat and bench press competition. If Allen wins, Hamm commits to UW.

Allen has already completed his half of the wager, doing 16 squats at 405 pounds and 14 reps on the bench at 225 pounds.

Having never lifted this much weight in my entire life I can’t even fathom how Hamm can beat this, but I’m sure it’ll be close. These kids are both monsters in the weight room. However, even they know their limits as including current ILB Leo Chenal was roundly rejected by Allen.

We don’t know how serious either of these wagers are, but they sure are fun to see. It’s nice that current Badgers commits are willing to compete to get other players to join them in Madison.

NHL Draft update

• 2021 3-star OLB Jake Ratzlaff (Rosemount, Minn.) was not selected in the NHL Draft last week. The Minnesota hockey commit is still in the process of deciding which sport he’ll pursue at the next level and with him not being picked at all, football may end up winning out over hockey. Were he to choose football, Minnesota would still be in the mix but most recruitniks believe that he’d choose Wisconsin.