Wisconsin didn’t let Blake Betton get away the first time, and that patience paid off in a big way.
Betton, who had already committed to Penn State in April, was back in Madison over the weekend for Wisconsin’s 24-7 win over USC. A day later, he flipped to the Badgers, giving Luke Fickell and his staff a recruiting win that stands out even more when you look at the list of schools involved.
Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Auburn and Missouri all offered Betton, and Penn State had his commitment for more than six months. Wisconsin still kept pushing. Tuf Borland stayed in contact, and Betton’s father and high school coach, Ray Betton, told Rivals that Wisconsin “never stopped recruiting him.”
What makes the move especially intriguing is the player Wisconsin is getting. Betton is listed at 6-foot-3 and around 205 pounds, but he hasn’t been locked into linebacker for long. At Shakopee High School in Minnesota, he has also played safety and wide receiver, and that versatility shows up in the numbers.
Over his sophomore and junior seasons, Betton had four interceptions and then two more, while piling up 175 tackles across those two years. This isn’t just a defensive back drifting closer to the line of scrimmage. He’s been around the football constantly.
One sophomore performance jumps off the page: Shakopee’s Class 6A state semifinal against Maple Grove. Betton picked off two passes in that game, snagging one late in the opening quarter and another in the third quarter that set Shakopee up at the Maple Grove 20.
Those weren’t empty stats in a lopsided game. He made those plays on one of the biggest stages available.
He’s added three more interceptions as a senior, which puts him at nine over the last three seasons. For a future linebacker, that’s not a number you usually see.
And that’s the key here. Linebackers today have to do more than chase downhill and hit people.
They get put in space, asked to cover, and challenged to prove they can move. Betton has already spent plenty of time doing that work.
At the same time, Wisconsin isn’t bringing in a finished product built for Big Ten trench warfare. At about 205 pounds, he’s going to need to add size before he’s ready to handle that full load every Saturday.
But the frame is there, and so is the movement skill. A 6-foot-3 player who can run and find the ball gives Wisconsin something to shape.
The real question is how the Badgers handle that development. They could push him toward a more conventional linebacker role, or they could keep some of the safety traits that made him such a disruptive defender in high school and let him move around more.
Either way, the trait that made Betton worth the chase is the same one that keeps popping up in his profile: he’s long, he’s mobile and he keeps finding the football.
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