Wisconsin offers 2021 linebacker Jake Chaney

Wisconsin extended an offer to class of 2021 inside linebacker Jake Chaney out of Florida on Tuesday evening.

Wisconsin was busy in the class of 2021 yesterday, following up an offer to four-star tight end Thomas Fidone (Council Bluffs, Iowa) in the afternoon by making a move on inside linebacker Jake Chaney in the evening.

The Badgers became the second program to extend an offer to the unranked prospect out of Lehigh Acres, Fla., who received one from Iowa State last month. However, Cincinnati quickly followed Wisconsin’s lead on Tuesday evening, with Chaney announcing an offer from the Bearcats an hour and a half later.

Badger fans shouldn’t be fooled by his current status as an unranked recruit with a slim list of suitors; Chaney is an intriguing prospect whose recruitment is most likely just beginning. His junior film shows an instinctive, tenacious inside linebacker with excellent downhill tackling ability, a playing style that reminds me a great deal of Chris Orr’s.

You also have to be encouraged by Chaney’s background, as he’s a coach’s son with football bloodlines. His dad, James, played on the defensive line at Florida State from 1988-92 and is Jake’s head coach at Lehigh Senior.

Wisconsin should be a top contender for Chaney moving forward. The staff’s ability to sell the program’s pipeline of linebackers to the NFL to recruits has worked wonders over the last few classes, and he has already expressed enough interest in the Badgers to make the trip up to Madison on his own dime for an unofficial visit.

Wisconsin already has one commitment from an exciting linebacker prospect in three-star Bryan Sanborn (Lake Zurich, Ill.), and, in addition to Chaney, should be a major player for the likes of four-stars Mac Uihlein (Lake Forest, Ill.) and Yanni Karlaftis (West Lafayette, Ind.) and three-stars Kobe King (Detroit, Mich.), Trey Reynolds (Queen Creek, Ariz.) and Damon Ollison (Akron, Ohio).