Future Badger Breakdown: Four-star Safety Hunter Wohler

The Wisconsin Badgers reeled in a huge verbal commitment for its 2021 class when, on Monday evening, four-star safety Hunter Wohler publicly announced his decision to stay in state for his college football career.

With the seven other verbal commitments, Wisconsin now ranks fifth in the nation for that 2021 recruiting cycle for both 247Sports and Rivals.

AllBadgers.com unveils a "commitment capsule" of sorts with Wohler's decision, breaking down the basic info, star rankings, our coverage of the safety and more.

Basic info

Public commitment date: Dec. 23, 2019 (according to Wohler, actually called head coach Paul Chryst to commit on Dec. 19)

Ht./Wt. (according to Hudl profile): 6'2, 190 pounds

Hometown: Muskego, Wis.

Offers (according to 247Sports): 9 (Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Minnesota)

New number of Wisconsin 2021 commits: 8

2019 stats (according to WisSports.Net): 122 tackles, three tackles for loss, two interceptions

Accolades: Associated Press (AP) state player of the year in 2019; unanimous AP first-team all-selection in 2019; Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) large school defensive player of the year for 2019; WFCA large school all-state selection in 2019

Star rankings

247Sports composite: Four-stars, 0.9126 rating; No. 241 player in the country, No. 7 safety in nation; No. 2 player in Wisconsin

247Sports: Four-stars, 90 rating; No. 208 player overall, No. 7 safety in nation; No. 2 player in Wisconsin

Rivals: Four-stars, 5.8 rating; No. 203 player overall, No. 6 safety in nation; No. 2 player in Wisconsin

ESPN: Four-stars, 80 rating; No. 294 player overall, No. 15 safety in nation; No. 27 regional; No. 1 player in Wisconsin

(As of Dec. 27)

Coverage of Wohler from AllBadgers.com

Top 2021 recruiting targets for Wisconsin

Hunter Wohler commits to Wisconsin

Hunter Wohler on Wisconsin Commitment: "I Just Realized That’s Where I Wanted to Be"

When and Why Wohler Chose Wisconsin:

From our feature on the Muskego native on Dec. 26:

“So I was up there [at Wisconsin] two Saturdays ago just for a bowl practice. I got to watch some of the practice, talk to the coaches, meet some of the players,” Wohler said. “On my way home on Saturday, I just realized that’s where I wanted to be. I realized it’s where my home is. So then I talked about it with my family Saturday night.

“Since Thursday was pretty much the only open, free night that we had as a family, we decided that Thursday was going to be the day that I would call and give the news.”

According to Wohler, he believes he has visited Wisconsin about five times since January. He described the coaching staff as “unbelievable” and "top of the line" while also calling out the team’s goals and vision.

There is also the proximity and distance from home, where a stroll west on I-94 takes about 90 minutes from Muskego to Camp Randall Stadium.

“It’s close to my family,” Wohler said. “Family is important to me, so to have them at my games and to be able to come home for the holidays and if anything happens, that means a lot to me.”

From the Coach

Muskego head coach Ken Krause has known of Wohler since the safety was in fifth grade.

Now just finishing up his junior season, Krause believes Wohler has become a better human being and leader.

“Each year, he's become more and more of a leader for us," Krause said. "Obviously when you're a freshman with the older kids, you know, you led by example, but he's gotten a lot more vocal here now as a sophomore and as a junior. Just his work ethic is off the charts, and he's just become a lot more vocal. You know, one thing I really love about his leadership is he likes to spread the wealth around. He likes to compliment his teammates and his coaches. He's very humble as a student-athlete, and I think he's just been a great representative for our city, to our to our younger athletes as well, and to the kids that he plays with.”

According to Krause and Wohler, Muskego's traditional scheme implements a 3-5-3 look: Three down linemen, three inside linebackers and two outside linebackers and three defensive backs.

In terms of the young safety's role in the defense and how it has evolved, the Krause calls Wohler "The Human Eraser."

"He's back at safety. We have a three-linebacker set quite a bit, but he's almost like a fourth linebacker. He just has unbelievable instincts being able to identify when it's a run play and fill alleys. He's just had so many tackles where its 3rd-and-2, 4th-and-2, and he’s tackling guys from behind the line of scrimmage. Yet at the same time, he's been able to be excellent at ball reacting where he knows when it's a run play or he knows when it's a pass play. He doesn’t get fooled so he's equally as good. I know this year teams seemed to not throw as much towards ‘centerfield,’ I guess you could call it, because they're worried about his ball hawking abilities and also just he's a vicious tackler. He's a type of athlete that when he makes a hit, you know, the whole crowd notices. His biggest asset is just his unbelievable instinct of recognizing and diagnosing the play and getting there faster than anyone else I've ever coached from that position."

Strengths

From Wohler: “Probably tackling, coming downhill and meeting plays at the line of scrimmage between the line of scrimmage and five yards. Probably that’s the biggest strength for me at this moment.”

Potential areas of improvement

From Wohler: “My cover skills and my discipline, both of which are not bad, but I would like to improve on them both to put me, help me play at the next level and put me at another level than I am now.”

From Krause: “I think that Hunter’s best asset is he just wants to get better so I know that he's not gonna settle for where he's at. I just think that he just wants to just get a little bit better every day. In life, we can either get a little bit better or a little bit worse and never stay the same. I think for him, he just wants to get a little bit better every day.

“I think just staying humble, which he does a great job of, and just to continue to get bigger and stronger and work on all the little things. I wouldn't say there's any glaring weaknesses he has, but you know, everybody can keep improving. I think just continue to just to get a little bit stronger, a little bit quicker, a little bit faster, and I know those are things he's gonna do for sure.”

How Wisconsin plans to use Wohler

From Wohler: “Pretty much the same as how they use the safeties now. Just between zone, man, coming down in the slot, just kind of playing all over the field similar to what they do with the safeties they do now.”

Hudl highlights

Top photo courtesy of Hunter Wohler.

Add us as a preferred source on Google