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Wisconsin Football: Badgers’ 2015 Recruiting Class Is Underrated

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By @MichaelSBriggs

Wisconsin Football 2015 Recruiting Class

Rob Foldy-USA TODAY Sports

The Wisconsin Badgers might not have the flash of the Ohio State Buckeyes or the Michigan Wolverines, but their 2015 recruiting class is shaping up to be similarly talented, nonetheless.

Not that that’s anything new for the Badgers.

While Penn State, OSU and U-M currently hold down spots in ESPN’s top-25 class rankings for 2015, Wisconsin is somewhere on the outside looking in despite 15 hauls of solid talent from top to bottom. There’s no denying their potential, however.

Although ESPN’s recruiting service claims Bucky has just two four-star recruits on-board (and zero ESPN300 members), the class does feature five high three-star prospects who were rated just one tick under the 80 mark given to four-star players. Behind them are three more players rated 78 to 77, which also constitute high three-star players. Or in the other words, 10 players who Wisconsin will likely turn into future All-Big 10 performers, if history serves as any indication.

The Badgers have also demonstrated they have a much bigger national presence on the recruiting trail than many would expect, with an astounding 10 different states represented by their 15 hauls. These players, meanwhile, are not coming right from Wisconsin’s backyard in the Midwest, either. While the Badgers have two in-state commitments in OT Jon Dietzen and DT David Pfaff, a verbal from Michigan OT prospect David Moorman and one more from Illinois athlete David Edwards, the rest of the players in the class hail from outside the Midwest. In fact, most of these players’ hometowns are quite far away.

The four-star players, dual-threat QB Austin Kafentzis and tight end Kyle Penniston lead the way from Utah and California, respectively, but there’s also another verbal commit from California, one from New Jersey, one from Missouri, one from Georgia, two from Florida and three from Texas. If someone shoved that recruit list under your nose and asked you to guess who it belongs to, I’m assuming most would answer Notre Dame before they would Wisconsin.

So while the Big 10′s traditional powers are attracting all the hype, just remember Wisconsin has quietly been raiding football hotbeds across the nation, assembling the next Badgers team under-appreciated until the wins start piling up.

Michael Briggs is a Big 10 Writer for Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.
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