2023 Badger Football Thread

I see where Saeed Khalif was dumped by Michigan State. I don't know the reasoning, but they didn't renew his contract.
 

Wisconsin football recruiting: Prospects share spring practice impressions​

Cooper Catalano arrived at Wisconsin’s football facility by 9 a.m. last Saturday with more than a dozen top recruits. It didn’t take him long, as he sat in on a pre-practice team meeting, to realize how much intensity, energy and organization coach Luke Fickell brought to the program.

“What stood out was every player needs to be very attentive because he called on guys to tell them what the problem was with this play or tell them the five points of contact when you’re holding the ball,” Catalano said. “He asked for one clap, they one-clapped. He asked for two claps, they did two claps. It was cool.”

Catalano, a 2025 in-state linebacker, then watched practice as the team upheld one of the coaching staff’s key talking points: to be the most competitive and high tempo it could be. Those two-plus hours left an impression on the prospects in attendance.

“It was the way they were working each other, the way they got after each other and how they were hitting,” said 2024 defensive back Cam Richardson. “Everything about it I loved.”
By the time the day was done and recruits had met with academic staffers, position and strength coaches and participated in a photo shoot, they had a better understanding of where the program was headed and how they fit into that plan.

Wisconsin has regularly hosted recruits during its spring practices and will again Saturday. Here’s a look at where things stand with five recruits who visited campus last week.

Class of 2024​

OLB Thomas Heiberger

• 6 feet 4, 210 pounds, Jefferson High School (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
• Three-star; No. 59 linebacker in 247Sports Composite

Scholarship offers have been pouring in since January. He picked up a Wisconsin offer during a junior day visit that month. He also has offers from Texas Tech, Nebraska, Washington, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kansas State, Illinois, Stanford, Purdue and Utah, among others. Still, Wisconsin continues to intrigue Heiberger, who said the coaching staff sees him eventually filling the role currently occupied by Darryl Peterson.
“Wisconsin’s outside linebackers have kind of always been around,” Heiberger said. “That’s kind of what they’ve been known for. They’re having some changes with what they’re playing for the defense with bringing some stuff over from Cincinnati that worked well for them and then also mixing it in with what Wisconsin already had going. They see me being up on the ball but also being able to get out into coverage and inside blitz, outside blitz, whatever it is.”

Heiberger recorded 44 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and six sacks as a junior while playing outside linebacker and on the defensive line. He said he has visits lined up this month to Illinois, Notre Dame and Washington. He has scheduled an official visit to Wisconsin for June 9-11 and said he is planning one for Washington as well.

Where Wisconsin stands: “If I wasn’t interested, I wouldn’t have been there three times. My parents and my family love being there and so do I. I love the staff, and the players that I’ve met have been great.”

DB Cam Richardson

• 6 feet 2, 185 pounds, Irvington (N.J.) High School
• No 247Sports Composite rating

Irvington coach Ashley Pierre said Richardson’s length and versatility are big reasons why Richardson has amassed 17 scholarship offers — and why Wisconsin coaches are high on him. Richardson can play cornerback, safety or in the nickel. Last season, he recorded 49 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, four passes defended and one interception.

“He just needs to continue to stay focused,” Pierre said. “Academically, he does well. He has a 3.7 GPA. With his range and his length and how tall he is, it’s kind of hard to find with a kid that can run like that.”
Pierre said he has a strong relationship with several of Wisconsin’s coaches. He sent offensive lineman Dino Boyd to play for them at Cincinnati, and he also coached defensive end Darian Varner, who transferred this offseason to Wisconsin from Temple.

Richardson recently visited Oklahoma and said he has visits planned for Syracuse and Maryland. He enjoyed his visit to Wisconsin on Saturday so much that he scheduled an official visit to Madison for the weekend of June 9.

“This was my first time,” Richardson said. “I liked it a lot. Coaches treated me and my family really well. And getting to see how they practice, seeing their competitiveness and their intensity, I really loved that.”

