Wisconsin football recruiting: an interesting Air Force decommitment for UW

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!

An interesting decommitment

• Back on Oct. 19, the Badgers offered 2022 3-star LB Aidan Vaughan (Walled Lake, Mich.) even though he was committed to Air Force at the time. Since Wisconsin offered, Iowa, Florida State, Illinois and Minnesota have all joined the party and it seems like Vaughan wants to take another look at things now that he has a plethora of Power 5 offers to consider. According to Allen Trieu at 247 Sports, “Vaughan plans to use his official visits after his season completes.”

• 2022 3-star CB Caleb Coley (Warner Robins, Ga.) decommitted from Vanderbilt on Monday but, while he took an official visit to Madison before he chose Vandy, it doesn’t look like the Badgers were the reason for his change of heart. Four writers on 247, including the Vandy one, put in Crystal Balls for Michigan State in the past 24 hours. Wisconsin already has two CBs in their 2022 class and also just received a transfer commitment from a former MSU corner, so this is probably all for the best for everyone.

Iowa game visitors

• 2022 3-star LB Jackson Adams (Littleton, Colo.) took in the Wisconsin victory over Iowa on Saturday. Adams doesn’t have an offer from the Badgers yet, in fact he only has an offer from Northern Colorado currently, but there must be some mutual interest since he isn’t exactly a local kid taking an unofficial trip to Madison.

• 2023 DL Leighton Jones (Brownsburg, Ind.) was also on hand for the game on Saturday. According to Evan Flood at 247 Sports, Jones had fun at Camp Randall saying ($) “it was just a great time.” Only Eastern Kentucky has offered Jones so far, but he is receiving interest from programs like Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa, Purdue and others.

• 2023 OT Thomas Paasch (Green Bay) out of Green Bay Southwest made the trip south to watch the Badgers take on the Hawkeyes as well. Stading at 6-foot-6 and weighing just under 300 pounds, Paasch already possesses the frame that Wisconsin likes in their offensive linemen. He doesn’t have any offers yet, but is receiving interest from Nebraska, North Dakota and North Dakota State.

New preferred walk-on commit

• 2022 IOL John Clifford (Watertown) out of Watertown High School announced on Tuesday morning that he’d be a PWO at Wisconsin next season. Clifford stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs 260 pounds and seems like just the kind of guy who will end up being a valuable rotational piece on the offensive line in three or four years.