
Wisconsin football received a commitment on Monday from Hank Weber, a three-star defensive end from Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy. Here’s what you need to know:
- Weber is ranked as the No. 99 defensive lineman in the 247Sports Composite.
- He earned 15 scholarship offers and had a top three of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt and North Carolina. Weber is coming off an official visit to Wisconsin and had trips scheduled to see his other two top contenders before his commitment to the Badgers.
- Weber becomes the 10th publicly committed prospect in Wisconsin’s 2024 recruiting class, one day after three-star cornerback Vernon Woodward announced his commitment.
Pumped to Jump Around for the next 4 years!! 🦡 #committed #OnWisconsin @BadgerFootball @CoachFick @G_Scruggs @CoachMikeTress @_maximus347 @PatLambert13 @theBAFootball pic.twitter.com/XAtFwLUKSA
— hank weber (@hankweber8) June 5, 2023
What does this mean for Wisconsin?
Wisconsin defensive line coach Greg Scruggs said in February that his approach to recruiting is built around developing relationships with players so they have a firm understanding of who he is and the expectations he has as their potential coach. Scruggs, hired by head coach Luke Fickell in January, was able to quickly build a bond with Weber, who received a scholarship offer from the Badgers in February.
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Weber attended Wisconsin’s public spring scrimmage in April, returned in June on the first weekend of official visits and subsequently committed (Weber did also visit for a game last September under the Badgers’ previous coaching staff). Weber, who is 6 feet 4 and 260 pounds, attended spring games at North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt and Auburn. It says a lot about Scruggs’ approach that Wisconsin won out for Weber, who visited North Carolina six times over the past two years.
“When Hank called me and told me he was going to commit, I asked him the same thing,” Brentwood Academy football coach Jacob Gill said. “I said, ‘Well what’s the driving force?’ And he told me it was the totality of the program. Just the school, obviously the level of competition they play is incredible, great history, great academics.
“I think when Hank was able to go up there and see that in person and see where he would fit within that, it won him over. It was easy to see from all the conversations that I had with guys from Wisconsin, they’re good at what they do and they do a good job of building relationships.”
Wisconsin needed to bolster its depth on the defensive line with reinforcements because eight of the team’s 11 scholarship players at the position will be upperclassmen next season. Weber is the first defensive lineman commit in the Badgers’ 2024 recruiting class, and his addition boosts Wisconsin into the top 20 of the 247Sports Composite team rankings. The Badgers have finished inside the top 20 just once — No. 16 in 2021 — during the internet recruiting rankings era, though there is still a long way to go for the program to reach that level in this cycle.
What Weber’s high school coach says about his fit
“As a defensive end for us, he’s very effective in the run game,” Gill said. “He’s able to play a couple different techniques. And then he’s really good at getting after the passer. He’s got a great ball get-off. He plays with a really high motor. He’s the kind of kid you want to coach.
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“There’s some carryover in some ideas of the concepts we have on defense that are part of what the coaches did at Cincinnati and I’m sure they’ll do at Wisconsin. When he gets up to Madison, I think there’s going to be some carryover as far as ideas and concepts go. He has that versatility where he can play in a four-down front, he can play in a three-down front, he can play on the edge and he can play inside.”
Required reading
(Photo: Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
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