So the coaches dropped a guy even tho they’ve had later offers out on guys who have barely sniffed us in Kourt Williams and McDonald? So who is the guy they’re dropping Herbig for? Flowe? Botelho?
Most of you would say Bruener right? But we haven’t offered hmmmmm I wonder why? Offering Bruener as a legacy who was in the (now infamous) junior day photo would seem like a lock to Herbig huh? Maybe they wanted Herbig to feel like the #1 guy after Botelho left & Bruener would make him question a team who just took 4 ILBs the year before and a legacy. So if we offer Bruener or anyone in this class is Herbig still a drop?
As for the supposed 2021 dream class, who is the player who has been the most discussed as the kid everyone can’t believe UDUB hasn’t offered? Julien Simon. What position is he being recruited at? Inside Linebacker. Seems weird to be offering Latu after Herbig’s commitment if we dropped Herbig. Washington was the one of if not the last of Keith Brown’s 8 offers. He got his UDUB offer after his Visit to his dream hometown school. Why would the coaches put this much into timing of 2021’s first offers if they just missed their first three offers in 2020?
Botelho, Flowe, and Herbig are by far the best three LBs in an ILB class we’ve had in quite some time. Flowe has a really close brother like relationship with Cam Davis and Botelho & Herbig were once licks at the Poly Bowl never even came on an all expenses paid trip to UDUB which is a bigger deal when from Hawaii.
Your first mistake you made was confusing inside guys with outside guys. They are two very different positions in this defense and are recruited separately by different position coaches.
Botelho and McDonald have nothing to do with Herbig because they're OLB recruits for us. UW has not only missed on Botelho at OLB, but Jaden Navarrette (for now) as well. Not to mention the Savell Smalls debacle. OLB recruiting sucks ass right now.
Justin Flowe was always a long shot. He wasn't interested enough so UW moved on. Maybe things will pick back up for him after he sees what UW's defense does this season, but that's just a dream right now.
Herbig was our only ILB recruit for a while. It's obvious UW cooled on him as they began to get out for Spring evaluations and see 2021 kids. He went from all over UW's nuts on Twitter and gushing about UW and Bob Gregory to all Wisconsin rather quickly because UW cooled on him and made that decision a lot easier. They would have brought him in for an official visit for one of these big recruiting weekends this month if they still wanted him. They didn't.
UW only recruited two ILB's in this class. One wasn't interested, they passed on the other, and you're all dramatic about it. We just brought in a loaded ILB class of FIVE guys in the 2019 class. We're fine if we don't take any ILB's in this class.
As far has Julien Simon goes, he has very little ILB film from his Sophomore year. The coaches need to see more to confirm he's what they're looking for at ILB. Also, I don't have any insider info on this but visually the kid's body has not progressed since he was in 8th grade. He needs to get in the weight room and go to work. His arms look weak af. That could be another factor holding up his UW offer. Trey Reynolds can bench press 325 pounds and squat 485 pounds as a 17 year old. That stuff matters not only because we want physically superior athletes, but also because we want guys that work their asses off. Is Julien Simon one of those guys? I don't know. If he is, I hope he gets the offer because he's very talented.
When you see a 4-star ILB recruit working on his academics to specifically EARN a UW offer, that's when you know ILB recruiting is in great shape. As long as UW handles their business on the field and stack their fourth straight 10+ win season on the others, they'll have their way with ILB recruiting for the 2021 class. No worries there.