Wisconsin football recruiting: 2022 class rankings after the Early Signing Period

The early signing portion of college football recruiting ends on Friday so now is as good a time as any to take a look at where the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2022 class ranks on the various recruiting sites. Coming off of three of the best classes in program history, expectations were high (probably too high) for this year’s class. With a record six 4-star prospects hailing from Wisconsin, the hype was off the charts.

Well, one of those players reclassified to 2021 (and became a freshman All-American RB for the Badgers, so that counts as a big win!), two of them (OT Joe Brunner, DE Isaac Hamm) have signed with Wisconsin, two of them (IOL Billy Schrauth, TE Jerry Cross) have signed elsewhere and one, IOL Carson Hinzman, is waiting until February to sign.

Not bad, but not great if we’re being honest. A lot of the way this class will be remembered hinges on what Hinzman decides: Wisconsin or Ohio State.

Anyways, let’s take a look at where the major recruiting services have Wisconsin’s group ranked currently.

• 247 Sports: No. 39
• 247 Sports Composite: No. 44
• Rivals: No. 46
• ESPN: No. 39
• On3: No. 31

Now, I’ll be honest with you...I don’t know how the 247 Sports Composite is calculated but it seems like Wisconsin should be a couple spots higher there, right?

Here is where the Badgers are ranked in the Big Ten by the same sites and their average recruit ranking spot too:

• 247 Sports: No. 9/No. 6
• 247 Sports Composite: No. 11/No. 6
• Rivals: No. 12/No. 7
• ESPN: No. 9
• On3: No. 7/No. 7

Wisconsin is punished in these rankings for not having a larger class, and that’s fine because their average recruit ranking is higher. Now, would I like both of these numbers to be better? Yes, yes I would, but there is something to be said for quality over quantity. These rankings also will be going up if Hinzman picks UW or if the Badgers find any late-bloomers that they really want to offer ahead of the February signing date.

As far as specific player rankings go, Joe Brunner was the top rated offensive, and overall, recruit in the class, while some combination of Isaac Hamm, Curt Neal and Austin Brown were the top rated defensive recruit.

I’d also imagine UW will look to the transfer portal for some reinforcements but they certainly aren’t an overly active participant there. We’ll update this post once all the classes are finalized, but here, for entertainment’s sake, is the 247 Composite top-ten in the whole country:

1. Texas A&M
2. Alabama
3. Georgia
4. Ohio State
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. North Carolina
9. Michigan
10. Oklahoma

The highest rated Big Ten West team was Iowa, who clocked in at No. 26 just ahead of Rutgers (No. 27) and Maryland (No. 28) to avoid divisional embarrassment of having all seven East teams ranking ahead of all seven West teams.