Over the next two weeks, BadgerBlitz.com will be bringing you snapshots for each recruited position, covering the targets who are legitimate prospects on Wisconsin's board in the 2021 class. We will discuss the candidates who are most interested in the Badgers, as well as those who are considered long shots to commit to UW.

As always, this is just a snapshot in time and things remain fluid. Additional offered targets will appear over the next few months and some recruits will inevitably choose other colleges.

Today, we continue with a look at the running backs.

QBs |

Wisconsin capped off the 2020 cycle with the addition of Jalen Berger, a Rivals100 running back from New Jersey. Just a day before his commitment in January, multi-year starter Jonathan Taylor announced that he would forego his final season at UW in order to enter the NFL Draft, news that caught no one by surprise.

Garrett Groshek is back as the veteran of a tailback group that also includes Nakia Watson, Hunter Johnson, Isaac Guerendo, Brady Schipper and Julius Davis. At fullback, all three players from the 2019 stable - Mason Stokke, John Chenal and Quan Easterling - return this spring.

Wisconsin secured an early commitment from in-state tailback Loyal Crawford in August. The 6-foot, 190-pound junior was also hearing from Iowa, Northern Illinois, North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State and Illinois State at the time of his commitment.

"I first met Loyal when he got done with 8th grade when he came in to lift in the summer," head coach Mike Sinz told BadgerBlitz.com. "He was so explosive, so fast and he was lifting with our upperclassmen - kids that were three or four years older than him. Right away you knew he was a gifted kid and he's starting to put it all together.

"He had the collarbone injury last year and he'll be a huge piece of the puzzle for us. He's our guy on offense and he is, in my opinion, one of the best kids in the state. And with my growing up following high school football really closely, he's probably the best football player I've ever been around. He's that talented."

A three-star prospect, Crawford returned to campus for a junior day event on Feb. 1 and spent a good chunk of time with future position coach John Settle.

"He just told me to keep working hard, stuff like that," Crawford told BadgerBlitz.com. "Coach Settle gave me a lot of tips on how to be more explosive and how to prepare mentally. We talked about graduating early and he's excited for me to do that, especially being an in-state kid. He thinks that's going to give me a big advantage. They said don't worry about my size too much because they will take care of that when I get there. They like where I'm at right now.

"The coaches haven't really talked about getting anyone else [at running back in this class]. They don't seem too interested, from what I'm heard from them, but I guess that could change."