Wisconsin finally got a jolt on the field in Week 4, and the ripple effect showed up almost immediately on the recruiting trail.
The Badgers’ 24-20 upset of No. 13 Penn State in Happy Valley gave Luke Fickell a badly needed lift in his fifth season, and on Thursday that momentum turned into a major commitment. Jalanie George, one of the top EDGE prospects in the class of 2028, picked Wisconsin.
George chose the Badgers over Washington, Auburn and Miami, giving Wisconsin a recruiting win it has been chasing for a while. The program had clearly been pushing hard for him, and a mid-September unofficial visit to Madison helped swing things in the Badgers’ favor.
“They were just telling me how they would utilize me and you know, how they can make me a better player overall and I looked into it and I'm still looking into it but the plan that they have, I'm really interested in it at this moment,” George had told 247Sports after that visit.
George kept digging into Wisconsin, and the Badgers ended up landing him.
The challenge now is keeping him. George is from Goodyear, Arizona, has offers from across the country and is rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No.
7 EDGE prospect in the 2028 class. For Fickell, who came into the season under plenty of pressure, the commitment is a big step.
But the work is far from over. Wisconsin has to keep stacking wins on the field and keep George locked in on the future in Madison.
In Other News...
Penn State Fans Have Another Saquon Barkley Reason To Be Miserable
Saquon Barkleys latest exit from a game with the Rams was the kind of sight that makes Penn State fans wince, because it came with an apparent hamstring injury and no return to action after the first quarter. For a player whose career has already included a major ACL tear in 2020, any lower-body issue carries extra weight, especially when it involves a part of the body that can linger for weeks before a running back is truly back to full speed.
For Penn State, the timing only adds to the unease. The Nittany Lions are already staring at a difficult stretch ahead with USC and Michigan on the schedule, and recent losses have left the seasons outlook cloudy. Losing even the conversation around one of the programs most recognizable stars to another injury scare is the sort of development that keeps the mood around State College uneasy, even before the next kickoff arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Already Has A Problem Fans Didn't Expect
Penn States early-season picture has changed fast, and not in the way fans expected when a new era began under Matt Campbell. By Week 5, the Nittany Lions were already dealing with back-to-back losses, a jarring turn for a program that entered the fall with far more optimism than this.
The setback lands in a week packed with head-turning college football moments elsewhere, from South Carolinas collapse against Kentucky to Michigans offensive trouble after losing to Iowa. Even the broader sport has been in motion, with Foxs Big Noon Kickoff and Barstool Sports parting ways, but for Penn State the focus is closer to home now, where the pressure is already building and the questions around this team are starting to pile up. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Suddenly Has A Credibility Problem Fans Can't Ignore
Penn States rough stretch has turned what looked like a promising season into a much tougher sell. The 34-13 loss to Northwestern sent the Nittany Lions out of the Coaches Poll entirely, a sharp fall for a program that opened the year ranked and expected to stay in the national picture under new coach Matt Campbell.
The schedule does not offer much time to linger on the setback. USC and Michigan are next, and those matchups will give Penn State a chance to reestablish itself against high-profile opponents and climb back toward the top 25, but only if the Nittany Lions start looking like a different team than the one that just slipped against Northwestern. [Read more 🡒]