Badgers bring in 19 new players on sigining day

• Wisconsin football

Wisconsin football

Talk about it

MADISON - The University of Wisconsin football team unveiled a 19-member recruiting class yesterday that includes seven preferred walk-ons.

The Badgers were able to keep highly-touted quarterback Bart Houston from California, even though a couple of other blue-chippers went to other schools after Bret Bielema lost six of his assistant coaches. Two highly-rated offensive tackles -- J.J Denman and Kyle Dodson -- withdrew their previous commitments to the Badgers. Denman signed with Rutgers yesterday, and Dodson went to Ohio State. Bielema filled one of the holes by signing Jake Meador of Whiteland, Indiana.

Twelve scholarship players and seven preferred walk-ons make up the Wisconsin football recruiting class of 2012. UW managed to get five recruits who earned four-star ratings from ESPN, Rivals, and Scout-Dot-Com. They are linebacker Vince Biegel of Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, running back Vonte Jackson of Kenosha Bradford, quarterback Bart Houston of Dublin California, offensive lineman Dan Voltz of suburban Chicago, and safety D.J. Singleton of Union, New Jersey. One other player from Wisconsin also managed to win a scholarship, All-State running back Leo Musso of Waunakee. Musso’s teammate, kicker Jack Russell, is one of the preferred walk-ons along with defensive ends Logan Schmidt of Richland Center and Trent Denlinger of Cuba City, tight ends Alex Walker of Glendale Nicolet and Matt Prell of Kenosha Bradford, receiver Alex Erickson of Argyle, and linebacker Jake Rademacher of Kettle Moraine.

Bielema said he was pleased with his recruits, considering the large number of staff departures. Bielema also expressed concerns about the recruiting tactics of new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer. In answering a reporter's question, Bielema said quote, "A few things happened early on that I didn't want to see in this league that I had seen in their leagues ... other recruiting practices that are illegal ... I actually reached out to Coach Meyer and shared my thoughts and concerns and the situation got rectified." He would not give other details.

Tags: wisconsin sports, proam, football, badgers