clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Wisconsin football recruiting: new rankings released and the Badgers make a cutdown list

Rivals released their updated Rivals250 and several Badgers commits and targets are on the list.

By Drew Hamm
NCAA Football: Kent State at Wisconsin Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

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!

Badgers make cut down list

  • 2021 3-star TE Gunnar Helm (Greenwood Village, Colo.) out of Cherry Creek High School cut his list down to 14 teams that he was going to be considering moving forward, and the Wisconsin Badgers made the initial cut.

We noted in our post from February after Helm received his Badgers offer that “Helm seems like the kind of player that will only get more and more attention so it’s good that the Badgers got in relatively early on him as bigger offers are sure to come.”

Boy were we right. Since then, Helm has received offers from Alabama, Georgia, TCU, LSU, Penn State, Ole Miss and UNLV. Ok, maybe those last two aren’t a HUGE threat to the Badgers, but the others will be tough to beat.

If Wisconsin can get Helm on campus eventually they’ll have a chance of getting him to commit, but the siren song of the SEC may be too strong.

New rankings

  • Rivals released their new Rivals250 list on Tuesday and it contains several Badgers commits and targets. The top remaining target for the Badgers, and many other teams, is 5-star OT Nolan Rucci (Lititz, Pa.) who clocks in at No. 36 in the country (down two spots from the previous rankings).

Here are the other players, all of whom are ranked 4-stars on Rivals, on the list that the Badgers are still in the running for:

  • Thomas Fidone, TE, Council Bluffs, Iowa, No. 62
  • JC Latham, OT, Waukesha, attends IMG Academy in Florida, No. 75
  • T.J. Bollers, EDGE, Tiffin, Iowa, No. 98
  • JP Benzschawel, OT, Grafton, No. 150 (down 10 spots), committed to Wisconsin
  • Terrance Ferguson, TE, Littleton, Colo., No. 153
  • Hunter Wohler, S, Muskego, No. 154 (down nine spots), committed to Wisconsin
  • Yanni Karlaftis, OLB, West Lafayette, Ind., No. 165

More From Bucky's 5th Quarter