Bielema Discusses 2007 Recruiting Class
February 07, 2007 | Football
Head football coach Bret Bielema met with media members Wednesday to discuss his second recruiting class. The Badgers, who offered 16 scholarships, were 11-1 in Bielema's first year at the helm of the program, including a Capital One Bowl victory over Arkansas to finish the season.
Opening Statement: Today is a culmination of a lot of hard work by our staff and a lot of people involved with the university, from the admissions office to administration to facilities and everybody else in between that put this class together. And we're excited about the 16 scholarship players that we 're able to announce today, representing a lot of different states. We feel that we addressed our needs, especially for the two years to come and the outlook that they have.
The areas that we always try to measure before we bring a kid on campus is to make sure that they would be able to have obviously athletic success, academic success, and social success. And I believe and hope that this class will be able to represent us in all three of those areas with a great amount of success.
Because of the size of this class, relatively small, it may not garnish a lot of national recognition as far as where the experts, or so-called experts, may have them ranked at this point, but I'm sure that they'll be able to come in and follow a Wisconsin tradition, develop the right way and basically have their time here be very successful in all those three areas.
With that, I'll just go through this tape. It gives a look at all these prospects. We've got four clips on all those kids. Starting off in alphabetical order, first is Zach Brown, a running back that we recruited out of Royal Palm Beach. Dave Doeren was the lead recruiter in this area. Actually, both running backs from this school signed letters of intent Division I players.
We feel Zach is a big, powerful back that is going to be able to come in and have the possibility of playing for us early on, giving us depth at that position. You can see he has great speed, plays in a very competitive environment. And the state of Florida has been good to us in the last several years, and we expect him to come in, and here you see him line up actually at the fullback position. Good size, a good balance of speed, and overall a great kid to have in the program.
Next is Patrick Butrym. Patrick was one of our first commits after camp. He was able to come into camp and show us what he does. Bob Bostad recruited him as lead recruiter here in the state. The thing I like about Patrick, we're going to start him off at both the defensive end and the defensive tackle position.
He's able to show us a lot of athleticism during camp, also was used as a tight end in high school, a very versatile athlete with good size. His dad was actually on the National Championship team from Marquette. It's always good when you walk in and see the parents, Dad's about seven foot tall. So that's a good thing.
John Clay, obviously a very highly recruited player here in the state of Wisconsin. Henry Mason was the lead recruiter with John. We knew about John for a long time. He's obviously had a lot of success, well documented within the state here. It was a big get for us because we know for us to have success year in and year out it needs to start here in the state of Wisconsin. And obviously, John had a lot of people after him from all over the country, someone who we built a relationship early on with his high school coach as well as with his parents and everybody else involved in the decision.
John, the thing I appreciated about him during the recruiting process is he just handled everything in a way that makes me believe if he comes here and is able to have that same type of success, he'll be able to handle things in the right way. I really just like the way he approached it. He had a timetable in mind. He wasn't deviating off of it. He talked about it with his parents and really stayed true to the course. And I really believe he has an opportunity to come in early on and contribute as well with him and Zach at the running back position.
David Gilreath, it was an interesting story, a guy that walked into camp and we knew a little bit about him. I think he'll become very popular right now with his video with all Wisconsin fans as a punt returner, kick returner, wide receiver. You can see that he has very good speed. We like him because when he came to camp, he was probably one of the most impressive athletes ever since I've been coaching to come into camp and overwhelm you with what he's able to physically do.
And the greatest part about him is once you get to know him, probably one of his strongest points is just his overall character. He actually was involved in a highly intense recruiting process within the Big Ten. You can see he has a lot of ability, so he was wanted by a lot of different people, and were able to come through in the end and pick the University of Wisconsin based on the tradition. Bob Bostad again the lead recruiter out of the state of Minnesota. Here's another punt return. Really catches the ball very, very well, both in pass routes as well as a natural return man. You see here he likes to create extra yardage just by going east and west because he can usually outrun everybody else. He might be able to run right under this table without ducking, but he can really fly.
