Wisconsin misses out on 4-star edge rusher who is now headed to Big Ten rival

The Wisconsin Badgers have had a pretty good offseason for 2026 recruiting, with some really strong players and seemingly great fits. The one thing that hasn't happened yet is landing a consensus 4-star player. They have 4-star players ranked that way by some recruiting services but not others. They've yet to pull down one that is universally 4-star, and they missed again with McHale Blade choosing Michigan over Wisconsin.

4-star OLB McHale Blade has decided to play for the Wolverines next season

McHale Blade was high on Wisconsin and loved what he was hearing from Matt Mitchell and E.J. Whitlow, but after his visit this weekend to Michigan, he decided to become a Wolverine. Blade was part of the big recruiting weekend a couple of weeks ago with Wisconsin, during which the Badgers saw four other commitments but weren't able to convince Blade.

This may seem like a big miss, but experts have been predicting Michigan for a while. There was hope that a strong official visit to Madison with Luke Fickell and his staff working to sway him to become a Badger, but it wasn't enough. He left the weekend saying that the Badgers were "very high on his list now." So, there was some headway, but it wasn't enough.

Wisconsin will continue to prioritize recruiting pass-rushers as the defensive line could not hold up in Big Ten play last season. Fickell has talked about that issue a ton this offseason and how he's working to fix it. He's added some good talent to shore up the trenches in the transfer portal, but he's also working hard on it in recruiting.

It wasn't Blade, but the Badgers are still pursuing other top-notch defensive linemen and pass-rushing specialists to add to the 2026 recruiting class.