Wisconsin football recruiting: UW focusing in on one 2023 QB; plus a new offer

South Dakota’s Lincoln Kienholz is the top QB on Wisconsin’s board currently.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any major college athletics team, but following it closely as a fan can sometimes be difficult and can often be time consuming. We’ll try and condense all the recruiting news you can use into this bi-weekly (sometimes more) post. It’ll include updates on current commits, including stats from their high school games, as well as news on players the Badgers are still pursuing. Let’s get down to business!

The 2023 Quarterback Carousel continues to spin

• While the Badgers have missed out on most of their quarterback targets in the 2023 class, a recent offer to 3-star Lincoln Kienholz (Pierre, S.D.) has Wisconsin right back in the mix for a talented signal caller. On Wednesday, Kienholz pared his list down to four schools that he was going to be considering moving forward and the Badgers, along with North Dakota State, Washington and Wyoming, made the cut.

Jon McNamara over at BadgerBlitz has a good interview with Kienholz ($) and he notes there that the all-state QB will be visiting all four schools coming up in June. The Badgers will bat leadoff, hosting Kienholz on the weekend of June 3 (which will be a HUGE recruiting weekend for UW).

As a junior last year, Kienholz threw for 3,359 yards (181-of-329, 55%) and 37 touchdowns (only six interceptions) while also rushing for 1,175 yards and 12 touchdowns.

New offer

• 2024 CB/S Zavier “Zay” Mincey (Daytona Beach, Fla.) out of Mainland High School earned an offer from Wisconsin earlier this week. According to 247 Sports, he has offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Coastal Carolina, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Purdue, Texas A&M, UCF and others.

Standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing around 185 pounds, Mincey already has good size for the defensive backfield. It’s unclear where the Badgers are recruiting him to play, but having a versatile player that can potentially play anywhere on the back end of the defense is certainly valuable.

Mincey doesn’t have any consensus ratings yet, but Rivals lists him as a 3-star prospect while On3 Sports has him as a 4-star and the No. 199 player and No. 18 safety in the 2024 class. Here is Mincey’s Hudl tape, where he plays mainly cornerback for his high school.

As a long, rangy defensive back he is able to blanket smaller wideouts in coverage. He also uses his size to knock dudes on their ass. I am extremely partial to corners that like to stick their noses into the mix and make plays around the line of scrimmage and Mincey has some of those qualities.

The Badgers have a lengthy history of getting defensive backs out of Florida, usually south Florida, but it’s nice to branch out within the state, and turning them into all-B1G caliber players. I’d love to see Wisconsin stay in this recruitment and try and get Mincey on campus.