Hey, recruiting fans. I've got some good news for you. We're actually going to get on some of that weekly grind over the next couple of weeks. That means news. That means we'll see just how rapidly the visits schedule changes over the next few weeks.
And we'll start with news on one of our late offers.
ATH Cornelius Sturghill
5'10, 170 lbs.
Memphis, Tenn.
Sturghill will make his decision Friday. The Memphis product is currently scheduled to be one of the official visitors on Jan. 31, so I get what you could be saying: this might not bode well. UCLA and Vanderbilt are coming after him hard, and Wisconsin apparently isn't closing well. The sky is falling and we have no cornerbacks!
First of all, the staff is trying to get some good prospects to come in. You need to relax.
Second of all, just because the official visit hasn't been locked down doesn't mean the Badgers are explicitly out. The DeMatha Catholic dynamic duo of Taiwan Deal and Chris Jones both committed to Wisconsin without making the official visit. Maybe it won't work out with Sturghill, but we're not out of it.
CB Chris Lammons
5'10, 170 lbs.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Just when I was ready to give up on Lammons, he officially decommits. Sure, the Gamecocks have the lead on him. But he's a man who's treating this like a business decision. And South Carolina did just earn a commitment from D.J. Smith to join Al Harris, Jr. at cornerback. The Gamecocks are also in the race for another four-star cornerback in Wesley Green, and either way, they're going to be awfully deep at cornerback next season.
Altogether, it doesn't mean the Badgers are going to get Lammons. But the good news is there's a viable path as to how Lammons would join his former high school teammate in Sojourn Shelton and round out the class on the National Signing Day.
CB Deiondre Porter
6-1, 180 lbs.
Tampa, Fla.
The Tampa cornerback has officially decomitted from South Florida. But the thing of it is, he's visiting Florida this weekend. The conventional wisdom is that he's a heavy lean toward the Gators. But if Porter gets out of Gainesville without a commitment (and remember this is the position that made Lammons feel like he had to reopen his recruitment) we can see the Badgers having a real chance at landing Porter.
CB Derrick Tindal
5-11, 160 lbs.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Rounding out Cornerbacks Corner is the Fort Lauderdale native and recent Indiana commit. He's a tailor-made Gary Andersen cornerback; he's small and quick and willing to attack the run. Also, he's from Florida. The good news? Tindal's a downy soft commit for the Hoosiers. He could well be flipped.
And before Thursday, the Badgers were on the outside looking in. Tindal had visits scheduled to Syracuse, South Carolina and N.C. State. But there was also good news on the recruiting front with Tindal. See, Syracuse is out...
Per the @SunSentinel, IU commit Derrick Tindal is taking an official visit to Wisconsin this weekend: http://t.co/iKD1wcPEwX #iufb
— Alex McCarthy (@akmccarthy) January 16, 2014
And Wisconsin is in. He may need to take all his visits, but there's definite good news and momentum on this front.
DT Craig Evans
6'3, 305 lbs.
Sun Prairie, Wis.
Tennessee, not wanting to stop at 51 commitments, has offered the Wisconsin commit, Evans is planning to visit Knoxville, but if Michigan State couldn't sway him and if the familiarity of the Arkansas staff couldn't either, the only way I see the Badgers losing out on Evans is because they get tired of his wandering eye.
DE Lamone Williams
6'3, 240 lbs.
Kahuku, Hawaii
With the decommit of Rohan Blackwood, could Williams be the replacement? He would be a bit of a tweener, but the Hawaiian isn't inexperienced at playing standing up. He does seem to have the athleticism and motor commensurate with a player who could easily surpass that two-star grade, though.
The Badgers have to beat out Colorado and Oregon State for his services, but if they're successful, there could be rewards down the road.
WR Melvin Holland Jr.
6'3, 200 lbs.
Ashburn, Va.
He has been officially offered by the Badgers. There's no official visit scheduled at present, but 247 Sports is reporting that the plan for Holland would be to visit next week. They have to make up some ground, but Holland's 6'3 and runs a 40-yard dash at a sub-4.5 level. On upside alone, he's worth giving a look to see if we can't take one off Minnesota's board.
ATH/S Jerome Baker
6'1, 205 lbs.
Cleveland, Ohio
Baker was recently offered a scholarship by the Badgers. He's the fourth-ranked athlete and 51st-ranked prospect overall in the 2015 class. He's also from Cleveland and he has an offer from that Ohio State University.
So why are we discussing the matter? Because Ohio State's recruiting him on the defensive side of the ball. 247 Sports reports that Baker was excited for the Badgers offer based on their reputation running the ball. Again, the existence of a path for him to sign is no indicator of a person's chances. But it does mean he's worth watching.
Visitor updates:
Only one visit has changed: D'Cota Dixon has moved up his visit to this weekend from Jan. 24. He'll join T.J. Edwards, Kaleb McGary and George Rushing.
But we are with a new visit. He's an old target, but he's definitely one of the old targets that was very intriguing.
TE Kano Dillon
6'5, 225 lbs.
Ocala, Fla.
Dillon is a high-school teammate of noted speedster Natrell Jamerson. And in case you've let any memories of Dillon fade into the ether, let me refresh your memory: Dillon has a 40-time that's listed at 4.5 and very easily falls into the low 4.6 range. As a move tight end, he's got all sorts of future intrigue for the offense.
The Badgers kind of faded into the ether once rumors of a Florida visit surfaced, but Dillon ended up committing to South Florida. As of now, the Badgers have to fight off South Florida and Kentucky for his services. But if the Badgers get there, Dillon's going to be a very interesting target for WHOMEVER THE QUARTERBACK IS.
Again, this is a situation where the Badgers took a lot of chances and went after some players that the odds were long of them managing to pull. The optics have this class as one that's definitely lost some momentum. But they're not out on making this a top-25 class when all is said and done.