Wisconsin football recruiting: what the hell, Michigan State? [UPDATE: WHAT THE HELL?]

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!

So, if you are a close follower of recruiting you may have noticed that recently there has been an...interloper in the great state of Wisconsin. The Michigan State Spartans are trying to plant their flag in the Badger State and have been tossing out offers to Wisconsin commits over the last few days.

MSU offering UW commits

• 2021 3-star DE Ayo Adebogun (Mequon) of Homestead High School was the first Badgers commit to be offered by MSU this past Monday.

• 2021 3-star RB Loyal Crawford (Eau Claire) of Memorial was later offered by Sparty on the same day that the Badgers picked up another commitment from a 2021 running back.

While there is nothing imminent about either of these two flipping to MSU, the Spartans aren’t going to offer kids that don’t at least show a modicum of interest in them. Crawford is the more likely of the two to take a look at Michigan State since the Badgers have signed two other RBs this cycle and maybe he doesn’t like that. Who knows???

MSU offering UW targets from Wisconsin

• 2022 4-star WR/TE Jerry Cross (Milwaukee) out of Rufus King High School, who the Badgers have offered, joined the “receiving offers from MSU” train this week.

The 6-foot-6 and 218 pound Cross is the type of player that doesn’t come out of Wisconsin very often and will definitely be a high priority for the Badgers in the 2022 class. He has a couple of other Power 5 offers but one would have to guess that his recruitment is going to become way more competitive next year.

So...to Michigan State:

UPDATE 4/28/20

• 4-star 2022 OT Joe Brunner (Whitefish Bay) is the next in a long line of offers to Wisconsin players by Michigan State.

• 4-star 2022 S Braelon Allen (Fond du Lac) was also offered by the Spartans last week. Does MSU know other states exist?

So we ask again, Michigan State...

Other in-state recruiting news

• 2022 4-star OL/DL Billy Schrauth (Fond du Lac) out of St. Mary’s Springs High School has been getting offers from, well, just about every team in the B1G recently.

Schrauth is being recruited as an offensive guard by the Badgers, and while they are thought to be in the lead early he is another highly regarded in-state player that Wisconsin will have to battle for.