sive lineman or a tailback, Andersen believes that his staff can
go just about anywhere and get a
percentage of recruits to express
interest in Wisconsin and potentially declare "Yep, I want to be a
part of that,'' which could open
the door to a campus visit.
Andersen will not hesitate to recruit junior college players, which
he did extensively at Utah State.
But it won't be about quantity as
much as it will be about quality.
Percentage-wise, he conceded,
"We were high out there (Logan)
and we're not going to be high
here. We don't need to be high.''
Some fits will be better than
others.
"Everyone is at a junior college for a reason,'' said Andersen,
who was a JUCO All-American at
Ricks College before transferring
to Utah. "Some were late bloomers. Some kids have certain situations in life where they didn't
have the opportunity to excel at
an early stage of high school.''
It has been well-documented
how Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers went to a junior college before transferring to
the University of California.
"Every single year, you will have a spot, a hole
somewhere in recruiting,'' Andersen said. "There's
no way you can ever say, 'We're perfectly spaced
from our freshman class to our senior class.' There
are some things that are going to happen and you
never know what it's going to be.
"When we recruit a junior college player, we ask
them to come in and really contend for a starting job. There are no guarantees, but they have
to understand they're not coming here to develop.
They're coming here to compete right away and be
involved in that area (of need).''
Andersen has already fully embraced Wiscon28 ยป VARSITY
FEB R UA RY 7, 2013
sin's rich walk-on culture.
"I look back on that defense last year at Utah State
and six of those kids (starting) were in-state Utah
walk-ons,'' he said. "We've had the same tradition
that has been here. It's important. There are young
men who are put on aid every single year who are
walk-ons. We will continue down those lines.''
Gary Andersen was a walk-on.
"What really sold me to walk on,'' he said, "was
somebody who would let me walk on.''
Laughing, he implied the standards would be
much higher at Wisconsin.
But not so high to discourage a young man from
dreaming about playing for the Badgers.
That's the best part for him.
