Wisconsin gets surprise commitment from 2021 3-star CB Al Ashford III

There are very few surprises in the world of major college football recruiting anymore. Usually you know who is going where before the announcement has been made and everyone is just waiting on official confirmation. Well, the Wisconsin Badgers received an excellent surprise on Friday evening when 2021 3-star CB Al Ashford III (Englewood, Colo.) out of Cherry Creek High School announced he was coming to UW by pulling out a hand sanitizer bottle with Wisconsin’s logo.

Ashford still hasn’t announced his commitment, or offer from Wisconsin for that matter, on Twitter as of this writing but Jon McNamara of BadgerBlitz and Evan Flood of 247Sports both tweeted about his commitment and the recruiting staff sent out the proverbial “bat signal” too.

UPDATE:

Looking at Ashford’s profiles on Rivals and 247Sports it appears that Colorado was considered the favorite to land him with Kansas State a close second. Wisconsin was nowhere to be found. Arizona, Boise State, Kansas, Oregon State, Washington State and others all had offers out to Ashford. The 3-star CB is ranked as the No. 1,516 overall player and No. 136 corner in the nation by the 247Sports Composite and the No. 14 player in Colorado.

247Sports’ Blair Angulo describes Ashford thusly: “The 6-foot-1, 170-pound prospect has a high-upside frame with length and room to add muscle mass. He’s a wiry defensive back with plus-plus IQ and situational awareness and is competitive near the line of scrimmage and comfortable in one-on-one scenarios.”

Ashford joins 3-star Ricardo Hallman (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) as the two cornerbacks in the 2021 class and will also be joining 2020 commit Max Lofy as defensive backs hailing from Colorado.