Wisconsin landed a commitment from 2022 three-star defensive tackle Curtis Neal last week, in the end edging out Ohio State and other big-name schools.
Neal’s recruiting path and profile is extremely unique.
The Badgers were his first official offer back in 2018, Neal quickly earned four-star status, big programs including Ohio State, Alabama and LSU offered the defensive lineman, 247Sports then sent him back to a three-star and, finally, we get to where we are today: Curtis Neal committed to play at Wisconsin.
Related: Wisconsin football class of 2022 commitment tracker
Neal came on the most recent episode of Locked On Badgers and talked about his path and recruiting process, what stuck out about Wisconsin, the existence of a class of 2022 commit group chat and more.
The most interesting nugget from the interview was a story about new running backs coach Gary Brown, and an unexpected text which ended up being the spark plug that led him to Wisconsin.
“The crazy thing is, [Wisconsin] thought since I was getting pretty big offers that I kind of five-starred them and just wasn’t talking to them,” Neal said. “But a couple months ago, coach [Gary] Brown texted me and said ‘so are you going to give us a chance,’ and I was like ‘I thought you guys didn’t want me anymore and weren’t interested…’ We got on the phone and got back connected…If I didn’t get that text I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”
#Badger 2022 commit Curtis Neal mentioned a text he got from new RB coach Gary Brown as the spark plug that led to him landing in Madison.
“If I didn’t get that text, I probably wouldn’t be here right now” pic.twitter.com/vbdqVVoGBF
— Ben Kenney (@benzkenney) June 28, 2021
Sometimes it’s small moments like this that define the recruiting process. For a Wisconsin program that welcomed in Brown and promoted defensive line coach Ross Kolodziej, though, the outcome of Neal’s recruiting process is impressive to say the least.
Neal now has a chance to prove doubters wrong and become a force up front on Jim Leonhard’s defense.
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