Wisconsin football recruiting: recap of recent visitors plus...some bad news

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!

Visitors from the Army game

• 2022 4-star RB Jaydn Ott (Norco, Calif.) had an official visit this past weekend and everything that I have read so far suggests that he liked Madison a lot. As a RB, he obviously likes that Wisconsin runs the ball a lot and with the recent spate of players leaving the RB room in Madison...there are carries to be had sooner rather than later.

• 3-star 2023 OT Austin Barrett (St. Charles, Ill.) made another trip up to Madison for the game against Army. Barrett’s older brother Dylan is an offensive lineman on Wisconsin so Austin also got to visit with him. Based on the people tagged in the pictures, Barrett was also joined by some of his high school teammates. I don’t know if Wisconsin is recruiting any of them as well, or if they were just tagging along.

• 2023 DE Sam Coufal (Wales) out of Kettle Moraine High School took a visit to Madison as well. He doesn’t have an offer from the in-state Badgers yet, but he is receiving interest from Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana and some Ivies according to his Rivals profile.

• 2023 RB Joseph Jean (Grovetown, Ga.) was at the game as well. The 6-foot-1 and 200 pound tailback doesn’t have any offers yet, but clearly the Badgers are at least a little bit interested in the Georgia prospect.

Things you do not like to see

• I don’t know what is going on here, although the message boards are alight with “insider reports” and the like. While Tom Loy, the 247 Notre Dame writer, saying 4-star IOL Billy Schrauth (Fond du Lac) is going to Notre Dame isn’t anything noteworthy, 247 Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong saying the same thing is concerning for UW.