Where Wisconsin stands: “They’re definitely top five, top three. They’re really high up. I scheduled this official visit. I’m just trying to continue to build a relationship with them.”

Class of 2025​

ILB Cooper Catalano

• 6 feet 2, 200 pounds, Germantown (Wis.) High School
• Not rated in 247Sports Composite

It’s easy to see why Catalano will be one of the top-ranked high school players in the state. He possesses speed, athleticism, natural instincts and helmet-rattling tackling ability. Catalano finished his sophomore season with 147 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and two sacks. During a defensive slugfest against Sussex Hamilton, Catalano recorded an astounding 28 tackles, and he registered at least 15 tackles in five different games.
Those performances caught the attention of Wisconsin’s previous coaching staff, which extended Catalano a scholarship offer in October. Catalano visited for three games last season. The new staff invited him to attend a Wisconsin junior day in January. Catalano said he has talked primarily with defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Mike Tressel, as well as outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell.

“It’s a great feeling,” Catalano said. “Obviously, I didn’t know how it was going to work out when the new staff came in. But they came in and they stopped over at my school right away and they let me know I was still a priority, and it’s really starting to show in the last couple months.”

Catalano has scholarship offers from Illinois, Wisconsin and Kansas. He said he is planning to visit Illinois this weekend and Northwestern the following weekend on top of visits to the schools earlier this year. He is slated to attend a summer camp at Notre Dame. Rivals rates him as the No. 15 inside linebacker in the country.

Where Wisconsin stands: “They’re doing a great job at their program. I think they’re implementing all their new stuff into the core values of Wisconsin football really well, and I’m excited to see where they go.”

TE James Flanigan

• 6 feet 5, 220 pounds, Notre Dame de la Baie Academy (Green Bay, Wis.)
• Not rated in 247Sports Composite

Flanigan and Catalano are among the in-state prospects for 2025 that Wisconsin’s staff is pursuing most heavily. Offensive lineman Owen Strebig, who attends Waukesha Catholic Memorial with 2024 prospects Donovan Harbour and Corey Smith, is another high-profile 2025 recruit who visited campus for practice two Thursdays ago.

Flanigan is an outstanding two-way player who caught 22 passes for 520 yards and nine touchdowns last season. As a linebacker, he registered 66 tackles, seven tackles for loss and three sacks. Flanigan visited Wisconsin for junior days in January when Gino Guidugli was the tight ends coach, and the Badgers became the first school to extend him a scholarship offer. Nate Letton took over after Guidugli left for Notre Dame. Flanigan said Wisconsin coaches have told him they like his physicality as a blocker but also how he can find open space down the field.
“I definitely have the speed and a really big reach to hold onto balls,” Flanigan said. “As a route runner, I’m very agile for a big guy like me. I feel like making cuts, getting defenders to move one way and go the other is another one of my strong suits.”
Flanigan has since earned scholarship offers from Notre Dame, Penn State and Missouri. He visited Notre Dame two weeks ago and said he anticipates setting up a visit to Penn State. Flanigan has been to Wisconsin three times as a recruit, including for a game last season.
Where Wisconsin stands: “We haven’t really thought about making a commitment yet. We’re just trying to get all the information from all the schools we can. … Obviously, they’re the in-state school. I grew up watching the Badgers my whole life. They’ve definitely impressed me with all this new excitement going around.”
ILB Dominik Hulak
• 6 feet 3, 225 pounds, IC Catholic Prep (Elmhurst, Ill.)
• Not rated in 247Sports Composite
Hulak visited Wisconsin for a game last season and earned a scholarship offer from the previous coaching staff in October. Wisconsin’s current coaches have continued to recruit Hulak, who said Tressel likes his size and quickness to the ball.
“I like being able to get downhill, fill my gap and, if I have to, chase somebody down,” Hulak said.
Hulak finished his sophomore season with 57 tackles, three tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, two pass breakups, a blocked kick and a sack. Hulak has scholarship offers from Illinois, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Wisconsin. He has visits planned for later this month to Illinois and Iowa but said he hopes to return to Wisconsin this summer.
Where Wisconsin stands: “For actual visits, I’ve only been to Northwestern, Notre Dame and Wisconsin. I haven’t gotten a taste of every college that’s offered me or has interest in me yet. But right now, out of the three, I like them a lot. I know they’re growing, too, with the new staff. I can see them going somewhere.”

