Favre Visiting Wisconsin In January

[MickeyDavis]

That would be Dylan Favre, Brett's nephew. He's making a recruiting trip to Madison in January. He was Mississippi's "Mr. Football" and has a scholarship offer on the table from Southern Miss. Oklahoma St. is also interested.

[trwi7]

I'm glad I read the blog on jsonline before you posted this.

[LarryHarris]

Hey, he'd be the first high profile, out of state recruit the Badgers brought in in a long while...

[trwi7]

Wasn't Montee Ball pretty high profile?

[LarryHarris]

Wasn't Montee Ball pretty high profile?

What about if you take Running Backs out of the equation?

[trwi7]

Weren't Kyle Jefferson, Kraig Appleton and Aaron Henry high profile too?

[MikeIsGood]

Hey, he'd be the first high profile, out of state recruit the Badgers brought in in a long while...

This is false in a multitude of ways. There have been plenty of high-profile out of state recruits brought in, and Dylan Favre would not count as one anyways. It's late in the process and his only scholarship offer is from Southern Miss, who's going to their first bowl game in 25 years.

I would be highly surprised if he gets an offer from us. We really only needed one QB this cycle and we've had Brennan (who chose us over The U, Stanford, and Pitt) in the fold since July. There aren't many more spots left, regardless.

[Kerb Hohl]

Weren't Kyle Jefferson, Kraig Appleton and Aaron Henry high profile too?

Don't forget Curt Phillips, who was a top 10 QB in his class, I believe.

Also, Ogelsby was a pretty big pickup but now that I think of it that is a few years ago...

[Bernman]

Jefferson and Henry definitely were only high profile relative to the average Badger recruits, not in general. Their offer lists were solid, but unspectacular. They weren't huge names even locally either. And they didn't earn great esteem from major recruiting analysts.

Montee Ball and Curt Phillips weren't that high profile among college football coaches, nationally. I guess you could make the argument that they were high profile though because in their respective states were setting recrods and drew a 4-star rating from at least one of the major recruiting websites. IMO they weren't high profile though because they weren't recognized by any major programs as being schollie worthy and that's primarily what makes a victory for a recruit impressive.

The out of staters that UW have snared recently who were high profile almost undoubtedly were WR Kraig Appleton (09), DE/DT Pat Muldoon (09, going to be a beast), and Beau Allen (10). They had a plethora of attractive alternatives at their fingertips, attained names in state, and were fairly highly rated among analysts. I would also make a case for Jon Budmayr (09) and Joseph Brennan (10). They had offers from their in-state schools, and in addition Miami, Notre Dame, Nebraska, etc. Budmayr also was a top 100-200 prospect in the nation according to many of the peripheral recruiting websites. Robbie Havenstein (10) is another debatable guy as he had an extensive offer lists with some respected programs in there. Those were impressive recruiting victories of coveted prospects.

UW has attracted some high profile recruits in recent years, but it wouldn't be incorrect to make the assertion that it was a rather atypical occurrence. But this is an area where the program seems to be improving. Mining the northeast for a change would be a way to further improve their fortunes OOS.

[El Duderino]

Hey Bern, i know you follow recruiting a lot more closely than i do and i have a double question about Boreland. Was he recruited much by any high profile schools and were we the only ones to recuit him as a linebacker? If my memory is correct, wasn't he mainly a running back in high school and since he wasn't projected to be able to do that in college, that's why he slipped past the radar of more bigger schools?

Oh, with our great use of TE's, has the Badgers been able to score any highly rated tight ends or will they likely just keep converting other players on the team to TE?

[Bernman]

Borland wasn't offered by anybody outside the Badgers, and didn't draw any interest whatsoever hardly from OSU because he wasn't fast enough for them. He played both sides of the football at Kettering Alter, running back and LB, and was projected as either a linebacker or received the general "athlete" classification. He slipped through the cracks because of the aforementioned speed inadequacy, and his measureables made him a tweener. You don't see guys pack 235 on a 5'10" frame too frequently without being cumbersome, and he was somebody with a relatively low starting point in the athleticism department. But he oddly enough looks just as athletic after the transformation. He's truly been an anomaly and as a result had me fooled also. I could tell the kid had great instincts and determination but I just thought the height/weight combo with the lack of agility in addition would lead to him being mostly a special teamer and bench contributor. I'm glad I was wrong because he's been fabulous to watch. In defense of my reputation, I did call it on two other freshman All-Americans who I clamored for the Badgers to offer (DE Aldon Smith and WR Conner Vernon).

In response to your second question, the answer is no to both parts. They haven't been able to acquire any top TE's in spite of their success at the position and they compensated by going after more wide receivers it appears. I suppose one of them could be converted, because both they've landed in this class are tall (6'4 and 6'5); but they both look like wide receivers to me. Manasseh Garner from Pittsburgh is a great athlete and solid prospect who they are projecting to H-Back. I expect to see the standard sets in the future to include more 3 wide receivers (Toon, Appleton, Mason, etc.), h-backs (Garner, maybe Phillips), and the reintroduction of the fullback (Ewing, maybe Ontko who conjures up some comparisons to Borland).

