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PODCAST: Ep.118: Al Ashford Comes on the Radar to Commit to Wisconsin

Set to announce his commitment on live local television, Greenwood Village (CO) Cherry Creek cornerback Al Ashford laid out all 19 scholarship choices on a table in front of him. It was what was hiding underneath the table that caught the recruiting world – and his family – completely off guard.

In a sign on the times amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, the mask-wearing Ashford reached under the table for a bottle of hand sanitizer with a Bucky Badger sticker on the front and made his decision official by donning a red cap.

Cornerback Al Ashford is the 18th commit in Wisconsin's 2020 class
Cornerback Al Ashford is the 18th commit in Wisconsin's 2020 class
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Having been offered by the Badgers roughly two weeks prior, Ashford didn’t announce the offer to anybody, not even his parents.

“My whole life … I did things my way and have an idea of how I wanted to accomplish things, get things done,” Ashford said. “My mom would say I was a little hard-headed, but I had an idea that I wanted to do something never done before. I kind of had something nobody has done. I kept a school in the dark. Nobody knew they had offered me; I didn’t tell my own parents that they had offered me, (and) I didn’t tell any coaches.

“I put on the hat and I guarantee you there was a little pause. It went silent. I looked around and then I started hearing cheers. My parents were like “Wisconsin???” … The shock still hasn’t worn off on them.”

The 18th commit in Wisconsin’s 2021 class, and the second cornerback, Ashford is going through a massive growth spurt that have seen his height increase from 5-8 to 6-2 over the past year. He was his school’s lockdown corner, getting targeted only 28 times last year and still generating two interceptions and 11 pass breakups in helping his team win the CHSAA 5A state championship last year.

“I went from 125 pounds to 180 pounds in about a year and some change,” Ashford said.

Ashford joins the BadgerBlitz Podcast to talk about how his growth spurt has changed the way he plays football, how the University of Wisconsin became involved in his recruitment (spoiler, it happened in his school’s parking lot), why the Badgers were his dream offer, the decision to shock the recruiting world and much more.

Click here to listen to this week's episode

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