Hulak finished his sophomore season with 57 tackles, three tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, two pass breakups, a blocked kick and a sack. Hulak has scholarship offers from Illinois, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Purdue and Wisconsin. He has visits planned for later this month to Illinois and Iowa but said he hopes to return to Wisconsin this summer.

Where Wisconsin stands: “For actual visits, I’ve only been to Northwestern, Notre Dame and Wisconsin. I haven’t gotten a taste of every college that’s offered me or has interest in me yet. But right now, out of the three, I like them a lot. I know they’re growing, too, with the new staff. I can see them going somewhere.”
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It sounds like the visits went well. I'd imagine the Badger coaches have a pretty good idea which of these kids will end up Badgers. Some of them are just enjoying the trip to Madison, while others are looking at it as the place they want to play ball.

It is obvious that these kids are leaving Madison with a good perspective on what it takes to be a Badger.
 
Whether they come to WI or not, most if not all have been impressed with the direction WI is going and have said good or great things about the program.

This is in contrast to kids visiting in the past that to paraphrase said things like: "They didn't seem to know I was coming."

Even if a kid doesn't choose WI, the fact that he says it was a great experience means others will give us a look. It's salesmanship, we were lacking that, but now we've got a ring leader.
 
Thomas Heiberger was six games into his junior season last October before he earned his first football scholarship offer. Heiberger, a native of Sioux Falls, S.D., felt ecstatic about the interest from South Dakota State, a program on its way to winning an FCS national championship.

Heiberger’s high school coach, Vince Benedetto, was a former South Dakota State player with good relationships in the program. So when he began having conversations with Jackrabbits coaches, they were willing to offer an honest assessment about how they thought the recruiting process would play out.

The verdict? South Dakota State, for all its prowess, would not stand a chance. Heiberger was simply too good of an outside linebacker.

“When they offered, they just said, ‘We’re not going to touch him because there’s not a lot of 6-foot-4 kids that move and bend the way that Thomas does,’” Benedetto recalled.
That evaluation proved to be prescient. In late November, Heiberger was invited to and attended game day visits at Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. By January, he exploded onto the recruiting scene, earning scholarship offers from 13 FBS schools, including 12 Power 5 programs.

No school pushed as hard as Wisconsin, which quickly made inroads with a new coaching staff. The Badgers brought Heiberger on campus for a junior day visit in January, and outside linebackers coach Matt Mitchell offered him a scholarship. He returned for a follow-up trip two Saturdays ago so he could watch spring practice under Luke Fickell.

Heiberger, whose only other school visit this year was to Nebraska for its junior day in March, didn’t need to see anything else. He cancelled planned visits for later this month to Illinois, Notre Dame and Washington and committed to Wisconsin during a Thursday phone call to Mitchell. Heiberger publicly announced his decision Sunday afternoon. He becomes Wisconsin’s fifth known commitment in the 2024 recruiting class and the first on the defensive side of the ball.

“I felt the question pop up in my head: Why not Wisconsin?” Heiberger said. “I couldn’t think of anything. Nothing came to mind. I wanted to play Big Ten football. I want to compete for Big Ten championships and I believe that Wisconsin is going to be doing that here. I had been there three times, two with the new staff, and the relationships that I’d built with the staff and even some of the players, I didn’t think I was going to get anywhere else.”

