Has Wisconsin Football Lost Its In-State Recruiting Fastball?

The Wisconsin football program cultivated a three-decade-long reputation as a school that assembled the foundation of the Badgers roster by focusing recruiting efforts on keeping in-state talents home.   

While that philosophy will always be true on some level, it’s worth acknowledging that for myriad reasons, it’s no longer a given that the Wisconsin Badgers will keep the top in-state recruits home. 

UW kept the top player in Wisconsin home in 11 of 13 seasons from 2011-2023, landing 23 of the 30 (76.6%) composite four-star recruits.

Following that impressive run, things have taken a noticeable turn. 

Since I don’t have a horse in the race in terms of opinion on how Wisconsin football coaches should build their team, I thought it might be worth exploring just how significant some of those shifts have been. 

Wisconsin Football Might Be Losing Its In-State Recruiting Fastball

Sep 15, 2018; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers mascot Bucky Badger runs onto the field prior to the game against the BYU Cougars at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

For Wisconsin football traditionalists, this unfamiliar recruiting territory lies in the Badgers coaches no longer having the ability to (essentially) pick and choose the top in-state talents and have them want to wear the Motion W throughout their careers.

With Catholic Memorial standout Owen Strebig (likely) heading to Notre Dame, that now means 9 of the last 11 composite four-star in-state recruits have bypassed the Wisconsin Badgers in favor of other programs.

Could this shift be completely random? Sure. Could it more recently have to do with Coach Fickell and his staff not having built enough trust among the high school coaches yet? Maybe. We’ll never know for sure.

“Our philosophy is going to be: Recruit our state first and foremost, our 350-mile radius next,” Luke Fickell told reporters.

I doubt that Fickell and company are eager to throw away a proven formula the Wisconsin football program has thrived using for decades. But it’s also not the only way to build a roster talented enough to compete at the highest level. So, I’ll trust the individual who guided a non-Power 5 program to the College Football Playoffs, as he likely possesses a solid understanding of talent evaluation.

Spinzone: Does It Matter as Much as We Think?

I’ll be the first to admit I follow in-state recruiting much more closely than I do on a national level. We put a lot of these recruits under a microscope and are more familiar with their games. 

But let’s be honest, as long as the players the Badgers recruit (and land) are of similar pedigree, I have no issue with the outcome.

Now, I say that with a caveat. I still believe it’s wildly important to build relationships and continue to recruit Wisconsin hard and make it so kids want to stay home. 

Regardless of how you feel, a good portion of recruiting will always be geographical, and pursuing an in-state product will likely have a far higher hit rate than going down south. Becoming reliant on winning out-of-state recruiting battles could be a more challenging path, no doubt. 

But, credit to Ryan Eilers for doing the grunt work because he went down the rabbit hole on how Wisconsin football in-state “misses” performed at their destination—and the vast majority weren’t worth losing sleep over. 

Since 2015, of the 26 players who chose to play for another program instead of the Badgers, only Daviyon Nixon (Iowa), Ben Bredeson (Michigan), Will McDonald (Iowa State), Jon Gaines (UCLA), Carson Hinzman (Ohio State), and maybe Billy Schrauth (Notre Dame) were people you’d qualify as big recruiting misses that went on to be studs. 

At the end of the day, people will always care more about in-state recruiting, and that’s because the Wisconsin football program has had terrific success keeping kids home for a long time, and it’s fun watching them develop into game-changers over their careers. 

But let’s try to avoid getting bent out of shape about in-state recruiting; these are kids and families making decisions they feel are best for their futures, plus there’s more than one way to bake a cake. 

In conclusion, none of us know anything, and the sun will rise tomorrow. 

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