National Signing Day has come and gone and the Wisconsin Badgers have put together a fairly decent class compared to the rest of the Big Ten. In the spirit of looking at recruiting classes compared to the rest of the conference, Badgers Wire is taking a look at Wisconsin’s class on a national level and a conference level. We’ll be including their national rankings and their conference rankings. First up is the conference bellcow, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
As has been the case for the last decade, the Buckeyes put together one of the nation’s best classes with a few of the nation’s best prospects, one of whom is one of their highest rated recruits ever. The recruit in question, Julian Fleming, is only behind Terrelle Pryor (2008) and Ted Ginn Jr. (2004) in terms of his overall recruiting rating. All told, the Buckeyes have the nation’s fifth-best recruiting class. Five of their recruits are top-three or better at their position grouping, two of them are the nation’s best player at their best position — offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and the aforementioned Julian Fleming.
The Buckeyes also had the conference’s top recruiting class. The Badgers had the nation’s 25th-ranked recruiting class and the Big Ten’s fifth-best recruiting class. The average rating per player for the Badgers was .8782 and .9180 for the Buckeyes. That’s a difference of .0398, almost four-tenths better at each position. It improves a little for the Badgers next year in terms of their overall ranking (No. 6) and conference ranking (No. 2), but their average rating deficit almost doubles (.0669) and the Buckeyes show no signs of slowing down.
The position both classes compare at is offensive tackle. The Badgers signed Jack Nelson, a 6-foot-7, 273-pound beast out of Stoughton, Wisconsin. He’s the No. 10 player at his position in the nation. The Buckeyes, however, signed the nation’s premiere player at the position in Parison Johnson Jr., who has ambitions of being Orlando Pace. Both of these players come from a school known for churning out top prospects on the offensive line. Both of these players will be part of a productive pro-style offense. But if the Badgers want to end up in the College Football Playoff like the Buckeyes, they’ll have to start recruiting prospects like the Buckeyes.