Mario Goins, out of Copperas Cove, Texas, a young man that we really, really liked on film. Cary Kosick is the leader/recruiter. Cary was able to see him. You see him here playing the safety position, or the corner position actually, with the pick, but he plays both corner and safety. We'll start him off at corner, see what he can do. He 's someone that we're really exciting about just because he's relatively raw. Has got great body size. A guy that we feel that can make a tremendous amount of growth physically. Here, you see he can play the ball very well. He has the ability probably to play both sides of the football. We're start him off on defense.
Jasper Grimes, another connection to William T. Dwyer High School down in West Palm Beach. Again, Dave was the lead recruiter on this. We've actually had three players now from Dwyer High School. The first was Brandon White, who was a great player here for us, Jeremy McFadden, a current linebacker for us now, and now Jasper is a guy that we're going to start him off in the defensive tackle position, had a good ability. He has great power, very compact, about six one, but really, really thick, feel he can move and play inside and stay with the defensive line tradition that we have here. He does a great job of getting off, playing off blocks with his hands, and can accelerate to the football.
Aaron Henry, a young man out of Immokalee High School. Kind of a unique story here. Immokalee was actually barred from the playoffs in Florida this past year. They finished the season undefeated, I believe ranked top ten in the country in high school. He 's used as a punt returner, a kick returner, as a corner, as well as a safety. He 's a very dynamic player on film. The part that I like about his I've been going to Immokalee High School for a number of years as a recruiter myself. Dave went in and recruited Aaron, was highly recruited. I went on several official visits.
The thing I appreciate about Aaron is, as a recruiter, he committed to us early on in December. After that fact, once in Wisconsin, gets located in that state, people tend to pay attention. A lot of people came after him, and he's able to stay the course and stay committed to us, and was very, very strong. I went to All Star game. I had several coaches that were at that game commented on his abilities as a football player.
Kyle Jefferson, a connection again to Glenville. Kyle is a tall wide receiver, a Henry Mason lead recruiter, actually, who had a connection to the Evans family, and was very interested in us from the get-go, but he I think visited a total of four other Big Ten schools, a guy that we 've been able to count in a possibility coming in and playing early as a returner, as well as a receiver. See, he has very, very good speed. He's a tall wide receiver, needs to get in Coach Doeren's weight room a little bit, but really feel that he potentially can be a special player for us early on. We have two players from Glenville. This is the first. I'll show you a corner here in a minute, really like Kyle, again, was a camp kid, came into camp and showed us what he could do.
Quincy Landingham, who's here in the audience with us today, unique story with Quincy. He was committed to another Big Ten school previously. We handled things the right way. I always believe in recruiting, if you just handle things the right way, you can always benefit in the long run. And after there was a coaching change at that respective University, Quincy opened it back up, came into an official visit during the month of December with his father, actually, came in as an unofficial, and then came back later as an official, and is enrolled in school and already competing at the safety position for us, which we obviously lost a lot of key personnel there.
Otis Merrill, Otis is another Glenville product, someone that came into camp where Coach Cooks was able to work with him. A guy that we were really impressed with in camp, stayed with, again, Harry Mason the lead recruiter. Otis has done a great job of working on the things that we need to do to have him have success here. I really feel that he can come in and contribute for us as well. Overall, I thought if there's one area that we needed to be strong out in this recruiting class, kind of like the offensive line a year ago, it was probably the defensive back position, both at safety and corner. And all these kids we've signed have got great speed, great range. A lot of them have played both corner and safety, so we'll just kind of get them in here and let them figure it out.
Louis Nzegwu, we call him Louie. He's a guy that is actually a relation to Jack Ikegwuonu, so they probably have the two hardest names to pronounce on the team. But Louis was used primarily as a running back, but also as a defensive player. We had him in camp again, a guy that came in and showed us what he could do during camp, made an offer shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, he ended the season with an injury, but expect a full recovery, and expect him to be able to come in and compete in the fall. Here you see him. He 's using as well on kickoff coverage, a guy that we're going to utilize and kind of try out that defensive end position to start off with.
