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Category: Wisconsin badger

  • Badgers make Top 4 for 2026 4-star safety Kaden Gebhart along with Ohio State, Clemson, Penn State

    Badgers make Top 4 for 2026 4-star safety Kaden Gebhart along with Ohio State, Clemson, Penn State

     

     

    The Wisconsin Badgers made a number of changes to their staff in the offseason, adding four assistants to new roles: offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, wide receivers coach Jordan Reid, quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton (formerly the wide receivers coach), and safeties coach Jonathan Cooper (formerly a senior defensive assistant).

     

    All four assistants have been hitting the recruiting trail hard since joining their new roles, as Wisconsin looks to shape its 2026 recruiting class, having hosted their first junior day this past weekend.

     

    Well, one of their top targets, four-star safety Kaden Gebhart, recently listed the Badgers in his Top 4 alongside the Clemson Tigers, Penn State Nittany Lions, and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

     

    Gebhart, an Ohio native, has been one of the most recruited safeties in the 2026 class, landing 30 scholarship offers, including from the likes of Oklahoma, USC, Nebraska, Missouri, and Ole Miss, among others.

     

    The Badgers were in a similar position for a four-star safety in the 2025 class, as they had initially landed a commitment from Ohio native Cody Haddad after their Junior Day last January. However, after continued interest from the Buckeyes, Haddad flipped his stance and is now signed with Ohio State.

     

    Here, they’ll look to fend off three top powers for four-star safety Kaden Gebhart, as the Badgers were the first major team to offer the Ohio native back in February of last year.

     

    But, Gebhart will have a different lead recruiter now, as former safeties coach Alex Grinch is now the defensive coordinator at UCF, which means Jonathan Cooper will take over in that role now.

     

    Will the Badgers be able to close down the stretch here? Or will they potentially fall short of another Big Ten team in the chase for a top four-star in the country?

  • Wisconsin Football: Jeff Grimes Makes QB Requirement Extremely Clear

    Wisconsin Football: Jeff Grimes Makes QB Requirement Extremely Clear

    Kansas assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes directs players during an outdoor practice Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Lawrence.

    Wisconsin football is about to have some significant changes on offense, which is to be expected after their decision to move on from Phil Longo and hire Jeff Grimes as the Badgers offensive coordinator.

    One change that can happen on offense under the watch of Grimes concerns the quarterback’s ability to make plays with his legs.

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    “I think they’ve got to be able to provide some sort of athleticism, and I think in two ways,” Grimes said about what he wants to see in a quarterback (h/t Rohan Chakravarthi of Bucky’s 5th Quarter). “One, they have to have the ability to escape and get out of trouble when you’re throwing the football. And then I’d like for them to present some level of run threat to the defense. How much that is depends on a number of other factors. I look at it on a sliding scale,” Grimes added.

    Wisconsin football’s quarterbacks were protected well in the 2024 season, as suggested by the fact that the Badgers were 10th nationally with a 3.15 percent offensive quarterback sack rate. However, even with that kind of pass protection, the Badgers were 86th in the natio with a 2.96 percent offensive interception rate. Additionally, the Badgers were just 109th in the FBS with 56.51 percent pass completion rate.

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    Perhaps a more mobile quarterback could have better accuracy in passing the ball while also being on the run from defenders.

    “Ideally you got a big guy who’s a great thrower and a good runner,” Grimes added. “But I think there are very few teams that are talented enough everywhere to play with a quarterback that can’t move around much anymore.”

    Grimes made his point even clearer.

    “I would not take a guy that I didn’t think could run some.”

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