Monday, January 4, 2010

Nice pick-ups

What was looking like a ho-hum football recruiting class for Wisconsin got a lot better around the holidays, with commitments from Beau Allen and Sherard Cadogan. Both guys figure to have a shot at playing right away, given our losses at their positions.

Allen is a 6-3, 292-pound nose guard/defensive tackle from Minnetonka, Minn. Not only did we steal him from the Gophers, but Allen had offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Stanford and UCLA. Looking at pictures and video, his size look legit, although he appears to have lots of room to improve the nature of his weight.

Most people, my included, figured defensive tackle would be a weak spot this year, but Jeff Stehle, Dan Moore, Patrick Butrym and Jordan Hein played well enough that our run defense led the Big Ten. Four of our top five DTs are out of eligibility, so Allen will get a shot to play if he's ready.

Cadogan is a teammate of quarterback recruit Joe Brennan, and my favorite thing about them is that they're from New Jersey. We've done so well there historically and went away from the Garden State for awhile, and I'm really happy with the inroads we've made with this class.

Cadogan was named New Jersey's defensive player of the year, but while he has said Wisconsin coaches will let him play both ways, it's likely he'll play tight end, or at least start there. We've got a lot of promising young defensive ends, and an opening to be the #2 pass catching tight end behind Lance Kendricks, so either he or Warren Herring could play as true freshmen. He picked UW over Michigan State, Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

One last thing I like about these kids: their GPAs. Cadogan's is a 3.8, and he wants to major in engineering; Allen has a 3.3 GPA.

James White has a 3.5 GPA and plans to major in accounting, but I'm guessing he won't play much right away. White is a running back from Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas who committed to us yesterday over Michigan State, North Carolina State, and Clemson. If that high school sounds familiar, it's because freshmen Conor O'Neil and Dezmen Southward are also from there.

Also, if you're a high school football geek, you'll recognize Aquinas as the team that won the mythical national championship last year and is annually chocked-full of college prospects. Establishing a pipeline to that high school would be a very good thing. Linebacker Vinnie Mauro and tackle Jermaine Barton are teammates of White also considering UW.

A good few weeks on the recruiting front ...

4 comments:

Matt said...

Definitely shaping up to be a nice class.

While Allen is definitely a nice get, I don't know that we "stole" him from Minnesota. If I remember correctly, Minnesota was never a real contender. I think both his parents also went to UW, which probably had some sway.

Really like the White signing, especially with Erik Smith now transferring. I thought Smith would be the burner change-of-pace guy to offset Clay but that never materialized. From the limited sample I've seen, Smith actually reminds me a lot of Brian Calhoun with his shiftiness/speed/nice hands combo. It would be pretty awesome if that comparison is close to apt.

Matt said...

I meant White reminds me of Calhoun, not Smith.

Coach Scott Tappa said...

Where'd you read about Smith transferring? I just went back and re-read his Twitter feed from the past few days and saw him mentioning playing at ISU, guessing that's Illinois State but don't know.

Coach Scott Tappa said...

Yeah, I see it now from @E_SMITH22:

Its final....so long WISCONSIN and on to the next one....had fun made great friends...now time for me to play ball and do what I do....WIN

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