Luke Fickell’s class of 2024, his first full recruiting class as head coach at Wisconsin, can be labeled a resounding success.
Time will ultimately tell how each signee in the group performs, and whether that occurs in Madison or elsewhere. But now that the 2024 cycle has officially concluded, we can officially give props to Fickell’s effort.
Wisconsin’s class finished ranked No. 25 in the nation with 22 total signees. It also slotted as the No. 7-ranked class in the new Big Ten, behind Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, USC and Nebraska in that order. Notably, it was the program’s first time ever boasting a blue chip ratio of 50%.
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It is headlined by four-star OT Kevin Haywood (No. 50 overall, 96 rating), four-star DL Ernest Willor Jr. (No. 120 overall, 94 rating), four-star RB Dilin Jones (No. 139 overall, 94 rating) and four-star DL Dillan Johnson (No. 161 overall, 93 rating).
An account on X recently compared Fickell’s class to what the Badgers have done in the past. The findings: the class boasts the highest average recruit ranking in program history.
Luke Fickell secured the Badgers best recruiting class EVER in 2024 by AVG Recruit Ranking, the class beat out the 2021 class by .02 points and was 2.01 points higher than the 2023 class. Wisconsin was able to bring in 11 four star recruits including OT Kevin Heywood and RB Dilin… pic.twitter.com/u6Wv4d6j8j
— NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) March 6, 2024
I’m a big believer in average recruit ranking telling a better story than total composite score. 10 five-star recruits would be a better class than 40 three-stars, but that’s not what the numbers necessarily show.
Semantics aside, Fickell should be praised for his recruiting efforts this cycle as he works to install his program on both sides of the football.
The future of Wisconsin in the new Big Ten is very much unknown. What is known: the Badgers must recruit at this level and higher for the program to join the conference’s elites.
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