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Early enrollees recap recruiting

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin early enrollees Kyle Penniston, Alex Hornibrook and Jon Dietzen all met with reporters on Wednesday after Paul Chryst finished his Signing day press conference, and they all had some interesting things to say about their recruitment.
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-- Penniston, who has followed the Badgers for a while, said Wisconsin's tradition of putting tight ends in the NFL was a big reason why he committed to UW, and while Gary Andersen's departure did shake him, Chryst's return to Madison was all he needed to see to reaffirm his commitment.
"There's a great tradition here," Penniston said. "The guys that come here, specifically tight ends, have a great deal of success. It's known around the country that Wisconsin has good tight ends."
-- Penniston said he particularly enjoyed watching Jacob Pedersen's career at UW, and remembers watching other tight ends like Owen Daniels, Garrett Graham, and Lance Kendricks thrive at UW before heading off to the NFL.
Penniston knows his Wisconsin tight end history too: he said he remembers watching Wisconsin's 20-14 win over Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl, where Graham and Kendricks combined to catch 13 passes for 205 yards.
-- Andersen's departure left Penniston (and all of Wisconsin's other recruits) in a bit of an immediate bind because Andersen left on a Wednesday, with a recruiting dead period set to start that Sunday. That meant a lot of schools reached out to Penniston to see if he could come out on an official visit on very short notice.
"Ohio State asked me Thursday night to come out on a plane Friday morning," Penniston said. "I had Louisville ask on a Friday morning to come out Friday night. It was a difficult decision to say no, but I'm glad I did because I'm glad I'm here."
-- Penniston committed to Wisconsin a little later than Austin Kafentzis, but the two west-coast prospects got to know each other pretty well throughout the process. Now that they're on campus, Penniston said that he and Kafentzis have already started working on their timing together on the field, along with the other quarterbacks and wide receivers.
"We throw a lot," Penniston said. "Even before classes started we were throwing at least once or twice a day over in the indoor facility. That was awesome, to just get the timing down like that. Now we're throwing every Tuesday and Thursday with everyone, so it's good to get that timing down with Joel and Bart and all of those guys."
-- As for Hornibrook, the 6-foot-4 quarterback from West Chester, Pa., said that he was on his official visit to Pittsburgh when he found out that Chryst was rumored to be Wisconsin's next head coach. He said that that wasn't as awkward as it seems, but it didn't take Chryst long to reach out to him and gauge his interest in following him to Wisconsin.
"It was about a week after when he told me he wanted me to come up [to Wisconsin] with him," Hornibrook said. "I followed coach Chryst because I like his offense, I like his style and everything like that. But at the same time, this school here is perfect for me. It's definitely not just committing to a coach."
-- Hornibrook stressed that playing for Chryst was a big factor in his commitment to Wisconsin, but the Badgers did offer a lot of the same things that made him pick Pittsburgh in the first place.
"Back in the summer I never thought I would go anywhere else, I thought it was final," Hornibrook said. "Once I started looking at Wisconsin and I realized that the opportunity here, I couldn't really pass it up."
-- Dietzen said he's hoping to improve his technique during spring camp, and that he's already talked with Michael Deiter about adjusting to college as an early enrollee. And while moving on to campus has been a big adjustment so far, Dietzen said he was ready to move on from high school.
"I honestly started to think that high school was getting old," Dietzen said. "Obviously with the opportunity to come here, there's no reason to want to stick around in Seymour when you have the opportunity to come early."
-- Dietzen didn't re-open his recruitment at all after Andersen left. He said that Michigan State sent him a few things in the aftermath, but he "just kind of shook it off."
Kyle Penniston from Jon McNamara on Vimeo.
John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
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