Wisconsin Football Early Signing Day Breakdown: Offense

Fullback

Commitments

Quan Easterling – Akron, OH (Archbishop Hoban)

Fullback Quan Easterling was one of my favorite additions to this class, as I think he could emerge as one of the most valuable members of the group in time.

Wisconsin managed to flip the Ohio native from his pledge to Akron a little over a week ago after getting him on campus for a visit. Easterling had committed to the Zips in June over just two other FBS offers from Marshall and Toledo. However, both the Badgers and UCLA extended offers this fall to the 3-star prospect.

The number of stars next to Easterling’s name and his slim offer list are not indicative of the high level of value that he brings to a program like Wisconsin.

The Badgers are one of the few teams left in college football that still extensively utilize fullbacks in their offense, and players like Derek Watt, Austin Ramesh, and Alec Ingold have played huge roles in the program’s success over the years.

Easterling is the next man up.

Badgers fans are going to love watching this kid play. He’s an absolute mauler as a blocker, routinely plowing the poor defenders he’s assigned to take out of the play into to ground at the high school level. He’s also fully capable of taking a handoff or catching a pass out of the backfield from time to time as well and has decent speed for the position.

Easterling could be a plug and play guy for Paul Chryst next year as Wisconsin looks to replace Ingold. He will face competition from the likes of Mason Stokke, Coy Wanner, and John Chenal, and while each of those players has the benefit of experience in the program, none of them have seen much action on the field to this point. Easterling has as good a chance as any of those three guys to emerge as the starter in fall camp.

In the end, it’s a pretty safe bet that the Badgers secured a multi-year starter and yet another unsung hero on offense in Easterling.