Head coach Gary Andersen’s first season at Wisconsin was pretty solid -- the Badgers went 9-4 with a loss to South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl. The same adjective could apply to their 2014 recruiting class, which ranks No. 31 in the nation on the 247Sports Composite, and fourth in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin football recruiting: Big. Really big.
They’re also locking things down in-state. Find out more.
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They trail the usual suspects -- Ohio State and Michigan are at the top, and third place belongs to Penn State, although the Badgers could still pass the Nittany Lions depending on how well James Franklin recruits at his new school with less than a month to go until National Signing Day.
Since the calendar flipped to 2014, the Badgers have added just one new commitment, but it was a big one.
How big?
Try 6’3, 305.
Craig Evans -- an instate product from Sun Prairie, Wis. -- made it official on Jan. 3, and Andersen is all too happy to have the four-star defensive tackle in tow. Evans is a top-20 prospect at his position this year, and the second-ranked player in the state of Wisconsin.
As for the first? Well, the Badgers have a commitment from him, too.
Madison (Wis.) Monona Grove tackle Jaden Gault committed to Wisconsin all the way back in 2012, and two years later, he remains its top-rated recruit -- the 6’7, 305-pounder is a four-star player on the 247Sports Composite, and the 15th-ranked tackle in the 2014 class.
Gault and Evans are the result of some fantastic in-state recruiting this year, as Andersen has secured 2014 commitments from the top five players in Wisconsin, and six of the top 10.
The duo also indicate another interesting trend -- they are two of 11 total offensive and defensive line commitments. They say that the game is often won -- or lost -- in the trenches, and it appears that Andersen takes that saying quite seriously, with almost half his class dedicated to that area.
Other highlights in Wisconsin’s class include athlete Dareian Watkins, dual-threat quarterback D.J. Gillins and running back Taiwan Deal. Watkins and Gillins are both four-star recruits on the 247Sports Composite, and though Deal trails them as a three-star, he will look to join a long line of productive Wisconsin running backs upon his arrival in Madison.
