Spring Game, In-state Recruiting and Pizza Delivery
Welcome to This Week in Badgers. Shooting this out on Sunday night before I read other people's Spring takes that make me question mine. Let’s get into it.
Four Things I’m Thinking About
Luke Fickell Once Got a Pizza Guy Fired for Criticizing the Tackling
I had never seen this story before, found it amusing and had to share. He was a young coach at the time and probably learned a good lesson. It reminded me of a former Badger coach. We’ll get to that. But first.
They had a Spring Game!
Fickell called it a practice, or a scrimmage, or something other than a game, but even with some scoring that no one understood there was a red team, a white team and a scoreboard. I’ll take it.
Takeaways:
Assuming/hoping Renfro is healthy enough to be the starting center, they need to figure out the backup situation. None of them can snap the ball, it threw off the timing throughout the game and was somewhat uncomfortable to watch.
I’ve seen enough Zach Gloudeman and Grover Bortolini for a while. We’ll check back in next spring.
In person it was extremely hard to follow what the defense was doing. The offensive pace was so fast, there was no replays, stats or PA announcer. Unless they made an INT, I have zero takes. They looked good, I think.
The clock stopping for the 3rd string offense wasn’t explained in the stadium, lots of confusion. Also I feel like I came out of this with more takes on Alex Moeller and Angel Toombs than I expected to.
In general I don't know what to do with Spring Practice. I religiously read practice reports, listen to podcasts and think about the team during spring, but with 15 practices everyone is bound to make plays eventually. We’re so far away from actual games you can’t really take away anything from these things. Sure, it’s great that Ricardo Hallman had a great practice this weekend, but you’re not really changing your opinion of him until he does it in September and October. Tommy McIntosh looked better than Will Pauling, does it mean anything? Of course not.
Outside of everyone looking amazing, if I had to pick one outcome I’d prefer it would be the defense looking great and the offense showing it has work to do. I feel like some fans have spent a couple months watching Drake Maye/North Carolina highlights, looking at the QB and WR depth chart and just assuming the Badgers will look like an offensive powerhouse next year. Maybe they will! But I think Saturday showed there might be some growing pains while guys figure it out.
I was listening to the Badger Extra Podcast (or maybe it was the Buck Around, who can say) a couple weeks ago and Colten mentioned he thought it would still be a run-heavy attack and you can see why after Saturday. It’s April, they have a lot of time until real games and no point panicking now, and honestly if a new offense with 5 weeks together tore up a defense returning a bunch of guys I’d probably have more concerns with the team than what we saw on Saturday.
I’m just happy to have it back. I’ve missed Spring Games. Lee Evans tearing his ACL in 2002 ended Barry Alvarez’s desire to hold them, which was pushed on to Bielema and Andersen, and we all know how Paul Chryst felt, so it was great to see Fickell pull off a spring game practice and everyone survived.
This isn’t a retrospective dumping on Chryst because it was a complaint everyone had at the time (and to be fair COVID played a part of it recently) but MAN it felt nice that UW used the opportunity to make it easy to be a fan of the team. I took our 4 year old and the only costs were $5 for parking and $3 for a pretzel. We met other friends with kids, watched them run around in the McClain Center for a bit (special shout-out to the cheerleaders and other college kids working this, they were great) and hung out at the stadium through the snow storm for a while. It was great. This stuff isn’t for everyone but small things that you can do for fans are needed and energizes both the current fanbase and the next generation.
You don’t even have to look far from Madison to see how this can work, the Packers have been doing it for decades. They’ve had open training camp practices with players riding the kid’s bikes, year-round stadium tours, “stock holder” meetings, the Packer HOF and tons of other little opportunities to feel like you’re invested in the team. They’re an institution. Not saying the Badgers will ever reach that level, but I do hope even after the initial buzz of the Fickell hire wears off UW still looks to create more of these opportunities for fans. It’s been a major issue the program has had for a while.
Fickell Reminds me of Bielema, in a way
Just listening to him talk I get a lot of Bielema vibes. They’re both former Big Ten players, have a defense-first background and meathead former player turned coach characteristics (Did you see Fickell wore shorts on Saturday, omg). Just in the last couple weeks Fickell complained that guys weren’t playing through injuries that gave everyone “toughen up pills” flasbacks and talked about how Wisconsin wasn’t just a pit stop for NFL guys. He goes to wrestling matches and talks about recruiting locally. In a different timeline he’d be good drinking buddies with Bret.
Obviously that doesn’t mean they’ll be the same coach, he’s come to Wisconsin older and more mature than Bielema was and there are plenty of other differences in their situations and styles, but every time I hear him talk I think of our friend Bret.
In-state Recruiting
Last week the top rated recruit in the state, Donovan Harbour committed to Penn State. His HS teammate Corey Smith is rumored to soon join him. I thought it was sort of humorous that the staff, which has faced zero negative headlines since taking over in November, felt the need to let it be known they didn’t actually want either of them.
It seemed like the first time they’ve let their guard down and decided they needed to justify what they’re doing. I have no reason to believe they did anything wrong or are lying about the situation, just amused it wasn’t something they were willing to let go by without trying to spin it. A recruit an hour away from campus that is by all accounts one of the better HS OL in the country, is going to play for a rival. It’s a recruiting thing that is going to push through the level of message boards and have more people talking about it.
Of course recruits come and go and signing day is forever away, but the reason it was even on people’s radar goes back to 1990 and Barry Alvarez — don’t all things Wisconsin? Of course I’m referring to his famed “recruiting wall” talking point where the best HS players from Wisconsin go to college at Wisconsin. I’ve been thinking about this wall a lot recently.
