Gophers offer T.J. Watt

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T.J. Watt, brother of Houston Texan and Badger alum, J.J. Watt, got an offer from the Gophers today (his brother Derek is also a currrent Badger). Wisconsin supposedly has a limited # of offers this year as well, so it would be fun to steal a Watt out from under them.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting/football/recruiting/player-T.J.-Watt-127547

He's listed as a DE on rivals, but I'm not sure about that. They have him at 200 lbs, but even that might be generous. My guess is that the staff is looking at him as an H-Back/Tight End role.
 

6'4" for a 17 y/o is good size, I would not be too concerned about his weight even if it is sub 200. A few years in any S&C program will add the needed weight to play B1G football. TE, DE, HB, LB or sepcial teams, what ever-he is from a football family and if he can play, let him play where he can contribute. More power to us if we can take a 'Legacy' out of Wisco, it is a win for us.

He might want to blaze his own trail rahter than live up to, live in his brothers shadow.
 

I would be really shocked if he came here regardless of whether he gets a Wisconsin offer or not
 

Is there a bumper crop in Wisconsin this year because I feel like we've offered like 8 people from there?
 

gophervet said:
Is there a bumper crop in Wisconsin this year because I feel like we've offered like 8 people from there?
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It's a good year for Wisconsin prospects. We've offered 5 so far, and will probably offer at least 2-3 more before it's done. I've read reports that Wisconsin currently only has 9 scholarships for next year. While I'm sure that number will grow, that's one reason I've been keeping an eye on the state so far (the other reason is that I work there).
 


JJ wasn't that big either coming out of HS, look at him now. JJ was set to be a Gopher (Mason recruit), then Brew told him to look elsewhere, Lmao.....
 

Obviously, Kill considers Wisconsin to be in-state recruiting.
 

sonnygarcia said:
JJ was set to be a Gopher (Mason recruit), then Brew told him to look elsewhere, Lmao.....
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Are you certain of that? I'm not certain either, but I thought that Watt and Greg Jones both decommitted after Mason was fired, and before they even hired Brewster.
 

HopHead said:
Obviously, Kill considers Wisconsin to be in-state recruiting.
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Always remember that when a Gopher is drilling a BADger into the turf, the "W" is nothing more than an up-side-down "M". So yes, they're all "M" players so they might as well get it right the first time and go to MN.

Go Gophers!
 



dpodoll68 said:
Are you certain of that? I'm not certain either, but I thought that Watt and Greg Jones both decommitted after Mason was fired, and before they even hired Brewster.
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I am not entirely certain either, but I believe that Brew kind of did to JJ Watt what Kill did to Sam Rohr last season. The only reason that I say that is because JJ Watt did not go from the U to Wisconsin. He went from the U to Central Michigan, then quit Central Michigan, delivered pizzas and went to Madison. I don't really know the specifics, but I have a hard time believing that a recruit would decommit from the U for an offer at Central Michigan. Like I said, I don't really know, i'm just looking at the situation and guessing that Brew told JJ Watt "it's not you, it's me".
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't really know the specifics, but I have a hard time believing that a recruit would decommit from the U for an offer at Central Michigan. Like I said, I don't really know, i'm just looking at the situation and guessing that Brew told JJ Watt "it's not you, it's me".
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Dpo, I read it on another board, but I don't think he ever came out and said Brew pulled his scholly. I think Bob kind of summed it up best, but I dont think it was ever confirmed with Watt how it went down.
 





Bucky has been taking some of the better MN kids for years. It will nice when Kill turns this around and we can cross the border and take theirs. Payback will be sweet!
 

JackiO said:
Wisconsin Lock if offered.
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Yeah, I think everyone assumes that. Even the original posting made a reference to WI having limited scholarships. If WI offers, he'll commit that second.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, I think everyone assumes that. Even the original posting made a reference to WI having limited scholarships. If WI offers, he'll commit that second.
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Even if they don't offer I think he would walk on at Wisconsin before playing for Minnesota. This isn't the Phillip Nelson situation where his dad played for Wisconsin a long time ago. His oldest brother just graduated as one of the best Wisconsin players ever and his other brother is still on the team. I just don't see him splitting from the family like that

Of course I could be completely wrong
 


DrunkGopher said:
Even if they don't offer I think he would walk on at Wisconsin before playing for Minnesota. This isn't the Phillip Nelson situation where his dad played for Wisconsin a long time ago. His oldest brother just graduated as one of the best Wisconsin players ever and his other brother is still on the team. I just don't see him splitting from the family like that

Of course I could be completely wrong
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I know about 75,000 reasons why you might be.
 

