Badger247 Board

Sorry, I just could feel another Chicken Little moment coming on, not with you guys or anything, but among the recruitniks within our fanbase in general.

I wasn't referring to you specifically. Hell, I wasn't referring to anyone in particular, although I will say that the Scout thread about Rob Wheelwright is what spurred me. I just don't like how negative we get sometimes as a group.

Especially because they read these boards. I'm sure that's what he wanted to see.

I admit I occasionally get too caught up in recruiting, but we need to give BB the benefit of the doubt regardless if the recruiting game is changing. I agree that it begins entirely too young, but the type of kids BB recruits typically are the cream of the crop character wise and come from respectable families. One of BB's best recruiting tactics is how he builds relationships with the family of a recruit, even sometimes before the recruit.

The next thing is that recruiting is an activity in itself. Would you trade BB's success on the field for Zook's recruiting success at Illinois? Not every college coach has the elite talent at both, hence why there's so few. I think BB does a great job recruiting and it has elevated each of the years he's been the head coach. Let's keep in mind how difficult a set of circumstances he has at UW with: not a long, blissful history of an ND, scUM, or O$U, a state that provides nothing from its major metropolitan city (Milwaukee), and the next city has to be fought over against ND.

At the end of the day, recruiting is just half the battle, producing and coaching is the other and I couldn't be prouder to be apart of a University like UW where landing high character kids through legal recruiting tactics (that we know of) produces wins on the field. The culture that has been built will eventually serve itself in the future.

Patience, my friends, patience.

No changes in the way recruiting is conducted are going to adversely affect the talent UW gets. In the majority of battles with ND, O$U and Mich, UW already comes up short. That's not going to get worse. There is still a scholarship limit in place, so just because those schools may have more recruits visit, and may start earlier, at the end of the day they'll still only get the same number of players they've always gotten.

I've just come to the conclusion that despite 5 B10 and 3 Rose Bowl titles in 20 years we may never be able to recruit on the national elite level like OSU and MIchigan.

Are they better schools? Of course not. Better fanbases... please. But they do have advantages that will tough for UW to overcome. One, hype. Second, much larger state recruiting base. Not to mention playing annually in the greatest rivalry in CFB.

I don't lose any sleep over that though. Bret's shown he and his staff and evaluate and coach. While it would be unrealistic to think we'll win 10 games every year, I think that will be the norm moving forward.