Why can’t we get more four and five star recruits? You’ll hear that a lot if you talk to Badger fans about recruiting as recruiting efforts are always a topic for discussion. It’s true that UW rarely attracts the top-tier prospects, but as they say, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.

To the shock of fans who follow Badger recruiting, Frank Tamakloe, a 6-foot 3-inch safety from Olney MD., recently gave a verbal commitment to the Badger coaching staff. Tamakloe comes from a powerhouse Maryland program that has produced a number of big-time players and he was a heavily sought-after prospect.

Fans will be particularly happy to see that Tamakloe is on ESPN’s top 150-watch list and that he has a boatload of offers from prestigious D-1 programs. Some of those schools include West Virginia, Wake Forest, North Carolina, and Maryland. It looks like Tamakloe will be given a four star rating when all is said and done.

Tamakloe has great size, tremendous speed, and a willingness to throw his body around to make tackles. On film, his athletic ability jumps out at you. He chases down receivers and steps up to lower the boom on backs when he reads the run. He flat out attacks from his safety position and that is what you look for from a defensive playmaker.

Now as much as I joke about Wisconsin recruiting, I honestly feel the coaches do a solid job year in and year out. They have built a strong fence around the state of Wisconsin and they always seem to find a way to nab some highly touted prospects from other areas.

Unfortunately for UW, the state of Wisconsin just doesn’t produce that many Big Ten caliber football players so the coaches really need to search for interested prospects. For instance, Bret Bielema and his staff have so far only offered scholarships to seven kids from Wisconsin. Texas, on the other hand, already has 19 verbal commitments for the class of 2010, and guess what: all 19 are from the state of Texas. Schools like Texas and Ohio State have probably offered seven scholarships to a single in-state high school, let alone seven throughout the entire state. Such is life.

We all want to see UW reach out to other talent-rich areas of the country and that is why the Tamakloe commitment is so exciting. UW was able to get a big-time commit out of Maryland and hopefully this will be a sign of good things to come for UW coaches who look to recruit on the east coast. UW does not have the luxury of being able to fill a class with kids from their own backyard, so pick-ups like Tamakloe are just huge. Give credit to the coaching staff for bringing in an elite prospect at a position of real need.?