Wisconsin football recruiting: UW makes a couple of cutdown lists

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 (sometimes more) 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!

• 2022 4-star ATH Dillon Tatum (West Bloomfield, Mich.) out of West Bloomfield High School cut his recruitment list down to 10 teams on New Year’s Day and the Wisconsin Badgers were included. Tatum plays all over the field, but the Badgers are presumably recruiting him to play running back. You may recognize West Bloomfield because current UW WRs A.J. Abbott and Taj Mustapha are from there.

From our post back in May when he was offered:

Tatum’s Hudl tape shows him playing all over the field. He lines up in the backfield, in the slot, out wide as a flanker and at defensive back. It would appear that he is used similarly to how 2020 RB commit Jalen Berger was used at his high school. If the Badgers can showcase an ability to get their running backs the ball in creative ways, players like Tatum will be way more interested in Wisconsin.

The rest of Tatum’s top-10 include: Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Baylor, and Southern Cal. The two in-state schools are both listed as “warm” on his 247 profile, but it is good for UW to be in the top-10 because Tatum started with over 30 offers.

• 2022 4-star S Xavier Nwankpa (Altoona, Iowa) out of Southeast Polk High School cut his list of schools down to 12 and the Badgers made the cut here too. The Iowa native’s list also includes: Iowa, Iowa State, Penn State, Texas, Nebraska, Mizzou, Clemson, Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State and Arizona State. The two in-state schools plus LSU, Mizzou and Ohio State are all listed as “warm” on his 247 profile. There is one Crystal Ball prediction for Nwankpa to the Buckeyes.

With S Braelon Allen reclassifying to the 2021 class, the Badgers are back to square one in the 2022 class, and the safety position. Nwankpa will be a high priority for Wisconsin but until they can get players like this on campus they may be recruiting from behind, as it were.