January 23, 2009 | Football
Leading up to Signing Day on Feb. 4, UWBadgers.com will take a look back at the recruiting and signing of some of the best players in recent Badger football history. Today we look at Travis Beckum, who signed with UW in the winter of 2005.
Coming out of high school, Beckum was rated as the top player in Wisconsin, the No. 6 linebacker in the country and the 56th player overall nationally. Beckum certainly made his mark at UW, but not at linebacker. After switching from defense to offense after his freshman season, Beckum went on to rank third in school history in both career receptions (159) and receiving yards (2,149). Both are easily school records among tight ends.
With obvious talent, Beckum was a highly sought-after recruit coming out of high school. But physical ability wasn't the only reason Wisconsin was interested in making him a Badger. UW head coach Bret Bielema, who was an assistant at that time, remembers his first meeting with Beckum.
'I remember him coming to campus for the first time in the spring,' Bielema said. 'He was a very impressive person. Physically he was about as tall as he is now, not near as big but you could tell, very well put together. He had a great confidence to him. That was very apparent when we first sat down and visited with him that he was a very confident person that was going to have success in whatever he did. '
Watching him on film somewhat foreshadowed his ability to adapt to different situations on the field, which eventually led to him becoming a successful tight end.
'On film, you just saw a great athlete that was running around,' Bielema said. 'They used him in a variety of different positions and you could see he was a playmaker.'
When Signing Day rolled around, there was little suspense for the Badger staff.
'He was pretty solid in his commitment,' Bielema said. 'We were in his high school and his home, I believe, the week before signing day and everything was in line. You could tell he had decided he was going to be a Badger and there wasn 't any changing his mind.'
