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Wisconsin Badgers most promising young wide receiver plans to enter transfer portal

The Wisconsin Badgers will have to completely rebuild their wide receiver room this offseason after their most talented young weapon became the latest to enter the transfer portal.
Lorin Cox|
Aug 28, 2025; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers wide receiver Eugene Hilton Jr. (13) runs with the football against Miami (OH) RedHawks defensive back Adrian Walker Jr. (6) during the third quarter at Camp Randall Stadium.
Aug 28, 2025; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers wide receiver Eugene Hilton Jr. (13) runs with the football against Miami (OH) RedHawks defensive back Adrian Walker Jr. (6) during the third quarter at Camp Randall Stadium. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers were supposed to be building the future of the wide receiver room around standout freshman Eugene Hilton.

Those plans changed Monday, as the son of former NFL wide receiver T.Y. Hilton announced his plans to enter the transfer portal.

This was a move Badgers fans were fearing, and the hope was that Luke Fickell's staff would prioritize Hilton as a piece they couldn't afford to lose this offseason.

Rivals rated him as a four-star recruit in the 2025 class, though the other major recruiting outlets ranked him three stars.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound receiver emerged as a talented play-maker from the moment he stepped on the practice field last spring.

Hilton had the look of a future No. 1 option on the outside, but Wisconsin's quarterback injuries and general inconsistency limited all of their receivers' production this season.

He finished with just eight catches for 91 yards, but he was in line for a much larger role in 2026.

Senior receiver Vinny Anthony, Jayden Ballard and Dekel Crowdus all graduated, while three other receivers announced their intentions to enter the portal, headlined by Trech Kekahuna.

Related: Wisconsin Badgers offer transfer portal wide receiver coming off of 1,000-yard season

With Hilton on his way out, the Badgers will be left with just two scholarship wide outs returning from 2025: Chris Brooks Jr. and Tyrell Henry.

Wisconsin also has two true freshmen entering the mix in the 2026 class in Zion Legree and Keeyshawn Tabuteau, but that collective group is nowhere near good enough for the Badgers to be successful throwing the ball.

Fickell will have to completely rebuild the wide receiver corps through the transfer portal, and it's going to be a tough sell to recruit pass catchers to come to an offense that had the fifth-fewest passing yards of any team in the country.

Wide receivers coach Jordan Reid should be doing whatever he can to try and convince Hilton to return to Wisconsin, the way they did when Kekahuna entered the portal last winter.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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