Wisconsin Badgers Recruiting Anniversary: QB Jon Budmayr

In nine of the last 12 recruiting classes, the University of Wisconsin has signed a quarterback, the Badgers have landed that key positional player before Memorial Day. That was certainly the case for the class of 2009.

The Badgers – led by then offensive coordinator Paul Chryst – were enamored with a 6-foot quarterback out of Marion (Ill.) Catholic Central, a talented pro-style passer named Jon Budmayr. Chryst loved the quarterback’s potential so much that the Badgers reportedly didn’t extend an offer to any other pocket passer that cycle. That aggressive approach paid off when Budmayr made his commitment in person on May 20, 2008.

In this latest edition of recruiting anniversaries, we look back 12 years at Budmayr’s commitment.

One of the key lessons Bret Bielema learned from Barry Alvarez when the former took over for the latter as the head coach of the Wisconsin football program was to build recruiting classes from inside the state first. Adhering to that advice, Bielema landed commitments from arguably the three top players in the state – four-star prospects Jordan Kohout and Shelby Harris and three-star lineman Ryan Groy – within a 48-hour window in February to give the 2009 class a nice starting boost.

Budmayr held offers from Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska and Northwestern for most of his recruiting process. In mid-May, however, Budmayr picked up an offer from Notre Dame that looked to be a game changer.

Wisconsin watched Budmayr throw at a Nike Camp at Purdue prior to the 2007 season, a performance that convinced the Badgers to put him on their radar and eventually give him his first scholarship offer. Even though he took a closer look at all the schools that offered him, Budmayr was a constant presence at Wisconsin, making the short drive from Woodstock, Ill., to attend a game, a practice or just visit with the staff.

UW appeared to be in the driver seat until Notre Dame and then-head coach Charlie Weis offered Budmayr in mid-May 2008. Like Wisconsin, Budmayr had been to Notre Dame several times and had been talking to the Fighting Irish staff since the previous year. Budmayr stated publicly that he would treat and evaluate Notre Dame like every other school. To his credit, he did. Roughly a week after he got his Notre Dame offer, Budmayr made another trip to Wisconsin and gave the staff his commitment in person.

“From day one, I wanted to have my decision done before senior year, but I also said that as soon as I knew it was a perfect fit, I wasn’t going to hold back. I just felt that Wisconsin was a perfect fit for me. I can’t thank my family, my parents, my brothers and sisters for all the support they have given me. My coaches and teammates were just great throughout this whole process and I am very excited about it and very thankful for it. I prayed about it quite a bit and talked to my family and knew it was the right fit for me.

“It just hit me that it felt like Wisconsin was where I wanted to go. I love the place. I love the atmosphere. The coaches are just all great. Everything about it, my academics and spirituality is all there. It’s just the right fit for me.”

- Budmayr said in an interview with me on May 20, 2008.

“My height, that's what God gave me. I'm kind of taking the mindset that I'm going to make the best of it. It's just playing football. If you can play, you can play. It's not so much proving others wrong, it's more just going out there doing what I love and that's playing football."

- Budmayr to Rivals.com after taking home MVP honors at the Columbus NIKE camp

Budmayr missed five games his junior season of high school with a partially torn hamstring and then broke his collarbone during the first game of his senior season. Those injury woes never went away for him.

After redshirting in 2009, Budmayr played in three games as a reserve in 2010 behind Scott Tolzien and Curt Phillips. Looking to compete for the starting job in 2011 with Joe Brennan, Budmayr developed nerve problems that started in his throwing arm and progressed to other parts of the body, which also contributed to his hip problems. Budmayr ended up having nine surgeries in two years and decided to quit playing in 2012.

He appeared in only three games, but his highlight was his career-long 74-yard touchdown pass to Jared Abbrederis against Indiana.

While his playing career ended in 2012, Budmayr quickly transitioned to coaching. He served as a student assistant coach at UW in 2012 and ’13 under Bielema. When Chryst left to be the head coach at Pittsburgh, Budmayr went with him to be an offensive graduate assistant. He followed Chryst back to Wisconsin in 2015 and quickly worked his way up the ladder, first as a graduate assistant, then a quality control assistant and finally getting hired as UW’s quarterback coach in 2018 when the NCAA permitted colleges to hire a 10th assistant coach.

We’ll never know if Budmayr would have become the next Drew Brees, but one could argue that he’s contributed more to the Badgers than a lot of other recruited Wisconsin quarterbacks in the last decade. Budmayr’s good-hearted personality and his football intelligence have made him a great recruiter of quarterbacks, being largely responsible for bringing Jack Coan, Chase Wolf, Graham Mertz and Deacon Hill into the program.

Coan told me a story of how he was falling in love with the city of Madison on his recruiting visit in spring 2016, but he didn’t know where to go after arriving at the airport. Completely lost on campus, Coan remembered placing a call looking for directions. The next thing he remembers is Budmayr – drenched in sweat – running up to their car to greet him and his family.

“Right away, I was like this guy has got it,” Coan said. “He brought me into a meeting room where they were having a whole coach’s meeting. I walked in and 50 coaches came up to me and were shaking my hand. Right away I was hooked on this place.”

So, while his playing career will go down as a bust, Budmayr’s commitment has paid off with huge dividends for Wisconsin.