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Wisconsin to welcome some of 2025’s top recruits onto campus this weekend

Wisconsin to welcome some of 2025’s best recruits onto campus this weekend

Wisconsin football begins a critical month in the class of 2025 recruiting cycle this weekend. It is the first big official visit weekend of the cycle, and sees the Badgers welcome some of the top players in the class.

The Badgers enter June with 247Sports’ No. 19-ranked recruiting class in the nation with 11 total players committed. The group has a strong foundation but lacks the blue-chip talent the program landed in the 2024 cycle.

Related: Full list of Wisconsin football’s scheduled class of 2025 official visits

That difference can be made up with a strong month on the recruiting trail. Many of the program’s top targets will be on campus during one of the next four weekends. That means the Badgers have legitimate shots at landing commitments — at least in most cases.

With the first official visit date now just days away, here are the program’s headliners for that first weekend:

  • Four-star Edge Jayden Woods (No. 167 player in class of 2025, No. 18 Edge, No. 5 recruit from Kansas)
  • Four-star LB Mason Posa (No. 154 player in class of 2025, No. 18 LB, No. 1 recruit from New Mexico)
  • Four-star CB Mason Alexander (No. 296 player in class of 2025, No. 29 CB, No. 5 recruit from Indiana)
  • Three-star CB Rukeem Stroud (No. 430 player in class of 2025, No. 35 CB, No. 57 recruit from Florida)
  • Three-star WR Eugene Hilton Jr. (No. 449 player in class of 2025, No. 72 WR, No. 7 recruit from Indiana)
  • Four-star CB Jaimier Scott (No. 336 player in class of 2025, No. 16 athlete, No. 12 recruit from Ohio) — COMMITTED
  • Three-star OT Michael Roeske (No. 422 player in class of 2025, No. 36 OT, No. 3 recruit from Wisconsin) — COMMITTED
  • Three-star WR Cameron Miller (No. 422 player in class of 2025, No. 68 WR, No. 13 recruit from New Jersey) — COMMITTED

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion.

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The college football spring transfer portal window closed today

Good news for the Badgers:

The 2024 college football spring transfer portal window closed Wednesday with the start of May.

The period ran from April 16 to April 30. It did not see quite as much action as a winter window that included fallout from Nick Saban’s retirement, but it was still a busy time for many of the country’s top programs.

Related: Wisconsin football 2024 spring transfer portal window tracker

Wisconsin saw eight players enter the portal and has added two thus far. The window is now closed for any entrants, but those that are already in the portal can still search for a destination.

The departed Badgers: QB Nick Evers, DL T.J. Bollers, DL Gabe Kirschke, WR Tommy McIntosh, DL Mike Jarvis, CB A.J. Tisdell and CB Michael Mack.

The additions: former Vanderbilt OL Leyton Nelson and former Illinois OL Joey Okla.

None of the eight now-former Badgers were projected to start this season — though Bollers may be the biggest loss from an already-thin defensive line room.

Meanwhile, the two additions should both play important depth roles along the offensive line. The starting five is set, but the program badly needed depth behind the top group. Each lineman comes with multiple years of eligibility remaining and could play themselves into a starting role in the future.

The biggest headline with the spring portal window closing: Wisconsin did not lose any of its top contributors. That’s welcome news after Wisconsin basketball saw point guard Chucky Hepburn and wing A.J. Storr both enter after the 2023-24 season.

The Badgers have retained their top talent, even with large SEC programs circling the water for any defensive line and offensive line talent. That means the program can look forward and aim for a big splash or two before the 2024 campaign begins.

For more on Wisconsin’s transfer portal activity this spring, check out our 2024 spring transfer portal window tracker.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

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Alabama football set to play at Oklahoma on Nov. 23, 2024

Alabama set to travel to Oklahoma the week before the Iron Bowl

With the additions of both Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC in 2024, the conference is doing away with the traditional East and West divisions. The Tide’s schedule next season will look much different than years past with five former SEC East opponents, two old West rivals and Oklahoma.

Alabama’s conference schedule for next season already has locked in dates of Georgia on Sept. 28, at Tennessee on Oct. 19, at LSU on Nov. 9 and Auburn on Nov. 30. On X, Alabama football just announced that the the trip to Norman to face the Sooners will be on Nov. 23, one week before the Iron Bowl. In the past, the SEC and Alabama have been known to schedule some “cupcake” games leading up to rivalry weekend, but that will not be the case as of 2024.