DrunkGopher said:
Even if they don't offer I think he would walk on at Wisconsin before playing for Minnesota. This isn't the Phillip Nelson situation where his dad played for Wisconsin a long time ago. His oldest brother just graduated as one of the best Wisconsin players ever and his other brother is still on the team. I just don't see him splitting from the family like that

Of course I could be completely wrong
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That could very well be. My point was just that saying "if Wi offers, he'll commit" is kind of a "well, duh" statement. If WI offers a walk-on and we offer a scholarship, well, then it is that debatable discussion that is going on in this thread. I tend to agree with you, he has a really rich brother who is Bucky through and through, I am sure JJ Watt would gladly pick up his tuition if he goes to WI.
 

DrunkGopher said:
I just don't see him splitting from the family like that.
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I realize this will probably be an unpopular opinion on here, but I don't think most rational people look at life like that. I graduated from the U, but if my children earned a free ride to Wisconsin, and earned nothing from Minnesota, I would pack their bags to Wisconsin for them. Sports rivalries are great and a lot of fun, but when it comes to cutting off your nose to spite your face, I just don't understand that.

And even if you throw out the money equation, Kill thought enough of T.J. to offer him a scholarship, while so far Bielema has not. Split the family nothing, I'm going with the person who thinks most highly of my son.
 

There is no way anyone will turn down a scholarship offer from Minnesota to walk-on at Becky. The reverse is also true. Never has happened, never will. In fact, I doubt you'd find many walk-ons at Becky who had any DI-A offers, let alone a Big Ten offer.
 

sonnygarcia said:
JJ wasn't that big either coming out of HS, look at him now. JJ was set to be a Gopher (Mason recruit), then Brew told him to look elsewhere, Lmao.....
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Important to note that Mason offered him as a TE.
 

dpodoll68 said:
There is no way anyone will turn down a scholarship offer from Minnesota to walk-on at Becky. The reverse is also true. Never has happened, never will. In fact, I doubt you'd find many walk-ons at Becky who had any DI-A offers, let alone a Big Ten offer.
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I think you are right, I don't think he'd walk on at Wisconsin given the Minnesota offer.

However, there has been a lot of talk about Watt receiving a greyshirt offer from Wisconsin, and I'm almost positive he'd accept that over a full scholly from Minnesota.

If I remember correctly, Derek Watt, the middle brother, accepted a UW greyshirt offer over a full Northwestern offer, but it was later made a full scholarship after we missed on a few other targets late in the process.
 

50PoundHead said:
Important to note that Mason offered him as a TE.
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So did Central Michigan. He played TE for them before transferring to Wisconsin. When he got to Madison he added a lot of weight and became the beast he is now.
 

"if my children earned a free ride to Wisconsin, and earned nothing from Minnesota, I would pack their bags to Wisconsin for them"

I doubt you really make decisions on your child's education based solely on cost. It's a tough pill to swallow writing that check, but my son is in private school because it is a good school. If it only came down to cost, we'd just push our kids to community colleges.
 

I'm sure his older brother could pay his tuition if he wants to walk on at WI. Scholarship no big deal for this kid.
 

Replacement Gopher said:
"if my children earned a free ride to Wisconsin, and earned nothing from Minnesota, I would pack their bags to Wisconsin for them"

I doubt you really make decisions on your child's education based solely on cost. It's a tough pill to swallow writing that check, but my son is in private school because it is a good school. If it only came down to cost, we'd just push our kids to community colleges.
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Of course not, but we're not comparing Yale to a commuity college here. It's just as dpo said, nobody is going to turn down a full-ride from a Big Ten school to walk-on to a different Big Ten school. It's obviously a different story if we're talking about a FCS or DII offer (though those are hard to turn down as well I'm sure)
 

beavergopher said:
I'm sure his older brother could pay his tuition if he wants to walk on at WI. Scholarship no big deal for this kid.
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Exactly, big bro is worth too much $$ to count. He'd probably rather pay his bro's tuition and let his program use a scholly elsewhere? Would not be surprised at all to see him "walk on" at Wisconsin and turn down other offers.

On the other hand maybe he wants to get out of the shadow of his big bro's and go somewhere who has offered him? We'll see I guess.
 

dpodoll68 said:
There is no way anyone will turn down a scholarship offer from Minnesota to walk-on at Becky. The reverse is also true. Never has happened, never will. In fact, I doubt you'd find many walk-ons at Becky who had any DI-A offers, let alone a Big Ten offer.
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I would be willing to bet you are wrong. (A first I am sure) See beavergopher's post.
 

Kill has also apparently offered Marcus Ball, brother of, you guessed it, Montee Ball. Depending on the service, Marcus does or does not also have offers from Illinois and Arizona State as well.

I think Kill is just trolling Wisconsin at this point.
 

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