The Badgers had some good success this weekend hosting top recruits for official visits.
It was a successful football recruiting weekend for Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers. On Sunday, the Badgers landed three defensive three-star recruits, elevating Wisconsin’s recruiting class ranking.
While the news of Carmelow Reed’s flip to Ole Miss will lower the Badgers’ recruiting ranking, Wisconsin picked up a strong three-star tight end recruit in Jack Sievers, currently the Badgers’ top overall recruit, according to 247Sports.
Luke Fickell and the coaching staff must show improvement in 2025, but his vision for the program is getting recruits to buy in. Gathering defensive line recruits was critical after missing out on Jake Johnson to USC and King Liggins to Illinois. Landing Arthur Smith and Djidjou Bah would prove even greater after news of Reed’s departure.
Regarding in-state recruiting, the Badgers, up until Sunday, failed to land a single top recruit from the Badger State. Therefore, Ben Wenzel’s commitment was paramount in the sense that failing to land a single player from Wisconsin is an embarrassing outlook for a program that prides itself on Badger State high school stars.
Perhaps leading the core of incoming 2026 commits in both momentum and buy-in is Mishawaka Penn (IN) wide receiver Tayshon “Tay” Bardo, who has actively been recruiting players to come to Wisconsin.
There is plenty of time between now and the first game of the 2026 season. Therefore, this class can fluctuate between new commitments and de-commitments. While there is pressure on Luke Fickell to deliver a successful 2025 season, his staff has landed solid future recruits.
Let’s hope that the Badgers and Tay Bardo can keep adding to Wisconsin’s quality class of 2026.