Wisconsin missed out on a marquee four-star outside linebacker on Monday.
The Wisconsin Badgers were dealt some unfortunate news on Monday, as 2026 four-star outside linebacker McHale Blade committed to the Michigan Wolverines.
Blade, a native of Chicago, Illinois, was on campus for Wisconsin’s first weekend of official visits and was a clear priority target at outside linebacker for coach Matt Mitchell.
Wisconsin looked to make some noise for the top-200 recruit, but faced steep competition to land Blade, with the Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish both expected to get official visits afterwards.
Michigan got an official for Blade this weekend, and it was enough to seal the deal for the four-star, as he committed to the Wolverines on Monday. Wisconsin always had some ground to make up behind Michigan and Notre Dame, and that proved to be true with Blade’s commitment.
He should play on the edge at Michigan, where the Wolverines have developed quite a few NFL talents over the past few seasons.
Now, Wisconsin is focused on some of its other targets in a room that is suddenly looking dry. Four-star Jackson Samuels-Ford is still on the board, but has Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan after him. The Badgers also lost three-star Carmelow Reed, who flipped to Ole Miss last week.
The Badgers were looking for two to three targets at outside linebacker in the 2026 class. We’ll see what they can do going into the third weekend of official visits.