Josh Oglesby, out of St. Francis, Coach Bostad, lead recruiter on him. The one thing that I appreciate about Josh is we've known about him for a long time. Out of this recruiting class, he's probably the first offer of the entire, not probably, he is the first offer that we made a very well-publicized recruit ever since his freshman year. Anytime you 're six five and 280 pounds as a freshman, you're going to get attention. And Josh, unfortunately, had an injury this fall, but stayed true to form, is improving, expect him to have full recovery for us in the fall.
Kevin Rouse, a linebacker out of Joliet Catholic. The thing I like about Kevin, when you watch in film, he's probably one of the most disciplined linebackers I've seen out of a high school player as far as the fundamentals, keeping square shoulders, understanding where's he supposed to be, how he fits into the scheme of things. Here you see him getting a break on the football. Joliet Catholic is a very, very successful program in Illinois, as well as across the country, a lot of great players year in and year out. It was a highly recruited battle for him as well. We were able to get him to change his mind, and come to his senses, and come to Wisconsin. But just a guy that I really like, his demeanor, and think that this upside as a football player is very, very high.
Blake Sorensen, also another linebacker, recruited by Coach Bostad out of Minnesota, I think he was the Minnesota State Player of the Year, used him both as a linebacker, they used him as a running back. I just really like the way that he competes. I went in to watch him play basketball, and he definitely was a football player playing basketball. He likes to mix it up and have a good time. And you see him, again, Eden Prairie is a very successful program in the state of Minnesota with Mike Grant. And I really think that Blake can come, and he has the ability maybe to play for us early on at one of the outside linebacker positions.
James Stallons, our quarterback, our only quarterback in the class. James, again, another camp kid, recruited by Henry Mason. I know Coach Chryst really enjoyed working with him during camp. We had a small number of quarterbacks that we were trying to evaluate and determine, the recruitment of quarterbacks is a very, very unique thing. First off, a lot of times, you have to balance out playing time, as well as an opportunity. The system that you're in, whether or not they feel they can come in and compete and play right away, and just like what James showed us during camp, his charisma, his attitude, his work ethic, also very good basketball player, a guy that we expect to come in and do special things.
Nick Toon, obviously because of the local product here, has been well documented. We really believe that Nick has huge upside, really has had a steady development as a football player. I remember him receiving as a sophomore in our camp as a junior, and now going into his senior year, and the development he has made and physically, obviously, the son of Al Toon, a great player here at Wisconsin, and playing in the NFL a long time. And the thing about Nick is he's his own man. He's the reason he's name Nick Toon, he wants to establish a name here at Wisconsin that's of his own. And I really like and think that he can do some things here. He's also heavily involved in the return game, somebody else that we can give another shot to and an opportunity.
That's our scholarship class. Also, I'll open it up for some questions.
QUESTION #1: Coach, you've obviously had some great offensive lineman here at Wisconsin. How good can Josh be'
BIELEMA: Well, I think he's just like every offensive lineman that comes in here potentially has the ability to be a very good football player, obviously has the size, and frame, and athleticism that you need. But I kind of compare Josh to Travis Beckum a few years ago. You know, Travis was a highly, highly recruited young man out of the Milwaukee area. Because of the areas he's in, he gets a lot of publicized, a lot of publications are high, ranking him high as the best offensive tackle in the country and all this.
But it really doesn't matter what has happened in the past. It's what they do when they get here. And Josh has handled everything from the media, and the scrutiny, and the, you know, it's pretty easy as a 16-, 17-year-old young man to let certain things, or ideas, or thoughts pop into your head. And I think he's stayed pretty ground.
I think back to last May, I felt that we were in good shape with him all the way along. And I think that first two or three days in May recruiting, there was, you know, of the top ten programs in the country, five of those head coaches walked through the school, and I made a decision not to go in until the later part of May. And he obviously committed to us early on in May before I had even gone into the school. And it just showed me that he thought the right way. He wasn't getting wild by anything that was being put in front of him, other than the facts that made the best decision for him.
