Head coach Bret Bielema announced his fifth recruiting class yesterday on signing day, a group that includes 24 scholarship players from eight states, in addition to seven walk-ons.
Typically Wisconsin does not earn high grades from scouting websites such as ESPN.com or Rivals.com, and this year's group is no exception. No player on ESPN.com is included in the website's top 150 recruits. Rivals.com ranks the Badgers' 2010 recruting class No. 86 nationally as of Wednesday evening and No. 10 in the Big Ten, ahead of Indiana and one spot behind Northwestern.
Bielema said he does not read too much into the recruiting rankings, knowing that assessing every player in the nation is a difficult task and predicting the players' futures in the NCAA is basically impossible.
""Somebody brought it up in the office, and it was printed out for me, and I was shown two different rankings, and one was 30 and one was 83,"" Bielema said. ""And I think that was the greatest way to explain how much validity there is to the ranking system. If you think about it, if you take a USA Today poll or the BCS rankings and one team is ranked 30 and one is 83 you'd realize there is something wrong.""
Bielema also compared recruiting rankings to preseason college football polls: It does not really matter where a team begins a season, only how it finishes.
The 2010 class includes 10 offensive players and 13 defensive players (and one player unsure of which side of the ball he'll play on).
According to ESPN.com's player ratings, safety Frank Tamakloe enters the upcoming season as the highest-rated incoming freshman. Tamakloe is rated as the No. 25 safety in the country by ESPN.com.
""[He's] extremely gifted academically and athletically,"" Bielema said of Tamakloe. ""He brings a little bit of anger when he plays the game.""
Tamakloe is part of a recruiting group from an area normally untapped by Wisconsin, the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic. In addition to Tamakloe, who is from Washington, D.C., the Badgers scooped up offensive lineman Rob Havenstein from Mount Airy, Md., tight end Sherard Cadogan from Washington Township, N.J., and quarterback Joe Brennan from Audubon, N.J.
Bielema credits offensive coordinator Paul Chryst for reeling in Wisconsin's only quarterback of this year's class and is excited about Brennan's potential.
""[He has a] very strong arm,"" Bielema said. ""He's got good size, throws the ball very, very well and is a good competitor.""
As usual, Wisconsin signed the most prospects from its home state, with eight of the 24 scholarship athletes coming from the Badger state. Bielema credits previous head coach Barry Alvarez and the prior success of the program for developing UW into an attractive option for in-state recruits.
""Fortunately for my players, they grew up hearing about Wisconsin being good,"" Bielema said. ""Now these kids want to be a part of it.""
One of these in-state players is Marquis Mason, a 6'3"" wide receiver from Madison who has shown great athletic ability during the recruiting process.
""We see a tremendous amount of ability,"" Bielema said. ""To have a guy that close with that much ability, that's why I made an early statement [to him].""
Another relatively highly rated prospect from Wisconsin is running back Jeffrey Lewis from Brookfield. Lewis is the No. 1 rated running back in the state, according to ESPN/Scouts Inc.
Another recruiting trend developed by Wisconsin recently is its propensity to sign players from Florida. The Badgers stayed in that direction this year, grabbing five players from the sunshine state.
Headlining the pool from Florida are running back James White and safety Jameson Wright. White is rated the No. 42 running back in the country by ESPN/Scouts Inc., and Wright is rated No. 66 at his position by ESPN/Scouts Inc.
UW pulled only one player from Minnesota this year, but he may be the most valuable signee of the class. Beau Allen, a Minnetonka native, enters next season rated as the No. 20 defensive tackle in the country by MaxPreps and the top-ranked defensive tackle in the state.
""He's a big body who can hopefully play for us early on,"" Bielema said.
Another surprise in this year's recruiting class is the absence of a player from Texas, a state Wisconsin has invested into in the past.
""That area of the country will definitely be addressed [in the future],"" Bielema said.
Defensive end Warren Herring is the only early enrollee of this year's class. All other recruits will begin preparing for the 2010 season this summer.
""I really felt that the way that we recruited these young men, we found some kids who really fit the profile of what we need to have here at Wisconsin,"" Bielema said.
