With the early signing period for high school football players beginning on December 18, Badgers Insider takes a closer look at the recruits that signed with the Wisconsin football program.
In this edition, we examine Waukesha North (WI) High School athlete Chimere Dike.
Note: All notes and stats provided by uwbadgers.com
Dike chose Wisconsin over other Offers from: Iowa State
Dike’s High School Accolades: Three–star recruit by 247 Sports, ESPN and Rivals…Al Toon Award winner as state’s top senior wide receiver…Two–time all–state selection at wide receiver…First–team all–state on offense and honorable mention all–state on defense by Wisconsin Football Coaches Association as a senior in 2019
Dike’s Impact as a Badger: Although Wisconsin listed Dike as an athlete on their National Signing Day page he likely projects to wide receiver.
Traditionally, Wisconsin doesn’t get many in-state scholarship wide receivers as the last time Wisconsin signed a wide receiver from inside the state was Jazz Peavy from Kenosha Tremper High School during the 2013 recruiting cycle.
Similar to Peavy’s recruitment Dike didn’t hold many scholarship offers as his only other offer was from Iowa State but there was only one offer Dike was interested in receiving, which was from his home state school. The Badgers offered Dike in January of 2019 as it took him only five days to give the Badgers coaching staff his verbal commitment.
Dike possesses good size as he’s listed at 6’0″ as he’ll be one of the taller wide receivers on Wisconsin’s roster once he gets on campus. Due to his height allows for Dike to go up and get the football at its highest point as he does a good job of catching the football with his hands and part of the reason why he caught 59 passes as a senior for 962 yards.
Dike will need to continue to work on his route running in order to make them more precise in order to create separation against the defensive back. Dike has also demonstrated solid speed, which allows him to pull away from defenders meaning the Badgers will be able to utilize Dike in a multitude of ways on offense.
Dike will likely need a redshirt year as he can put work in the weight room and to continue to develop as a wide receiver. Dike will have a chance of making the two-deep at the wide receiver position following his redshirt year but he also has a chance to provide value on special teams too.
Dike could get a look as a returner at some point in his career at Wisconsin but he could also prove to be a valuable gunner on special teams too. Dike also played in the secondary for Waukesha North as he registered 93 tackles this past year.
The more Dike is able to provide to Wisconsin’s football team will only lead to allowing him to have a productive career for Wisconsin.