Know Your Wisconsin Badgers Recruiting Class of 2016: Dallas Jeanty

The term “student-athlete” gets thrown around a lot in the world of college athletics and some instances, that’s just not the case. But for Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Dallas Jeanty, that is certainly the case. A great student in the classroom and a tough-nosed player on the field, Jeanty brings a lot to the table for the Badgers.

Jeanty was a three-star recruit out of Fort Lauderdale, FL who was a top 50 linebacker in high school and was selected to play in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl which showcased some of the best seniors in high school football. Jeanty was also offered by a laundry list of schools around the country that included Bowling Green, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon State, and Tennessee just to name a few. And because of his high focus on academics, Jeanty was also offered by Ivy League schools Colgate, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale.

If you have not heard of Jeanty’s story, it’s a very interesting one. After two years at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, his mother refused to pay an unpaid balance of $1,700 to the private school if Jeanty was still involved in sports. Because of that, Jeant decided to go out on his own, homeless and not knowing where he would be sleeping from night-to-night or where his next meal would come from. Word quickly spread around that summer before his junior year and got back to Fort Lauderdale High School football coach Richard Dunbar. He brought Jeanty into the football program, but it was not a happy marriage at first. They butted heads at first. Dunbar benched Jeanty out of the starting lineup. But after some time, Jeanty caught on and his play excelled after that.

And Dunbar also found Jeanty a permanent home. He got Jeanty contacted with the school’s yearbook teacher where a one night stay turned into two, which turned into a week and then a month and now where Jeanty can call home.

Jeanty’s hard work and excelling in the classroom has really helped him on the football field. He’s a true student of the game that wants to learn and soak up everything that he can. Enrolling early to the University of Wisconsin to partake in spring practices, Jeanty will do just that-learn as much as he can from the Badgers coaching staff and the upper classmen and leaders of this team.

With a long list of talented inside and outside linebackers ahead of him, Jeanty will most-likely take a redshirt this season. But I see him making the most of this, soaking up everything he can and working his but off this season to prepare for next year. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an instant impact in 2017.

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The perfect mix of academics and athletics is what drew Jeanty to the University of Wisconsin. Not to mention the friendliness of people around campus and the tight-knit community of the athletes, Jeanty felt that the Badgers were the perfect fit for him at the next level.