[El Duderino]

Yea Borland is fun to watch and at least as a pass rusher, i think his height actually works as an advantage because sometimes when facing tall tackles, he can get so low that the tackles struggle to get their hands into Borland.

As for the tight end question i had, i'm surprised that with as much as our offense features the TE, it hasn't lead to high level tight end recruits to put Wisconsin high on their list. If i remember correctly, Montee Ball stated a big reason for choosing UW was the chance to play in a traditional pro style offense that features the run vs playing in a spread offense. I was thinking that tight end recruits would share similar thoughts.

Has the coaching staff had any better luck of late securing a higher level CB recruit or two because that's he really weak area on the roster to me. Granted, that seems to be a very in demand position nationally, tough for Badger coaches given the state of Wisconsin rarely ever turns out quality CB recruits, and not all quality corner were 4-5 star recruits out of high school. I just haven't seen much of our corners besides Smith that inspires much confidence for the future.

[Bernman]

The lack of a quality true cornerback is actually the biggest failure of the current recruiting class, IMO (second BTW is no plus pass blocking LT's). They acquired a tweener safety/cornerback super sleeper from Florida (like it's tough to get noticed there) named Jameson Wright and another tweener safety/cb from the same state named Peniel Jean. I can't refute the former's low ratings among other evaluators because there's no video available of which I'm aware, so I'm going to have to assume that was a major reach. Jean I think will make a positive contribution at Wisconsin because of his competitiveness and vicious hitting, but he's already pushing 190 so he may grow out of the position like Aaron Henry. He's got fluid hips and reacts quickly, so maybe he stays and helps out if he just stops eating. Beyond those two there's nobody substantial on the radar with just over a month to go. From the current roster I think Marcus Cromartie somewhat mitigates the units weakness in the future. I think he was still only 18-19 in spite of being a redshirt freshman. He has excellent tools but just needed to fill out.

Thankfully though, they did make good strides in overcoming the longstanding DT recruiting issue. That's in large part due to a good crop in state and w/ players with whom we had connections. Beau Allen was a 4-star from Minnesota but whose parents were Badger alumni. And Bryce Gilbert from Brookfield plays with good leverage, is quick, and strong. With those two, Muldoon, Kohout, and a couple of walk-ons, the position once in dire straits looks to be an asset in the future.

At this rate I think the Badger teams the next 4-5 seasons will look very similar to the one this year, going by recruiting. They project to have much of the same strengths and weaknesses. I think they're looking at 2-4 losses per season, depending on how many injuries we sustain. This year we were relatively fortunate in that area, but I think we get a slight boost at QB, DT, and LB for the future.

[El Duderino]

Thankfully though, they did make good strides in overcoming the longstanding DT recruiting issue. That's in large part due to a good crop in state and w/ players with whom we had connections. Beau Allen was a 4-star from Minnesota but whose parents were Badger alumni. And Bryce Gilbert from Brookfield plays with good leverage, is quick, and strong. With those two, Muldoon, Kohout, and a couple of walk-ons, the position once in dire straits looks to be an asset in the future.

That's good to hear. I used to follow football recruiting a lot more, but haven't as much the last year or two, instead followed basketball recruiting of both Marquette and UW who i like equally. Going into this season my biggest concern was the DL and front seven overall. I ended up being very pleased by the play of the line though overall and the DT's were solid especially holding up vs the run which i feared would be a real problem area. At DE, even though it stinks we lose Schofield (who would look good in a Packer uniform next to Matthews), JJ Watt was a fabulous get and i expect great things from next year. Hopefully between Nzegwu and Gilbert, one of the two can emerge strongly as the other starting DE. McFadden shouldn't be hard to replace. I do hope though that if Borland lands a starting LB job next year, he's allowed to continue as a rush end in third and long passing situations. I don't believe that his success rushing to passer was a fluke that worked mostly via surprise and next year teams/offensive tackles will better adjust to the 5' 10 bowling ball coming off the edge.

At this rate I think the Badger teams the next 4-5 seasons will look very similar to the one this year, going by recruiting. They project to have much of the same strengths and weaknesses. I think they're looking at 2-4 losses per season, depending on how many injuries we sustain. This year we were relatively fortunate in that area, but I think we get a slight boost at QB, DT, and LB for the future.

I know some Badger fans think UW should be able to be more of a national power than they are, including having a shot for a national title sometime. While i'd like to see that, i think a lot of fans just don't fully understand the disadvantage any Badger coach has when trying to recruit with the true national powers. Wisconsin high school football simply doesn't churn out near the amount of talent like the recruiting bases that other coaches have at their disposal, especially at the skill positions. It's much easier for a coach to have to keep a kid in state than having to convince a kid to cross state boarders unless that coach runs an elite program long on tradition and name recognition. That said, going into this season i had real concerns about where the football program was heading, but the very solid year and youth that showed much promise, i have high hopes for next season.

[ReasonablySober]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... ?eref=sihp

[Newz]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/12/29/dylan-favre/index.html?eref=sihp

We should draft him and make him sit behind Rodgers...

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAH!