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 2024 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 wide receivers.
QUICK BREAKDOWN
With the exception of quarterback, no position group saw a bigger injection of talent this winter than wide receiver. Wisconsin added four players via the portal to a group that already returned its top three performers in Chimere Dike, Skyler Bell and Keontez Lewis.
"The common misconception is, ‘oh man, you guys brought in four guys, you’re really changing the room,'" assistant coach Mike Brown said. "Just our philosophy from a roster standpoint of how many guys we carry at the receiver position is different from the previous staff’s philosophy, so we brought in four guys just to get the numbers to where we needed to get them."
During camp, Dike held onto his spot with the No. 1 offense. But as the practices wore on, both Will Pauling and CJ Williams rose up the depth chart. With that, the top five appears to be Dike, Williams, Pauling, Bell and Lewis. Bryson Green, who was limited this spring, is expected to be full-go in the summer.
On the recruiting front in the 2024 class, Wisconsin has been relatively selective with offers. And earlier this spring, Brown hit on one of his top priorities when Kyan Berry-Johnson announced his commitment to the Badgers.
COMMITTEDÂ PROSPECTSÂ
Three-star wide receiver Kyan Berry-Johnson chose Wisconsin this spring over offers from Boston College, Cincinnati, Syracuse and Houston, among others. As a junior, Berry-Johnson tallied 55 receptions for over 1,000 yards and 16 touchdowns.
"What makes Kyan special is his ability to track the ball and overall ball skills," Rivals.com's Clint Cosgrove said of Berry-Johnson. "He just wins 50/50 balls. He's not going to blow you away and take the top off, but he's an exceptional route runner. Any ball, contested or not, I don't care how close the DB is blanketing him, he's going to come up with it. He's that good with his hand-eye coordination and ball skills.
"He snaps off his routes, he's a competitor and he's always open. He's just one of those guys where you can line him up anywhere. And in the right offense, he's a kid who could catch 100 balls. Everything that comes his way, it's almost like running the ball just as long as the ball is within his catch vicinity. It's pretty large for a kid who doesn't have that much size."