QUESTION #2: Bret, how would you just compare the whole process to what you went through a year ago recruiting-wise' And then do you think you're on a little bit higher caliber kid this year maybe than in past years'
BIELEMA: Well to answer your first part, I like the fact that we had a whole staff, I think Henry and Paul were about ready to kill me last year when we were on the road for three straight weeks. But this year, to have a full staff and have everybody pull their own weight and do what they need to do, obviously, I 'm relying heavily on four, five of my assistants to be strong recruiters in their areas. But everybody overall did a great job of working together and doing a great job when they're in here on visits, so that was probably a lot better.
So that when we actually had a defensive lineman in here, you could meet with his defensive line coach, it made huge difference. And I think back to last year, basically, we were offering kids that last week, you know, that to fill out and complement our class. And this year, we were cutting and had to remove guys from our class that wound up potentially and had to take a couple tough phone calls, as well as make a couple tough visits to tell kids that we didn't have opportunity for them anymore. So I think that's a good position.
But I wouldn't compare this year's class to last year's class just because I don't want to get in that situation. I am very, very excited about this class. I think that the thing we measure is obviously what they're able to do once they get here. But early indications, starting with Quincy and the way he was able to handle his first six a.m. workout the other day, and the way he's handled his college adjustment, as well as during the recruiting process, the way some of these kids went about it is very, very unique and special.
As far as being on a higher quality of kid, I know this, our competition was much greater. So if that's any indication, but it's kind of funny, I spent all day today on the phone with prospects as they called in of the current class, as well as I probably fielded probably almost 30 calls from underclassmen in reference to next year 's recruiting class. And the whole time, I had kept flipping back and forth between two TV stations that were carrying live recruiting.
And to have the coaches that were on there getting interviewed, and to see the rankings come across, and I wrote them down, and the top 20, you hear schools like Florida, USC, Texas, Notre Dame, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Virginia Tech, A&M, Clemson, Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, Penn State in the top 20, Wisconsin's never mentioned. But I have a feeling and an idea, I think where we know we'll end up.
And it kind of does justice. I did an interview yesterday with someone who asked about the signing date. And I was watching a couple schools that had 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 people in an arena to watch the announcement, and putting the whole kind of circus atmosphere production to it. I want our kids to know when they sign in this class, they're coming to be part of a program that works, who develops kids once they're here, and ultimately, comes out with a finished product that we feel is one of the top 20 in the country year in and year out.
QUESTION #3: Coach, can you touch upon a bit more about kind of protecting the home court, so to speak, and in some of the top players in the state of Wisconsin'
BIELEMA: It was very important. I said it last year when we sat in one of our earlier recruiting meetings. One of the things that I felt great about was when I hired Bob Bostad, a guy from the state of Wisconsin, to handle that as a recruiting effort. And put Coach Mason in the city of Milwaukee, as well as in Racine, and knew that we had a huge commitment from our staff to recruit in the state of Wisconsin.
And the thing that I've always said all along is any player that is at the level or has the ability to help us win a championship in the state of Wisconsin needs to say here, two prospects obviously that garnished national attention were John Clay and Josh Oglesby. Josh was in our boat pretty early. You always worry about keeping him and maintaining him, but he stayed true to form.
And then John, I felt, I had a good feeling all along. Henry did a great job, Coach Settle, everybody on our staff, of trying to make him feel special, and keep him involved, and get him worked into the family. And then ultimately to keep those two guys in condition with Toon, and Butrym, and Nzegwu, that was an important part to this class. And it 's something that hopefully we won't deviate from.
As I was watching those shows today, it was brought to my attention that a school in our conference who's very well thought of in their respective state didn't potentially get the top five players, and the top five players from that state left. And we don't ever want that to happen here at Wisconsin, and we've got to make sure that that doesn't.
QUESTION #4: Bret, could you talk a little bit about the two in-state walk-ons that you announced with the press release today '
BIELEMA: Yeah, Rob Corselin, if he turns out as good as the last couple Brookfield Central guys, we'll be all right. He's a young man that we had a chance to watch firsthand when he came here for the State Championship game. And because we have such a small class, we really tried to pursue aggressively several walk-ons in the state. And just because of the NCA rules that exist, and we expect to add a few more names to that list in the next month, but they have to be officially accepted to the University, and there's some paperwork that has to go through.