It is projected that Jalen Milroe and four out of five starting offensive linemen will return in 2024 giving the Tide a strong chance to compete for another SEC title and Playoff berth. A trip to Norman, OK is something new, but a very attractive blue blood matchup. The last time the two met the Tide handled the Sooners 45-34.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.

NFL expands 2023 schedule release into sprawling two-day extravaganza

Leave it to the NFL to convert a mundane schedule release into a sprawling two-day extravaganza. Here’s when we’ll learn what’s in store for the Saints:

Leave it to the NFL to transform what should be a mundane announcement of dates to circle on your calendar into a sprawling, two-day multimedia extravaganza. The 2023 season schedule release will begin on Wednesday, May 10 and wrap up on Thursday, May 11. It’s a lot of fanfare to simply attach times, dates, and a unique location or two to the list of opponents we already know about.

New Orleans Saints fans are among those who should be tuning in sooner — they’re reportedly traveling abroad for a game with the New England Patriots in Germany, which will be confirmed one way or another when this year’s International Series games are announced on Wednesday (exclusively on NFL Network and ESPN).

But that’s not all. Amazon will reveal the first-ever Black Friday Game on Wednesday, too, with “select individual games” to be announced on the Fox & Friends and CBS Mornings programs as well.

That brings us to Thursday’s full reveal. More individual games (likely primetime and holiday features for national broadcast) will be announced on Good Morning America (ABC) and the Today Show (NBC), with each team sharing their full schedules that evening. Saints stars Cameron Jordan and Tyrann Mathieu will be a part of the primetime broadcast on the NFL+ streaming service at 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET, as well as their former teammate Mark Ingram II.

Some other changes are coming, too. League broadcast partners have more flexibility in choosing which games they want to feature, and not every team is guaranteed a primetime game. Conversely, teams can be forced into playing two Thursday night games each season after previously being limited to one appearance. Stay tuned for what all this means for the Saints.

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NFL announces time and date for Week 15 Saints-Falcons game

The NFL announced its time and date for Week 15 Saints vs. Falcons game amid announcements on multiple flex scheduling moves:

There we go: we’ll have to thank the NFL schedule-makers for not waiting until after Monday night’s game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to announce when the New Orleans Saints will play their next game. New Orleans will come out of its bye week and host the division-rival Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Dec. 18 with kickoff scheduled at noon CT. TV coverage will be broadcast regionally on FOX. The game’s time and date was previously listed as to-be-determined.

So make your travel plans accordingly. This game might have been scheduled differently had the Falcons not ended their Week 13 game with the Pittsburgh Steelers on a last-minute Marcus Mariota interception, but that’s in the past now. Odds are this matchup won’t be quite as compelling as hoped, but we’ll see. Maybe the Saints can knock off Tampa Bay on the road and plan to exit their bye week and go on a run. They aren’t mathematically eliminated from the playoffs just yet, after all.

As for other changes on Monday’s Week 15 flex scheduling update; three games will be played on Saturday, Dec. 17 on NFL Network:

  • 12:00 p.m. CT: Indianapolis Colts vs. Minnesota Vikings

  • 3:30 p.m. CT: Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns

  • 7:15 p.m. CT: Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills

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Saints GM Mickey Loomis advocates for delayed NFL draft start date

New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis called for a delayed start to the 2020 NFL Draft in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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The NFL turned down a recommendation from team general managers to delay the start of the 2020 NFL Draft in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus, which disappointed many executives around the league. New Orleans Saints executive vice president/general manager Mickey Loomis was one of the loudest voices in favor of pushing back the draft’s start date (the three-day event is currently scheduled to begin April 23), and he made an appearance on The Peter King Podcast to share his perspective on the issue.

“This is not a fantasy draft that you can conduct with a list of things on a piece of paper,” Loomis told King, referring to a complicated process in which team personnel hold conference in “war rooms” on the day of the draft to remotely phone in their decisions.

Teams typically send scouts and coaches on cross-country road trips visiting college campuses, where they can personally record the same drill times and athletic measurements that schools send them later. NFL franchises are also normally allowed to fly in as many as thirty prospects to tour their facilities and go through private workouts and interviews, but those meetings have been conducted through teleconference due to league-mandated travel restrictions.

Missing out on all of those data points and in-person conversations doesn’t sit well with Loomis, who would prefer to follow the usual process as closely as possible: “There’s a lot of work that goes into it to prepare and there’s a lot of work that is done during the draft. Listen, it’ll be very, very difficult to conduct that and do it in a way that you’re doing justice to the process.”

