Wisconsin football recruiting: news and notes from the past week

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!

Badgers miss out on top-of-the-board defensive lineman

• Back at the end of December, 2023 3-star DL Tyler Gant (St. Louis) announced a top-five schools list that included Wisconsin. A school that it notably didn’t include...the Northwestern Wildcats. Back on May 4, Gant announced that he’d be committing on June 29, but his new list of teams he was considering did include Northwestern. Well, he didn’t wait anywhere close to that long and committed to the ‘Cats on May 15. The Badgers were considered a serious contender for Gant and it is a bummer to lose him to a fellow Big Ten West rival. Wisconsin still has 10 offers out to other defensive linemen, so they should still be able to find someone in the ‘23 class, but Gant was definitely a guy they wanted.

Badgers miss out on top-four for top tight end

• While we just saw how a players final list of schools can change, it still isn’t ideal to miss out on cut down lists for prospects you are recruiting hard. 2023 3-star LB Phil Picciotti (Perkasie, Pa.) did not include the Badgers on his final four list. Auburn, Michigan, Nebraska and Oklahoma are the schools he said he’d be focusing on with the Sooners projected as the favorites.

Some good news!

• The Badgers DID make one cutdown list recently. 2023 3-star RB Dylan Edwards (Derby, Kan.) announced his top-ten list which included Wisconsin. Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Mizzou, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon and Jackson State are also the schools he’s considering. He will be making five official visits in June and then plans to “commit shortly after that.” Wisconsin just secured a commitment from a 2023 RB and seem to be in pretty good position with in-state ‘23 RB Nate White (Milwaukee) so it’s kinda murky if Edwards and the Badgers are still on the same page.

We’ll have a post up later this week about the new offers that the Badgers have extended over the past few days.