Heiberger, who is listed at 6-4 and 210 pounds, possesses the kind of measurables that make major college programs salivate. He has a 39-inch vertical leap, can broad jump 10 feet, 7 inches and runs a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. This spring, he decided to participate in track and field for the first time. His two events could not be more disparate: shot put and the 100-meter dash.

During Heiberger’s second career meet on Friday, he ran a personal best 11.23 seconds in the 100 to finish in fifth place out of 36 participants in the event. On Saturday morning, Benedetto said Heiberger was back in the gym for football workouts and squatted 450 pounds.

“He’s pretty incredible,” Benedetto said.
Some may wonder how in the world an athlete like that didn’t see his recruitment pick up sooner. Heiberger’s mom, Megan Ver Steeg, said a large part of it had to do with the fact that Heiberger played quarterback until his sophomore season. That year, a new high school opened in Sioux Falls and because of the way the district lines were drawn, Heiberger transferred from Roosevelt High to Jefferson High. Benedetto, his new coach, immediately moved him to outside linebacker, where Heiberger’s raw talent developed over time.

The only football camp Heiberger attended was at South Dakota State last summer, so he remained under the radar. He also came from a baseball family — his dad, Jake, played at South Dakota State — and thought that sport would be his path to college.

But then Heiberger blossomed last season on the football field. He finished with 44 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and six sacks while helping lead Jefferson to a 12-0 record and a state championship. Benedetto, who ran a 3-3 stack defense, used Heiberger as a strongside linebacker and lined him up at defensive end to rush the passer in third-down situations. Heiberger also showed the versatility to occasionally play safety in certain spots.

“He’s one of the most coachable kids that I’ve ever been around,” Benedetto said. “I coach the quarterbacks. He’ll come down with us every once in a while because if we ever had an injury, he would’ve been the next guy in. You tell Tommy one thing once, and he’s going to do it. I think when he gets into a program like Wisconsin, that’s a developmental program, they want guys there for four and five years. I think he’s going to flourish and get a lot better.”

Heiberger’s world changed in January after staffers from Texas Tech expressed interest but wanted him to verify some of his measurables such as wingspan and height. Heiberger had a few friends film him and sent the video on to Texas Tech. On Jan. 20, he earned his first FBS offer from the Red Raiders. Wisconsin offered two days later during his junior day visit. Then came offers from Western Michigan, Nebraska, Washington, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Kansas in a five-day span. Kansas State, Illinois, Stanford, Purdue and Utah followed in February.

“It’s just been crazy,” Heiberger said. “I’m so grateful for every opportunity.”

Heiberger’s junior day visit to Wisconsin served as a major turning point in his recruitment. He watched film with Mitchell, who explained how Wisconsin coaches saw him fitting into the defensive scheme. Heiberger said Wisconsin’s coaching staff told him he could eventually fill the role currently occupied by Darryl Peterson, playing off the ball and roaming the field in a variety of ways. Wisconsin liked Heiberger’s ability to rush the passer and set the edge and his athleticism to cover in the pass game.

“One of the things I noticed right away is how excited everyone was, how intense they were,” said Jake, who joined his son on the junior day trip. “That’s something that I left Wisconsin really impressed with — like these guys are fired up. They’re fired up not only for the football but then they’re fired up around these recruits. They’re excited bringing these kids in. Even I left feeling excited. I left Madison feeling like, ‘Wow, this is going to be hard to beat for these other schools.’”

It was. And now, Heiberger — after a meteoric recruiting rise — is ready to embrace Wisconsin’s outside linebacker tradition and build on it with a new coaching staff.

“The outside linebackers in the past, Wisconsin breeds them,” Heiberger said. “They’ve put great Wisconsin linebackers into the NFL. They develop guys just as good as anybody. I know they have a new staff, but they’re planning on keeping that outside linebacker unique to Wisconsin. That’s a position where they see me as being versatile. That’s what I want to do.”
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