Wisconsin lost their top recruiting ace this offseason to a rival Big Ten school.
One of the biggest departures for the Wisconsin Badgers this offseason was not a player, but rather a staffer: General Manager Max Stienecker.
Stienecker, a recruiting ace who was the leader of Wisconsin’s personnel department, was hired by the USC Trojans for an executive role in their personnel department. He joined USC general manager Chad Bowden, with whom he had worked when the duo were at Cincinnati.
Stienecker has immediately made his impact known on the West Coast, helping USC compile the No. 1 recruiting class in the country so far with a whopping 28 commits, of which 17 are four-stars.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin currently has the No. 41 recruiting class in the nation, according to 247Sports, with none of its commits being three-stars.
That leads us to this question from our weekly mailbag:
Jonritchie0: Once the dust settles this recruiting cycle, just how badly are we going to miss Max? I’m about to bracing for a return to the “hidden gem hunting” days of the past.
Great question. The short answer is that it’s too early to tell. Wisconsin does have a good personnel department, with other staffers stepping up. They also chose to operate more like an NFL department, with Marcus Sedberry as General Manager to handle contracts.
But, Stienecker’s energy was infectious and one of a kind. He’s irreplaceable on that front. There’s a reason he was the youngest Director of Player Personnel in Division-I history.
Now, from what I can tell, the 2026 recruiting class as a whole isn’t as strong as other classes when it comes to the depth and talent of the group. So, it’s not as big of a deal that Wisconsin is lighter at several positions than what the expectations were.
But, the Badgers have lost some major recruiting battles that they were firmly in or even leading at one point.
Several targets, including three-star defensive lineman Jake Johnson, ended up at USC. Overall, it feels like they’ve just not had as much success with some of the big fish.
In 2025, Hardy Watts, Mason Posa, Jaylen Williams, Carter Smith, Nicolas Clayton, Logan Powell, and Eugene Hilton were all major recruiting wins against top competition.
In 2024, Wisconsin got the talented duo of running backs (Dilin Jones and Darrion Dupree) together, which was a big win in itself. But, closing out on Emerson Mandell, Kevin Heywood, Ernest Willor, Xavier Lucas, and flipping Dillan Johnson and Rob Booker were all big recruiting wins.
It’s been a weaker class, so time will tell, but I don’t know that Wisconsin can hit its recruiting ceiling without Stienecker. And high school recruiting will likely be the way they find success in the Luke Fickell era, given their issues finding hits in the transfer portal.