Wisconsin football recruiting: UW lands 2023 3-star ATH Justin Taylor

Sometimes you just know what the next move in your life is going to be without having to think about it too much. For 3-star ATH Justin Taylor (Broadview, Ill.) becoming the next member of the Wisconsin Badgers 2023 recruiting class was apparently the move to make. Taylor received an offer from the Badgers and Jim Leonhard on Wednesday and then drove up to Madison on Friday to deliver UW the good news about his commitment in person.

A product of Nazareth (La Grange Park, Ill.) Academy, Taylor projects to be a defensive back for the Badgers (Allen Trieu of 247 Sports says that he’ll be a safety, but the Badgers have been known to make changes once players get to campus). Up until Wisconsin offered, Kansas State appeared to be the front runner for Taylor’s services. Taylor also had offers from Air Force, Army, Colorado State, Navy and most of the MAC.

Standing right around 6-foot-0 and weighing about 185 pounds, Taylor plays wide receiver and cornerback in high school. He is rated as the No. 144 ATH in the country and the No. 38 player in Illinois by 247 Sports and the No. 25 player in Illinois by Rivals.

If you can’t watch the Hudl tape above, he rushed 33 times for 226 yards and caught 47 passes for over 800 yards and 13 touchdowns last season. On defense, he had 15 tackles and five passes broken up while only being targeted six times on the year.

Taylor is the third commitment for the Badgers in the 2023 class and the second from the state of Illinois. He joins 3-star LB Tyler Jansey (Batavia, Ill.) and OL James Durand (Chandler, Ariz.) and with June coming up, this could be the start of a very nice run for the Badgers on the trail.