Football recruits: In-state

It's been awhile since I ran down any sort of recruiting news, but Bret Bielema and friends have been assembling the class of 2010. As I write this the most recent recruiting news is highly-rated Whitefish Bay punter Will Hagerup choosing -- gulp -- Michigan over Wisconsin and several other big-name schools. Disappointed, but not devastated since Brad Nortman has two more years of eligibility remaining.

It's not a class for the ages yet, there are no Parade All-Americans or guys ranked in the top 10 at their positions, but it seems like this class is full of solid prospects from places that have been good to us in the past.

Most of the early commits were in-state, so let's look at those guys first.

Bryce Gilbert, DT, Brookfield
An early commit, he was interested in some other Big Ten schools, but his only other offers were from I-AA schools and Indiana, which may as well be a I-AA school.

Jake Irwin, DE, Waunakee
Gotta love the Madison-area kids.

Jeff Lewis, RB, Brookfield
He's got good size, 6-2, 200, but isn't necessarily a power runner.

Marquis Mason, WR, Madison
Great size at 6-5, 215, he's apparently going to try to play basketball at Madison as well. Comparisons to Donald Hayes?

Michael Trotter, DB, Milwaukee
Good-sized safety from Marquette High, his other offers were like a lot of these guys -- I-AA, MAC, and Indiana.

Konrad Zagzebski, DE, Schofield
Probably the best in-state prospect in this class, he originally committed to Minnesota but changed his mind. Glad he did. Is coming off a knee injury.

Dallas Lewallen, OL, Berlin
His high school team is winless, but apparently he's playing well.

On one hand, you could be a cynic and complain that we're taking a lot of kids that have lesser offers and interest. On the other, it is crucial to the identity and success of this program that we continue bringing in the best kids from the state, even if they're not all four-star prospects. Just need to coach 'em up.

Kevin Huntley

Immediately after graduating from the University of Wisconsin I packed my horrible CD collection and Superfriends pillow into my 1990 Pontiac Grand Am and headed for my first post-graduate job, sports editor of The News-Messenger in Fremont, Ohio. It was a great experience, but I was lonely, especially at first. Most of my knucklehead friends were still in Madison having fun, and I was working 80 hours a week.

One afternoon that summer reminded me of the Madison I missed so much and the good times I had there. It was the day I interviewed Kevin Huntley, a Fremont native who spent the same four years at UW as I did -- the big difference being he played for the football team while I was just an interested observer.

Kevin was a superstar athlete at St. Joseph Central Catholic at roughly the same time Charles Woodson was an all-galaxy athlete at crosstown Fremont Ross. Everyone in Fremont had nice things to say about what a good kid Kevin was, which reinforced my perception of him at UW. After Wisconsin, Huntley spent time on the Chiefs' roster before playing football in Germany.

Several weeks ago I was delighted to get an email from Kevin, who told me he reads the blog from time to time. It's a natural fit; after all, how many people out there have ties to both Fremont and UW?

I asked him what he's doing nowadays, and he's living in Florida, married to a Fremont girl. He keeps in touch with a lot of the guys he played with at UW, including Lamar Campbell, Cayetano Castro, Marcus Carpenter, Donald Hayes, and Michael London. (OK classmates, was that a trip down memory lane or what?)

Kevin's cousin competes for Michigan in track, so he follows that sport closely. Here's the other thing: he likes having the Big Ten Network, which allows him, living in Florida, to follow Badger sports much more than he ever would have without it. See, it's working!

I always thought Huntley got a raw deal at UW. If you'll recall, he started out at wide receiver, switched to defensive back for his sophomore and junior seasons, then back to wide receiver for his senior seasons. He led the team's defensive backs in tackles the two years he started at safety, then got stuck behind two NFL wideouts in Hayes and Tony Simmons.

Anyway, great to hear from another member of the class of 1998, and a former athlete to boot.

No Bed of Roses

For my birthday, Jana got me No Bed of Roses, a book recommended by ajs last month in our impromptu book club post. The book is by Chris Kennedy, a walk-on who was a wide receiver at UW from 199-93, and who, quite frankly, I don’t remember. Not surprising, since he was stuck on the bench behind the likes of Lee Deramus, J.C. Dawkins, and Michael London.

A couple days of crappy weather kept us homebound, to my delight, as I was able to finish this relatively short (230 pages) book in a couple days. Overall, it was a really good look inside the Badger football program at an amazing time, the early days of the Alvarez Era when the program was transforming from perennial loser to national power.

Kennedy, understandably, did not see the field, as the talent level on the roster was upgraded dramatically during that time. If he had arrived on campus four years earlier, he may have ended up starting – West Bend’s own Tony Spaeth, also a small high school running back turned college receiver, led the team in receiving one of the Don Morton years.

As you go through, you really feel for guys like Kennedy who bust their ass for years and get barely a sniff of the field. Ever since Barry arrived, an emphasis has been placed on maintaining a thriving walk-on program. That program should not just yield starters like the Jim Leonhards, Donnel Thompsons and Joe Panoses. It also needs guys like Chris Kennedy who push the starters every day in practice as scout teamers, and who keep interest in the Badgers personal in small towns around the state.

Reading the book called to mind the experience of our old friend Kurt Reineck. I met him first day at Sullivan Hall; he told me he was on the football team, and I didn't believe him at first since he wasn't on the roster listed in Badger Plus, which I read religiously. Kurt was smacked with reality his first day of practice, when Donald Hayes glided by him on the 10th set of end-of-practice sprints as if it were a stroll in the park. Kurt left the team after a few days, which is what most of Kennedy's walk-on peers did, what I would have done, and what I was pulling for Kennedy to do while reading. College is too short, man, enjoy it!

If I had one criticism, it would be that Kennedy’s motivation to write the book seems to be to set the record as he sees it straight – no one in his family complained about being left off the trip to Tokyo for the critical game against Michigan State, and as such, he didn’t deserve to be left off the Rose Bowl dress list. Hearing just his side of the story, you come to the conclusion that he got screwed. He also seems to enjoy telling stories of all the wonderful women who find themselves attracted to football players.

To me the most interesting part of the book is Kennedy’s relationship with Jay Norvell, then his position coach and now UCLA’s offensive coordinator. Norvell comes off as a real asshole who in four years never takes the time to get to know Kennedy. Then again, Kennedy was probably never going to see significant playing time, so why devote tons of time developing him rather than getting Deramus where he needs to be? It’s a catch-22, and it’s probably unrealistic to expect position coaches to be close with all their players.

Our good friend Adam Mertz is thanked up front in the acknowledgements section, and a snippet of Mertzy’s review is on the back cover.

In the end, glad I spent the time on it, college football from a different perspective. It’s a good read, pick it up if you have a chance.

Anyone else read it yet? ajs?