So in addition to him and Cody Rose, who will be coming in, and Cody will join us as a quarterback/athlete that might be able to help us at several different positions. We expect some other guys to be able to join him as well. And potentially, just the way that the NCAA works, we'll expect to possibly join one more scholarship member within the week here at the University of Wisconsin.
QUESTION #5: How hard was it, Bret, with the smaller number of scholarships available' And are you at 85 now' And did you give any thought to over-signing, or do you have any thoughts'
BIELEMA: I did give thoughts to over-signing, and we did. The Big Ten basically has a set of rules that is very unique, compared to anyplace else. If you grab a USA Today, tomorrow you'll see their school is in the Big Twelve, Pack Ten, SEC and ACC that will sign over 30 players. By NCAA rule, you can only sign 25. So I don't ever really get or understand, and I know if you go to the grocery story with $25, they only let leave with $25 worth of food.
But if, for whatever reasons, the NCAA, you know anybody can sign 25, they allow you to over-sign in certain conferences. The Big Ten allows you to over sign by three. And, well, with a small class, that kind of hindered us because there were some kids that we were involved with today who we sent national letters of intent to, but anytime we sent one, that means just one less person we can send another person to.
And when those kids, we didn't bat a hundred percent, so there's two scholarships out there that we have to get back before we can offer them out to other people. And that's part of the process, and it's one of those things you go through. But the small class was hard because my linebacker coach wants four linebackers. My DB coach wants four DBs. My wide receiver coach wants four, the only one that wasn't selfish, Paul, he just wanted one. Just kidding, he wanted two. But as you go through the whole thing, it's difficult because early on, you may get three DB commitments and only have one linebacker, and you got to prioritize, when it gets down to the end, what's your best player.
QUESTION #6: Do you expect two more scholarships '
BIELEMA: No. We'll just over-sign by just one more because every person, like last year, we over-signed by three and used all three. But then obviously, you've got to have the numbers end up in the end.
QUESTION #7: Bret, you hear a lot about de-commits these days. Are coaches changing their approach with kids who are verbally committed' Are players changing' What's going on'
BIELEMA: Well, I think every case is unique. I really believe we were the benefit of more that we received than what we lost. And I think part of that was here you have a rookie coach with a new staff coming into his first job that no one knew a great deal about. With the success we had, one of the great things we were able to do as a staff is be able to walk into those homes the last week of November for the first time with 11 and 1 as our record.
And I think anytime you have that type of record, it's really going to help you. And we were able to turn some heads of kids that were maybe committed to other schools, as well as to be able to, we gained some quick momentum after our Arkansas victory in early December with a couple of our kids.
But I don't think that maybe the kids have changed as much as the timing of things have changed. Kids are making decisions early, early, early on before they have a chance to go out and make official visits. And I wouldn't change the way the football recruiting is right now to anywhere close to what basketball or any of those other sports have because they got early signing periods. Those coaches are out on the road a lot longer than we are. And I think it would be a disservice to both our coaches, as well as the student athletes.
So I like the current setup, but one of the repercussions of that is the de commitments. And it's just part of the whole world too. Everybody kind of wants attention. And kids may be committed for about a month and a half, two months. All of a sudden, they want a little bit of love, and they want to get their names in the paper. And one of the ways they can do that is to regenerate the whole recruiting process.
QUESTION #8: Bret, I know you wanted to keep things going strong in Florida. Can you talk abut just the job Dave did down there ' Are you pretty happy with the way things came out there'
BIELEMA: I am. I felt that, as I've said all along, in the Midwest, we need to be strong in Wisconsin, and Illinois, and Minnesota because of our proximity. Then the other two areas that I really want to emphasize were Florida and the state of Texas. And I really felt that early on, we were on some great players. And just recently, we lost out on two potential Florida kids to Florida State and Ohio State.
