Wisconsin Football: 2022 4-Star S Cristian Driver Taking Unofficial Visit

The month of June is an important month on the recruiting trail, and like many others, the Wisconsin Football Program will be hosting several official and unofficial visits from 2022 and 2023 recruits.

However, in addition to the already scheduled visits, the Badgers received some very good and somewhat surprising news on Thursday, as 4-star safety Cristian Driver announced that he would be visiting Madison. This is an unofficial visit, and while we don’t know an exact date yet, from the sounds of it, it will take place in the near future.

If you’re unfamiliar with Christian Driver, I imagine that last name still sounds awfully familiar. He is the son of former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver. Yea, that Donald Driver, who played 14 seasons in Green Bay, won a Super Bowl and is a member of the Packers Hall of Fame. How much those family ties to the state will play into Cristian’s final decision, I’m not sure, but I do know it certainly doesn’t hurt.

The 6’1” – 180-pound safety is from Argyle, Texas, and according to 247Sports, Driver is the 14th ranked safety in the 2022 class and the 210th rated player overall. So far, he has received 43 scholarship offers, some of which include Alabama, Penn State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, Notre Dame, Florida State, and of course, Wisconsin, among many others.

Last November, Driver released his top-12 schools, with Wisconsin being one of them, but in March of this year, he would say that his recruitment is “100% open.”

As it currently stands, 247Sports has Penn State as the favorite to land Driver, and he will be visiting Happy Valley later this month. Rivals.com also has Penn State as the favorite.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, we don’t know if Driver’s connection to the state of Wisconsin will play a major role in his decision making, but I have to imagine that having the opportunity to play for defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard — especially as a safety — absolutely will. Wisconsin has consistently fielded one of the better defenses in college football under Leonhard and playing for a former NFL safety also has to be enticing.

Wisconsin has a relatively older safety room, with five of the eight players being either a junior or a senior. At the position, the 2021 team will be led by Scott Nelson and Colin Wilder, and incoming 4-star freshman Hunter Wohler is another name to know in the coming years.