Badger Notes

1 week ago | badgernotes.com | Dillon Graff

Sometimes you’ve got to step away to see how far you’ve come. That was the case for Wisconsin men's basketball guard John Blackwell, who went through the NBA Draft process this offseason, got real feedback from scouts, and made the call to return for his junior year in Madison. But he didn't just test the NBAa Draft waters. Blackwell went all in. “Yeah, when I entered, I was all in,” Blackwell explained. “Whatever I heard from the scouts, from GMs — it’s all in.

1 week ago | badgernotes.com | Dillon Graff

You can’t always see these coming—but if you’ve followed the University of Wisconsin football program under Luke Fickell for any amount of time, you probably aren’t surprised by this addition by the Badgers staff either. One of the fastest prospects in the entire 2026 class quietly reopened his recruitment at the end of May after previously committing to Ole Miss. And now, after an official visit to Madison, he’s committed to the Badgers.

1 week ago | badgernotes.com | Dillon Graff

Let’s talk about Bucky’s BBQ—because while the name might sound like it belongs on a cookout invite, the reality is this event has quietly become one of the more purposeful recruiting events on the Wisconsin footballprogram'ssummer calendar. The grills are hot, the music’s on, but the real business is happening in conversations happening behind the scenes. And this weekend? The Badgers staff made it count.

2 weeks ago | badgernotes.com | Dillon Graff

There are your standard recruiting visits, and then there are recruiting visits that change the way a player sees your program entirely. For 2027 quarterback Chance Thomas out of Anaheim, California, his first trip to check out the Wisconsin Badgers falls firmly into that second category. Thomas, who’s seen his stock rise quite a bit in recent months, made his way to Madison for Bucky’s BBQ—one of the cornerstone summer events on the Badgers’ recruiting calendar.

2 weeks ago | badgernotes.com | Dillon Graff

Sometimes, fit trumps geography. And every so often, a kid from deep in the South looks north, sees what the Wisconsin football program has to offer, and decides that’s where he belongs. Zachary Taylor, a fast-rising safety from Katy, Texas, just announced his verbal commitment to Luke Fickell and the Badgers as part of the 2026 class. He chose Wisconsin over scholarship offers from Houston, Texas Tech, TCU, Minnesota, West Virginia, San Diego State, and a few others.