Badgers haven’t been recruiting offensive linemen in their own back yard. Why?

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If you look at 2010 through 2012, the Badgers gave one scholarship to an offensive lineman from Wisconsin in 2010 (Lewallen) and none the next two years. In that same period, the Gophers have signed three Wisconsin offensive lineman, two who are still with the Gophers and seeing playing time. Northern Illinois has gone in there and signed a bunch and last year, Levon Myers turned down a late Wisconsin scholarship and stuck with Northern Illinois.

I am not saying that Wisconsin didn’t recruit well at offensive line the last three years. I just find it hard to believe that in the state of Wisconsin, there was only one offensive linemen worthy of a Wisconsin scholarship the last three years.

I am interested in what people think about this (including Badger fans.)
 

They've been shooting for the four- and five-star guys from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other football hotbeds. I'm guessing they hold an offer or two for in-state guys if their primary targets head elsewhere, but with the price of college these days (and the increasing competitiveness of teams in non-automatically qualifying conferences and the FCS), my guess is some fallback guys take, and hold onto, early offers.

I can't argue with Wisconsin's strategy. It has worked quite well and if they keep the kids from other states coming in, more power to them. I wonder if Meyer's and Hoke's presence will curb some of Wisconsin's success, as those programs will be targeting the same guys.
 

History repeats itself. Alvarez tried to recruit against the big boys after the 1993-94 Rose Bowl season and realized he was going against the strategy that worked for Becky then (and still does) - get the players in the trenches from Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest in general, and supplement with speed players from the South. Enema is learning the same lesson again (witness Kyle Dodson and J.J. Denman last year), and he's just stupid and egotistical enough to think he can ignore history and reverse its course.
 

Do you blame Enema for going after 4 and 5 star kids from other states that show interest? Hell I would expect Kill to do the same thing. Now recruiting them and signing them are two different things. This is especially true for recruiting states like Ohio where Ohio State is King and Michigan and Notre Dame second in command or Pennsylvania where Penn State was king, but Ohio State, Michigan, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Pitt would have strong showings.
 

IDFM said:
Do you blame Enema for going after 4 and 5 star kids from other states that show interest? Hell I would expect Kill to do the same thing. Now recruiting them and signing them are two different things. This is especially true for recruiting states like Ohio where Ohio State is King and Michigan and Notre Dame second in command or Pennsylvania where Penn State was king, but Ohio State, Michigan, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Pitt would have strong showings.
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I agree. I can't stand Bielema (and I couldn't stand Alvarez), but if Wisconsin targets big-time kids and gets them to commit, more power to them. Systems can and do matter, but I've always been a believer that it's more "the size of the dog in the fight than the size of the fight in the dog." The star-grading system isn't perfect, but you generally get a better meal with prime rib (if cooked correctly) than you do with ground chuck.
 


dpodoll68 said:
History repeats itself. Alvarez tried to recruit against the big boys after the 1993-94 Rose Bowl season and realized he was going against the strategy that worked for Becky then (and still does) - get the players in the trenches from Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest in general, and supplement with speed players from the South. Enema is learning the same lesson again (witness Kyle Dodson and J.J. Denman last year), and he's just stupid and egotistical enough to think he can ignore history and reverse its course.
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I pretty much agree. I won't call him stupid for going after these more heralded lineman from the south, but it seems if you can develop an elite offensive line with kids from the midwest, why bother run south for your entire supply, so to speak? I guess we'll see how it pans out, but I would figure the strategy has worked for years and years, why change it.
 

50PoundHead said:
I agree. I can't stand Bielema (and I couldn't stand Alvarez), but if Wisconsin targets big-time kids and gets them to commit, more power to them. Systems can and do matter, but I've always been a believer that it's more "the size of the dog in the fight than the size of the fight in the dog." The star-grading system isn't perfect, but you generally get a better meal with prime rib (if cooked correctly) than you do with ground chuck.
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I agree, you can't blame them for going after the stars for OL if interested. However, all it takes is a bad season and musical chairs in the assistant coaching ranks and they will be back to recuiting in state and closer to home. They are running the risk of pissing off local HS coaches and programs by going out-of-state.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I agree, you can't blame them for going after the stars for OL if interested. However, all it takes is a bad season and musical chairs in the assistant coaching ranks and they will be back to recuiting in state and closer to home. They are running the risk of pissing off local HS coaches and programs by going out-of-state.
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I agree with you. We certainly witnessed that in Minnesota.
 

Why not recruit the best players you can? They can get enough decent Wisconsin kids to walk on to fill the gaps. They've just reached a point in the cycle where they're depleted in experience and of course switching philosophies doesn't help either.
 




Wisconsin signed two guys in 2010, not one.

But let's go through the list of people they didn't sign who went to BCS schools:

2010
Matt Eggen- Minnesota (washed out)
Zac Epping- Minnesota (doing a nice job and has been starting since his RS Freshman year)
Cody Evers- Indiana (part of Indiana's offensive line rotation as a RS Freshman, not sure if that says much since Indiana is so young/horrible)

2011
Foster Bush- Minnesota (looks the part, but hasn't played serious minutes yet)
Marcus Aprahamian- Duke (backup)

2012
Gabe Roberts- Pittsburgh (redshirting)

I think it's way too early to be judging this one way or the other. Epping was a good signing for Minnesota, but would he be needed at Wisconsin, or are their problems more of a schematic nature? Hard to say, but if Epping ever turns himself into an All-Big Ten player, I'm sure they'll look back and regret it.

Other than that, I'm not seeing a lot here that they are missing out on. It doesn't mean they won't, but it's a bit early to jump to any assumptions.
 

It's also worth noting that they did sign one local offensive lineman this year, Hayden Biegel.
 

What's this BS about all the 4 & 5 star outstate OL recruits that Wisconsin gets? They have one 4* since 2008 and that is Voltz. The only other 4* is Konz and he is from WI.

For some reason, Wisconsin does not produce that many highly rated OL recruits. They get their share of 3* WI kids and other outstate players but have done a great job of developing them. Epping, Bush and Eggen were 3* and ended up here and another 3* went to Duke as well as a few 2* that ended up at NIU.
 



Epping seems to be a fairly significant miss for them. MV called him the best Gopher OL in the UNLV game (not sure of his thoughts on the UNH game). As I recall, it seems like Becky had no interest in him at all (i.e., barely recruited/contacted him).
 



If he wins Wisconsin kids will still want to go there, if he doesn't win the strategy will not matter to anyone.
 

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