Wisconsin Badgers football recruiting: 4-star defensive end Nate Howard commits to Badgers

By Andrew Coppens | Jun 16, 2014

Nov 30, 2013; Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Gary Andersen watches his team as they play the Penn State Nittany Lions at Camp Randall Stadium. Penn State defeated Wisconsin 31-24. Mandatory Credit: Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports /

The Wisconsin Badgers held their annual camp for high school prospects over this past weekend, but it was more about the unofficial visitors than what was going on with those putting on the pads. Over the course of two days the Badgers added four players, headlined by 4-star defensive end Nate Howard.

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Coming in to the weekend, the 6’5″, 220-pound prospect was a complete unknown in recruiting circles. He didn’t have a single profile on the recruiting sites and while his tape was out there it went virtually unnoticed. Yet, once his name was known and the video seen Howard became a 4-star player according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

What made his under the radar status more curious is that Howard is a native of Saint Louis, Missouri—not exactly an unknown area in the world of college football recruiting. Yet, it appears that attending Ladue Horton Watkins High School was the reason for his under-represented status.

According to reports, Wisconsin had an offer out to the defensive end/outside linebacker since late last year. Howard visited the Madison, Wis. campus with his father this weekend and left the school has a verbally committed Badger.

He was part of one of the biggest recruiting weekend’s the Badgers have had in some time. Overall, four players committed in the course of two days and it brought the Badgers up to 13 total commits in the 2015 class.

With those additions the Badgers moved up from the mid-30’s to No. 17 in the 247Sports national rankings and currently have the No. 2-ranked class in the Big Ten.

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