The Badgers have gotten a recent slew of four-star prospects for their 2025 recruiting class.
Unless you’re trapped under a rock or follow Gophers recruiting, you’ve had to notice (and likely rejoice in) the fact that the Wisconsin Badgers landed not one, but two composite four-star 2025 football recruits on back-to-back days.
Suddenly, they find themselves ranked No. 6 in the Rivals 2025 team recruiting rankings. I can’t recall as lofty a ranking for the Badgers this late in a cycle, so it’s noteworthy even if we all know the final ranking will probably be 10-15 spots lower.
It’s always a fun thing on the socials to rejoice in recruiting wins like securing both Mason Posa and Eugene Hilton, especially if such wins come over NIL juggernauts like Oregon and Georgia.
But, the truth is, there is more than one reason to be excited about these occasions, and I’m going over three related ones here to put some perspective on this.
High-End Talent is Needed For High-End Success
While Wisconsin’s most successful teams have been built on the backs of sturdy three-star recruits, the reality is, the higher a recruit’s star ranking the greater the likelihood is of them being an impact college (and NFL) player. These are just statistical facts.
And while Wisconsin fans know all too well that a four or five-star rating doesn’t guarantee success, it’s more likely a generic four-star recruit will have a successful career than a generic three-star recruit. So stacking four-star talent (and above) is, un-shockingly, a common denominator of elite college football teams.
If Wisconsin hopes to reach this echelon someday, better recruiting will serve as the foundation.
Wisconsin’s Coaches Are Effectively Selling Their Vision
Rebuilds—and make no mistake, Luke Fickell needed to rebuild the Badgers at many levels to achieve his vision—are really difficult.
Winning more games is very hard. Getting buy-in from the players you inherited is tricky. And convincing recruits to believe in your new ideas for a program when the win-loss record doesn’t immediately show results for those ideas out is a tough sell.
So, the fact that Fickell & Co. are putting together a second straight loaded class (at least from a historical Badger perspective) is a massive deal.
The ability of Badger recruiters to land guys on what will be rather has what has been speaks volumes about the talent and grind of the current staff.
This chore will get much harder in future seasons if the wins don’t come, but for now they’re killing it.
Landing Big Time Recruits Sends a Signal
The Z axis running alongside the other two is the simple fact that success begets success. Walking the walk convinces others that the walk is justified. Seeing four-star talent commit makes other high-end players more likely to want to commit. This is basic human psychology. Momentum matters.
That’s not to say that personal relationships between coaches and recruits aren’t the driving force behind commitments, but it’s 2024 and all college football moves are amplified by Instagram and a bevy of recruiting services that all recruits have access to. When a talented kid like Posa or Hilton says “Yes” to Wisconsin, it makes other similarly talented players take notice.
No, this doesn’t mean that a gaggle of four and five-star guys are about to commit to Wisconsin now, but if anyone is on the fence, seeing super talented guys make the move can serve as a push.
From a 10,000 foot view, the Badgers ending up in the 40s in class rankings in 2022 and 2023 caused a collective, negative gasp amongst Badger fans and likely made several recruits not even give Wisconsin a chance.
So when 2025 stacks a Top 20ish ranking on top of a similar 2024, people will notice.
Wins are ultimately the most important thing, obviously, but we can’t pretend the players Fickell brings in don’t matter in terms of perception.