Recruiting and coaching are two of the pillars of a successful college football program.
Programs like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson are some of the country's annual recruiting powerhouses. It's no surprise that these schools are fighting for a College Football Playoff berth just about every single season.
When looking at the recruiting rankings for the Class of 2020, you'll see each of those four programs – in addition to LSU and Texas – listed as the country's top-rated classes for the current recruiting cycle. These programs and a few others find themselves among the very best year after year thanks to a myriad of factors including program prestige, an abundance of regional talent, and staffs that are willing to put in the necessary time and effort on the trail.
The coaching/player development piece is an entirely different animal. Getting talented players to attend a program is great, but failing to develop and utilize them can lead to problems similar to what we've seen in Ann Arbor of late. The country's elite programs tend to excel at both signing the talent and cultivating it over a three-to-five-year period.
| CLASS | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 15 | 18 | 19 | 23 | 12 | 15 |
| Wisconsin | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Ohio State is set to square off against Wisconsin Saturday at noon, and the two teams are viewed as the favorites in their respective divisions. While they've been the top programs in the East and West Divisions just about every year of the playoff era, the way the two schools have gotten there has been markedly different.
If you follow recruiting and look through the Alabama or Clemson rosters, you're bound to see a number of big names that Ohio State had once been targeting. The same can be said for Notre Dame, Michigan, and even Michigan State to a degree.
It's a much different case when glancing through the Wisconsin two-deep as the programs rarely collide on the recruiting trail. The Badgers don't have the national reach of a power program and the state of Wisconsin isn't exactly home to the country's top high school talent.
For Paul Chryst and his staff, that means they've got to do more with less in terms of developing the prospects who do come to Madison. And that's exactly what the Wisconsin staff has been doing lately as they've finished with 10+ wins in four of the last five seasons and captured the West Division three times during that same time period.
The Badgers have constantly churned out NFL offensive linemen, and the school's history at running back has also been superb. The vast majority of those are players who didn't garner interest from the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world, yet still were developed during their time in Madison.
When the Buckeyes take the field Saturday afternoon, they'll line up with two former five-stars starting in the defensive backfield alone. The Badgers have signed exactly one five-star prospect in the last decade, and that actually came just this past December when 2019 offensive tackle Logan Brown (Grand Rapids, Michigan) made things official during the early signing period.
@BadgerFootball is out here doing more with "less"
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 30, 2019
See how many 4 & 5 star recruits each of the AP top 10 schools have on their rosters. pic.twitter.com/Rq0jwE3rsu
While there aren't too many familiar names on the Badgers' depth chart, Wisconsin did manage to take one from the Buckeyes during this most recent go around. Kansas quarterback Graham Mertz was without question one of the country's top prospects at the position, and he was a player Ryan Day and the Ohio State staff really wanted.
After committing to Wisconsin way back in October of 2017, his recruitment then blew up with offers from Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, and multiple other power programs. Mertz considered a trip to Columbus during the summer of 2018, but instead shut his recruitment down, signed with Wisconsin last December, and enrolled early in January of 2019.
The Buckeyes' 2019 quarterback pursuit was a bit of a fiasco, and Mertz was at the center of it for a period of time. Dwan Mathis flipped from Michigan State to Ohio State before he ultimately signed with Georgia. As for the local team, all Ryan Day would do is land a coveted transfer by the name of Justin Fields, so things seem to be working out quite well despite some depth concerns at the position.
Oftentimes we can be critical of programs like USC, Michigan, and Florida State who have been known to underachieve despite having talented players across the board. Whether it's a testament to the coaching or other circumstances, some schools simply don't live up to the hype of the recruiting classes they bring in on an annual basis.
Paul Chryst and the Badgers have more often than not been the exception to the rule that recruiting rankings matter most when it comes to winning football games. Instead, Wisconsin has relied more so on its player development, which has been superb over the last several years.
Last week's loss to Illinois has put a bit of a damper on Saturday's matchup in Columbus, but it's still set to be a battle between two of the Big Ten's top teams. Wisconsin has just taken a less-traditional path to success than Ohio State and most of the country's other top programs.
