Interested in hearing views on why Wisconsin isn’t more successful in recruiting.
Wisconsin just completed their second straight top 10 final AP football ranking, their second straight NY6 bowl victory, yet finished with the #39 class in 2017 and #44 class in 2018. Their recent success is not unprecedented either, they’ve won several Rose Bowls and appeared in several more.
I understand Wisconsin does a fantastic job recruiting players that fit their system and also does a great job of finding less heralded recruits who turn into great players. I also realize they aren’t in the most fertile recruiting territory and don’t have the tradition of an Ohio State/Oklahoma, etc.
Nonetheless, there are certainly some high 3 star recruits who would fit Wisconsin’s system well who attend the other B10 West schools, the Big12 non Tex/OU schools, KY or other programs with vastly inferior on the field success. For instance, Wisconsin’s top rated 2018 player from Michigan is that state’s #16 rated recruit. UK signed the #3 player an OG and Western Michigan sighed the #8 player an OT.
Washington is an example of a program not located in a fertile recruiting territory that HAS translated success on the field to better recruiting. TCU may never be able to out recruit Texas but they certainly translated their on the field success to out recruit Baylor and Tex Tech while still getting players who fit their system.
Wisconsin is not out recruiting the rest of the B1G West! Shouldn’t they be able to go into the living room of any 17 year old looking at another B1G West teams (perhaps other than Nebraska now) and point to recent score boards, rankings, JJ Watt, Russell Wilson and convince that kid to sign with Wisconsin? For reference sake I added to recruiting class rankings of Wisc, Wash, Ok St. and TCU from the last 4 years.
Wisconsin
2018 #44 86.5
2017 #39 85.8
2016 #35 85
2015 #41 85.5
Washington
2018 #13 90.4
2017 #22 88.5
2016 # 29 87.4
2015 #26 85.8
Oklahoma State
2018 #33 86.5
2017 #38 85
2016 #45 84.7
2015 #40 84.9
TCU
2018 #25 87.6
2017 #28 85.2
2016 #21 88.3
2015 #39 85.6