When Alvarez took over the program, the 1990 in-state class was quite loaded and none were committed to Wisconsin. His recruiting board saw Jim Flanigan (Notre Dame), Greg McThomas (Michigan), Mike Thompson (Iowa State), Jeff Messenger (Michigan State), Mike Verstegen (Central Michigan) plus Brent Moss and JC Dawkins, both uncommitted but thought to be Michigan State leans, sitting there.
That is a lot of talent that wasn’t going to Wisconsin! While Alvarez wasn’t able to flip Flanigan or McThomas, he was able to secure the rest of the group, which of course became the backbone of the Rose Bowl championship team that changed the course of Badger football forever.
It worked on two levels for Alvarez - fan enthusiasm in the state was at an all-time low and he needed players. Publicly focusing on the state high schools helped with the first part and grabbing players from a loaded Wisconsin HS football class helped with the second part.
There’s always been a little bit of a balance between saying the right things about the state and actually recruiting it. Gary Andersen couldn’t be bothered to talk to a HS coach but pulled in 13 instate recruits his two years here, getting everyone he wanted. People still hated him for it. You need to do the PR part. So yes, a lot (most?) of the recruiting wall talk is just fan service, but it also has practical applications.
The biggest advantage the home state loyalty gives the Badgers is a handful of recruits every year they can get to commit early without having to put in a ton of effort on the recruiting trail. This year’s recruiting class is a good example - Booker, Jensen and Gauthier all committed within the first few months of Fickell’s tenure and while I’m sure the staff put effort in making this happen, they weren’t being strung along until December while the guys took their allotted 5 visits and kept Wisconsin guessing. Most Badger classes have a few guys like this and it’s a great way to start the recruiting year.
But what about the guys a step above them? The guys who can pretty much name where they play? That’s often different.
I’ve broken down the in-state HS talent with a 247 rating .91 and above. I’m listing these guys because at that level they have options beyond the state that others might not. Sometimes these guys are as easy to recruit as the lower rated guys (it certainly helps if their last name is Toon or Nelson), but a lot of them are going to require more work and serious competition for their services a lower ranked guy might not see.
2003: Justin Ostrowski, Joe Thomas
2004: Rhyan Anderson (Miami), Nick Hayden
2005: Travis Beckum, Raymond Henderson (Tennessee)
2006: Jake Bschere, Lance Kendricks
2007:Josh Oglesby, John Clay, Nick Toon
2008: Tyler Westphal
2009: Jordan Kohout
2010: None
2011: None
2012: Vince Biegel, Vonte Jackson
2013: None
2014: Jaden Gault, Craig Evans (Michigan State, obvious caveats there)
2015: None
2016: Ben Brederson (Michigan), Cole Van Lanen
2017: None (technically Kayden Lyles here but I’m not counting him here)
2018: None
2019: None
2020: Trey Wedig, Jack Nelson
2021: Braelon Allen, JP Benzschawel, Hunter Wohler
2022:Joe Brunner, Billy Scharuth (Notre Dame), Carson Hinzman (Ohio State)
2023:None
2024: Donovan Harbour (Penn State), Nathan Roy, Corey Smith (Probably Penn St)
Whew.
Few things jump out to me:
A lot of years there wasn’t any top end talent. It’s easier to build the wall when Wisconsin is a player’s best offer.
Most of the top rated guys are OL, especially in the past decade. There’s probably a discussion to be had about ratings services having a soft spot for Wisconsin OL, we’ll do that another day.
It’s been memory-holed that Alvarez let some top guys leave the state. Rhyan Anderson and Raymond Henderson were a couple guys they never got far with. You can speculate academics, personality or just not being a fit, not unlike the Catholic Memorial guys in the 2024 class.
There just weren’t a lot of big recruiting battles, they either wanted to be a Badger or they didn’t. Travis Beckum and Joe Thomas jump out as a couple they really had to work for, but a lot of them were early commits that were life-long Badger fans or had some connection to the school.
I wanted to do the above exercise because I think there are two big distinctions to keep in mind when it comes to instate recruiting. In my humble opinion, the “wall” is getting the 3-star depth to commit early and build classes around, the elite guys are more rare and not uncommon to lose. If a guy is good enough to play anywhere, the Badgers are hoping he has some connection to the school, whether it’s growing up a fan or a family history, otherwise they’re on even footing against the Ohio State and Penn States of the world.
There just aren’t a lot of the top-end guys, and we’re in a bit of a hot stretch that has people thinking about in-state recruiting more and even questioning the famed wall. There have been more elite recruits since 2020 then there were from 2007 to 2019. When you have more of them, the batting average is going to go down and that’s ok.
(Also this obviously doesn’t mean every 3-star recruit has been a slam dunk to Wisconsin. Bielema lost a couple guys to Michigan State and they’ve had to work for many others, I’m just arguing that in general they get about 95% of those guys. )
Going back to Alvarez and the 1990 class, when he made it a big deal to recruit the state and didn’t even get the top guys. He was getting the group right below them, and they won him a Rose Bowl. He then kept getting those guys in subsequent classes and won a ton of games. Then Bielema followed the same path, then Andersen, Chryst and so on.
So whether it’s Chryst losing 3 guys in the 2022 class, Fickell watching the top couple guys go elsewhere or Alvarez missing out on some top guys, that isn’t really the point of the “recruiting wall,” rather it’s having the program strength to build classes and teams around the next tier of guys. If they start losing guys to Iowa or Illinois or have to wait until signing day to get the 3 star OL, let’s talk, but until then I think it’s fine.
Thanks for reading. I don’t really know what I’m doing with the Newsletter at this point. For now will just be a place I’ll dump some thoughts if I feel I have something no one else is covering. As always feel free to respond to me here or on Twitter.