There may be some wisdom in pushing the draft’s start date back a little; Loomis also noted the importance of adjusting the NFL offseason to the still-developing national situation.

“First of all we need to make sure we’re not tone-deaf to what’s going on in the world. The entire world has been basically put on pause – and rightfully so,” Loomis continued. “We’re adapting to this new normal, and we just hope the new normal doesn’t last very long.”

Now, Loomis is absolutely right that the typical, preferred processes are not being followed and can not be followed in these troubling times. And it will certainly be more difficult to conduct business as usual if teams must continue working remotely, unable to gather in their offices.

But how much are they really missing out on? Scouting reports were finished and filed months ago. A hundred or so prospects put up practice tape during the weeks leading up to the Senior Bowl, Shrine Bowl, and other college all-star games, working in tandem with NFL coaches. Dozens of prospects already interviewed with each team at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Oh, and there’s also years of game tape available to study again.

It shouldn’t take another handshake and sit-down conversation in a conference room to further convince teams to draft a player, or a full-room debate among coaches and front office brass on the night of the draft. Technological limitations could come into play — John Elway’s infamous struggles with a fax machine during free agency are well-documented — but the NFL is a multi-billion dollar industry. They’ve got more than a month to figure out how to use Google Sheets and Zoom or Skype.

But maybe Loomis will get his wish. If the coronavirus situation continues to deteriorate, the NFL very well might double back and postpone its draft. Right now, though, the structure of the event and the technology available just makes a delay seem unnecessary.

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Is Georgia football still in it? Recruiting Director at Rivals makes Zach Evans prediction

Is Georgia football still in the mix for Zach Evans? Mike Farrell at Rivals thinks so.

Zach Evans, the 5-star running back out of North Shore High School in Houston, Texas, originally signed with Georgia but then later requested that the Bulldogs release him of his National Letter of Intent. Georgia did just that.

Evans, who may be the most talented player in the entire 2020 recruiting class, was supposed to announce his decision at the Under Armour game before backing out and delaying his recruitment.

Now, however, Georgia appears to be back in the fold for Evans.

Despite already signing with UGA and then being released from his NLI, some recruiting expert still think the superstar tailback will end up at Georgia when the dust settles.

Another name to keep an eye on is Broderick Jones, a 5-star offensive lineman who has been committed to Georgia for quite some time. He has not signed with the Dawgs, though, and Auburn has been making a strong push for the 6’6″ 300 pounder out of Lithonia, Georgia.

When asked to make a prediction on where these unsigned five-star players will go, Rivals.com’s National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell said he still thinks that both Evans and Jones will be heading to Georgia.

“Evans will end up at Georgia, Jones will also end up at Georgia.”

Evans is believed to be visiting Knoxville this weekend, according to Farrell. Ole Miss and Florida are in the mix as well.

At North Shore in Houston, Evans had another stellar season as a senior, rushing for 1,600 yards and 20 touchdowns on just 127 carries, with an average of 12.6 yards per carry. In 2018, when he was named MaxPreps’ National Junior of the Year, Evans tallied 1,785 rushing yards and 29 scores. His sophomore season,  Evans racked up 1,483 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns.

2019 NFL Playoffs: Saints vs. Vikings wild card game time, date established

The NFL announced the time, date, and broadcast info for its wild card round matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings.

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The New Orleans Saints will host the Minnesota Vikings during the wild card round of the NFL’s 2019 playoffs schedule, but they won’t have the most prominent time slot. And that may be a good thing.

Next weekend’s Saints-Vikings kickoff at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome is scheduled for Jan. 5, at 1:05 p.m. ET. (or 12:05 p.m. CT). The game will be broadcast on FOX. That lines up with a typical noon game for Saints fans, players, and coaches, which the team will probably appreciate. They won’t have to change their normal weekly practice schedule in any way, allowing them to proceed with business as normal.

Considering the single-loss elimination nature of the NFL playoffs, that’s all you can ask for.

The remaining games in the wild card round are scheduled for:

  • Saturday, 3:35 p.m. CT: Bills at Texans (ESPN/ABC)
  • Saturday, 7:15 p.m. CT: Titans at Patriots (CBS)
  • Sunday, 3:40 p.m. CT: Seahawks at Eagles (NBC)

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