Paul Chryst
National Signing Day was a major success for the Wisconsin Badgers on Wednesday.
One recruiting service, Scout.com, had Paul Chryst’s 2016 recruiting class ranked at number-25 in the country.
The Badgers signed a total of 25 players on Wednesday and landed another six as preferred walk-ons.
The Badgers are making a push to re-establish their commitment to recruiting the east. They landed safeties Eric Burrell from Severn, Maryland and Patrick Johnson from Washington, D.C., as well as tight end Jake Hescock from Massachusetts.
Chryst is confident Wisconsin will win its share of recruiting battles in that region of the country, as well as others.
Chryst said Wisconsin does a good job of identifying players and they’ll recruit against anyone.
The Badgers also landed a pair of players from Arizona, an area that the Badgers haven’t been overly strong in. They hit on defensive tackle Garrett Rand, who had offers from several schools including Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, Washington and Nebraska.
Rand’s mother is originally from Wisconsin and Chryst said Rand is a player that could play right away.
The other player from that neck of the woods is quarterback Kare’ Lyles from Scottsdale. Lyles is already enrolled early and set to participate in spring practice. His father, Kevin Lyles, played tight end for UW in the mid 1990’s.
Chryst was asked Wednesday if Lyles could start next fall for the Badgers.
AUDIO: Paul Chryst on Kare Lyles as a potential starter :19
AUDIO: Paul Chryst on Lyles as possible starter this season :14
AUDIO: Paul Chryst on the QB’s entering 2016 :22
The other early enrollee is linebacker Dallas Jeanty from Florida. Chryst called Jeanty the heartbeat of the 2016 class.
Mike Hall and his fellow analysts from the Big Ten Network had this to say about Jeanty.
Of the 31 recruits, eight are from inside state lines. Paul Chryst said he really likes this class, but time will tell.