And I think anytime, you know, we were in the battle there to the very end with those types of situations, and it speaks volumes about where we're at, and where we can potentially go to. And again, I think just each year that we are able to have success, it just builds our reputation that much more.
But those Florida kids are very, very unique. I tried to explain it to Dave. When I assigned him to go down there, it's a unique process down there just because it 's totally different than any other part of the country that I've been involved with, as far as building relationships with our players, with the coaches, and relying on our current players. It really relates or speaks well to our kids when we 're able to name off a couple high schools that they're right next to that current players are already here.
QUESTION #9: Coach, I know you said you had a good feeling about John Clay, but was he one of the guys that you were on the edge of your seat with toward the end because he took so long'
BIELEMA: Well, I was anxious and eager for John to make a commitment, but for those that have mentored John, he's just kind of got a sly, slow way of expressing his emotions. And I think he made me feel, as well as Coach Mason feel, that we were in a comfortable spot. But you never know anytime a kid visits another school, and things can happen. And he was able to stick to his form.
And he had given us a pretty good indication that we were in the lead, but my coaches were always throwing these articles in front of me where he says his, or he says that. And I called the night before, and I said, hey, you got the best poker face in the country, unless you're telling me something that's not true. And that's the thing I appreciate about John is he had something in his mindset on what he's going to do, and that's what he stayed true.
QUESTION #10: You made some inroads in really good programs, like Joliet Catholic, and Glenville, and Eden Prairie. How significant is that '
BIELEMA: Huge. Because right now, one of the benefits to our whole recruiting approach this year, and to have the smaller class that it was, basically the last two to three weeks of recruiting, I've been able to have seven assistants out on the road and do an unbelievable job of developing our class for next year already, being able to get in the schools, see the kids visually, watch them play basketball.
The last two weeks when I was on the road was almost the entire junior recruiting. As I mentioned earlier, I think the recruiting process of quarterbacks is very, very unique. We had Coach Chryst out on the road the last two weeks, looking at junior quarterbacks and underclassmen, so that kind of stuff is invaluable. And every school that you just mentioned, we'll recruit players there year in and year out, but just because of the program they've established.
QUESTION #11: Coach, following up on John Clay, he's listed as a running back, but has been described as an athlete that can play multiple positions. Where do you see him fitting in'
BIELEMA: Running back. He's not going to play any other position until he tells me or shows me otherwise. I think John feels very strong about that, as we do as football coaches. There's a lot of kids that are tagged with different titles that you come in with the idea and the philosophy they could play another position if need be, but I don't think John will vary off that track. He believes in, and from everything I've seen, he looks like a running back to me.
But the part that we've really used here at Wisconsin, for instance, and Travis Beckum and Andy Crooks, two guys that came in at another position had fallen behind some guys that they weren't necessarily going to see the field. But as coaches, we presented him with an opportunity to make a decision and never make a kid do something he doesn't want to do. They switched willingly and got to reap the rewards of those moves right now.
QUESTION #12: Bret, you mentioned before about going into a living room with 11 victories, and then the moment that was gained after Arkansas. When, did you sense that it was an easier sell this time around with your program at all'
BIELEMA: I don't know if it was an easier sell, but maybe had more legitimacy because I was the head coach for the past year. Last year, when I was in the home, I was the coach to be. I hadn't won a ballgame, and I didn't have a complete staff, so there was enough questions or issues out there. I can see our competitors being able to raise enough questions with each kid that we had. But I think the foundation of what Coach Alvarez has been establish here, and then what we were able to carry forward as a staff this year gave credence to that this is something we feel we can sustain for a period of time.
QUESTION #13: You talked about Gilreath and Henry as returners. How important was that in this class to get a returner'
BIELEMA: Well, it was. And I said this during the course of the year, it was evident to me as a head coach that you always have to have someone in the wings of development of their, there's guys that are currently in our program, the two red-shirt guys in particular, that we feel may be able to contribute in that fashion as well. But it was very, very nice to pop on that film and to have those kids in camp and realize what they could do in the return game because it's such an important part of our overall success in the program.
