Wisconsin football recruiting: four new offers come out of spring practice visits

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!

New offers

• 2023 3-star IOL James Durand (Chandler, Ariz.) out of Basha High School received an offer from Wisconsin on Saturday. Durand has offers from Arizona, BYU, Cal, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa State, San Diego State, Utah and a handful of other schools as well.

Standing around 6-foot-4 and weighing in the vicinity of 280 pounds, Durand is rated as the No. 640 prospect and No. 47 IOL in the country by the 247 Composite. He is also listed as the No. 12 player in Arizona. Here are Durand’s Hudl highlights, where he mostly plays tackle, but he shows an ability to pull and get to the second level of the defense to continue clearing holes for his tailback. He is physical at the point of attack and certainly looks like a guy that Wisconsin could mold into an all-Big Ten talent.

• 2024 4-star DE Eddie Tuerk (La Grange, Ill.) out of Lyons Township High School earned an offer from the Badgers on Saturday as well. Tuerk has a bunch of offers already, including from Cincinnati, Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Minnesota, Ole Miss, Tennessee and others. The Hawkeyes are considered the early favorite, as he has already taken four visits to Iowa City, but there is obviously a lot of time left in his recruitment.

Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing somewhere near 250 pounds, Tuerk is rated as the No. 200 player and No. 20 DL in the nation by the On3 Consensus and the No. 5 player in the state of Illinois. Here is Tuerk’s Hudl tape. He shows a nice burst off the line of scrimmage and can knife into the backfield to record tackles for loss. He seems like a guy who is going to be a highly sought after recruit and it’s good that the Badgers got in here relatively early and have already had him on campus.

• 2024 4-star RB Corey Smith (Waukesha) out of Catholic Memorial High School earned an offer from the Badgers over the weekend. Smith already has six other offers, with Central Michigan, Iowa State, Kansas, Nebraska, Purdue and Syracuse pulling the trigger before Wisconsin.

Standing at an even 6-foot and weighing around 175 pounds, Smith is listed as the No. 116 player and No. 9 RB in the country by the On3 Consensus. He is also rated as the top player in Wisconsin for the ‘24 class. Rivals also has him as a 4-star while 247 Sports doesn’t have him rated yet, but one can safely assume it’ll be a decent one based on the other two recruiting services.

In 12 games as a sophomore, Smith ran for 1,130 yards on 96 carries (11.8 ypc) and scored 18 touchdowns. He also caught five passes for 129 yards and two additional scores. Here is a highlight tape from the first half of his season and, buddy, let me tell you what. This dude is electric with the ball in his hands. He is patient while setting up his blocks and once he finds a crease, he’s gone. This is the kind of player that the Badgers NEEDS to keep home. The 2024 class is shaping up to another big one in Wisconsin.

• Speaking of in-state players that Wisconsin needs to keep home, 2024 4-star OT Donovan Harbour (Waukesha) out of Catholic Memorial also received an offer from the Badgers this weekend. Harbour has other offers from Central Michigan, Iowa State, Kansas, Nebraska and Syracuse, but he has already visited Wisconsin twice and national recruiting analyst Clint Cosgrove of Rivals has already put in a prediction for the Badgers now that they have officially offered.

Harbour, who paves the way for Smith, stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs a bit over 300 pounds already. On3’s standalone rankings have him as the No. 57 player and No. 1 IOL in the country while also being the No. 1 player in-state. It’ll be interesting to hear where Wisconsin projects him as Rivals and 247 both have him as an OT while On3 sees him sliding inside at the next level.

Here is Harbour’s highlight tape. He has quick feet, is athletic and is a mauler when he gets his hands on a defender. It is quite pleasing to watch him toss and knock over defenders while his running backs run for chunks of yards. It would be great if Wisconsin could get Harbour and Smith to team up and stay home as they both look like difference makers at the next level.

Other Saturday visitors

• 2023 3-star OT Joe Crocker (Nashville, Tenn.) was on campus this weekend. Wisconsin has offered.
• 2024 OT Derek Jensen (Hartland) was back in Madison over the weekend. 247 lists him as having an offer from Wisconsin, but I can’t find that mentioned anywhere else.
• 2024 ATH Drew Wagner (Wales) visited the Badgers over the weekend.
• 2024 ATH Colton Brunell (Columbus) was also on campus on Saturday.