"At-home feeling" and Wisconsin experience leads Jack Van Dyke to walk-on

On Monday, Neenah (WI) specialist Jack Van Dyke publicly announced his decision to walk-on with the Wisconsin Badgers.

However, he believes he realized earlier on that he would commit to his home-state school.

“I think right away when they called to give me the [preferred walk-on offer] was like a big moment when I realized that I wanted to play there," Van Dyke told BadgerBlitz.com on Wednesday. "But it wasn’t until about two weeks ago when I finally sat down and decided like this is the place I want to spend the next four-to-five years of my life.”

According to Kohl's Kicking, Van Dyke rates as a five-star punter and kicker. On June 26, he received the preferred walk-on offer from Wisconsin. Just two days later, Iowa brought forth the same opportunity.

Van Dyke initially told BadgerBlitz.com on July 3 that the programs stood out as his top two, but a couple of factors went into his decision as to why he chose Wisconsin in the end.

“I definitely think just the at-home feeling and especially staying close to my family," the 6-foot-5, 190-pound Van Dyke said. "Like if I went anywhere else I don’t think they’d be able to come to every single game. Here in Wisconsin, they’re definitely going to come to every single game for sure since it’s so close.

“I just think with their program, it’s just unbeatable. The experience is just amazing when you go on game day visits, and I think every Badger fan knows what I’m talking about when I say that.”

Though Van Dyke went public with his official decision earlier this week, joining fellow in-state recruits Sean Timmis and Duncan McKinley as Wisconsin walk-ons, he planted the seeds earlier.

“I think it was about a week ago that I told them that I’d officially commit like in the next week or so," Van Dyke said. "But right away when they called to give me the PWO, I already told them that I was planning on committing there just because they were my dream school, but it wasn’t official or anything. I was just letting them know how I was feeling at the moment.”

According to Van Dyke, a couple of other programs outside of Wisconsin and Iowa--North Dakota State and South Dakota--also showed interest.

"They said that if I came out on a visit, they’d potentially give me like a scholarship offer," Van Dyke said.

Even with the possibility of a scholarship offer as a specialist, Van Dyke elected to stay home and walk on.

"The first thing that I thought about was my future at Wisconsin," Van Dyke said. "Like I’m going to get a great education, and plus I’ll be playing football. With a bunch of punters and kickers leaving like Connor Allen and Anthony Lotti, and Collin Larsh is going to be gone in a couple of years, there’s going to be a lot of spots open for potential scholarships.

"So I think that was a huge reason why I just stayed here to commit there as a walk-on."

For the No. 19 kicker and No. 16 punter in the nation, it appears Van Dyke might start with the latter responsibilities, though there may be opportunities down the line for more.

“As of now, I think I’ll be punting at Wisconsin when my time comes, but they also said that a lot of spots are going to be open so there's like a wide variety of places that I could be.”