Every year, Rivals.com ranks prospects and recruiting classes. But continuing today, BadgerBlitz.com is looking at Wisconsin's cycles over a 10-year period and ranking them against each other.
Specifically, we're looking at the classes that UW signed from 2007 to 2016 and ranking them based on what players did in college. There's not enough evidence to judge the classes of 2017, 2018 or 2019 yet, so we cut off the rankings there and counted back 10 years.
In order to get a more well-rounded perspective, BadgerBlitz.com enlisted the help of former staff writers John Veldhuis and Jon Gorman; @zonemadison (96.7FM 1670AM) Sports Director Zach Heilprin; and current writers Jon McNamara and Benjamin Worgull. Each was asked to assign a point total (1 to 10) to each class, with 10 being the highest and 1 being lowest.
Today, we continue with No. 5 on the rankings: The Class of 2016.
Total Points: 30
No. 10: 2012 | No. 9: 2007 | No. 8: 2010 | No. 7: 2011 | No. 6: 2015 |
Top recruit: A converted defensive lineman, Tyler Biadasz, who was selected in the 2020 NFL Draft, was the winner of the 2019 Rimington Award as the best center in college. Last December, the former in-state prospect from Amherst was named a first-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association.
Best surprise: Quintez Cephus was originally committed to play basketball at Furman. But then-Wisconsin assistant coach Ted Gilmore took a chance on the sleeper from Georgia, a decision that certainly paid off. In 2019, Cephus led the Badgers in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns and was selected in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Biggest bust: Keldric Preston was a pretty heavily-recruited prospect from Florida who never did much at Wisconsin. You could also make a case for Anthony Lotti, a three-star scholarship punter.
Wanted to see more from: Griffin Grady, who chose UW over offers from Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Northwestern and Virginia, played as a true freshman but battled injuries during his career at Wisconsin. The former three-star prospect competed in 21 games and recorded 10 tackles, including five solo stops.
Rivals.com class recruiting rank: No. 35
States represented (14): Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, Maryland, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Connecticut.
Decommitted: Antonio Williams (Ohio State), Craig Watts (South Florida)
Transferred: Jake Hescock (Central Florida), Dallas Jeanty (Navy), Dontye Carriere-Williams (JUCO/Vanderbilt), Kare Lyles (JUCO/Southern Illinois) and Seth Currens (Miami of Ohio). Griffin Grady is still in the transfer portal.
NFL Draft Picks: Biadasz, Cephus
First-Team All-Americans: Biadasz
LAST THOUGHT
This huge (25 scholarship athletes) recruiting class produced a lot of good players for Wisconsin, many of whom are expected to play a big role in 2020. The NFL Draft list sits at two right now, but there's a good chance Cole Van Lanen and one or two others join that group next year. It was also a very good walk-on cycle, with Jack Dunn, Garrett Groshek, Mike Maskalunas, Josh Bernhagen, Adam Krumholz and Gabe Lloyd all expected to be in the two-deep when camp opens. Two big in-state players wound up at other Big Ten schools - Nathan Stanley (Iowa) and Ben Bredeson (Michigan) - and this class probably ranks higher had UW kept them home.
