Wisconsin Football: 2022 4-Star Braelon Allen Commits

In-state 4-star safety, Braelon Allen, recently announced his commitment to the Wisconsin Football program, making him the first member of the 2022 class to commit.

Over the last few months, the Wisconsin Football team has received several commitments from the 2021 class that has that group on its way to being the best recruiting class in program history during the Online Rankings Era.

Well, on Tuesday night, the Badgers received another big-time commitment and the first from the 2022 class in 4-star linebacker/safety Braelon Allen from Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.

At 6’2″ – 215 pounds, Allen totaled 48 tackles, six of which were for a loss, along with four sacks and three interceptions during his sophomore season. 247Sports has Allen listed as an inside linebacker; in fact, they have him as high as the sixth-ranked inside linebacker nationally.

However, at Wisconsin, he will be a safety in Jim Leonhard’s defense, and the one-two punch of Allen and 4-star 2021 commit, Hunter Wohler, will form quite the formidable duo on the back-end of this Badgers’ secondary. Allen knows this and thinks that he and Wohler will be “pretty scary for opposing offenses.”

In addition to Wisconsin, Allen had narrowed down his final six schools to Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State, although Florida State and Ohio State were yet to make an offer. But ultimately, as Allen put it, he is ‘staying home,’ where he’s cultivated some great relationships with Badger coaching staff as he told 247Sports:

"“Great relationship with the whole staff. I don’t think there’s anyone on the staff I haven’t had a conversation with,” Allen said in a previous interview. “I love Madison and the state of Wisconsin and the program itself. Very strong relationships with all them there.”"

Allen is one of six in-state members of the 2022 class – often referred to as ‘The Big 6’ – that have 4-star ratings, and all are at the top of Wisconsin’s recruiting list. In addition to Allen, this group includes OT Joe Brunner, OG Carson Hinzman, DE Isaac Hamm, DT Billy Schrauth, and WR Jerry Cross.

Over the last handful of years, each recruiting class that head coach Paul Chryst has brought in has outperformed the previous one and if Wisconsin can land The Big 6 – or at least a majority of them – the 2022 class could surpass the Badgers’ already stout 2021 recruiting class in terms of national ranking.

And perhaps Braelon Allen was the first domino to fall.