Wisconsin Badgers among top schools for this 2026 Texas edge rusher who recently revisited

Luke Fickell and the University of Wisconsin football program are still in contention for an emerging edge rusher from Texas. Here are the programs the Badgers will need to beat for this recruit's commitment.

Wisconsin outside linebacker target Ben Duncum during a photo shoot at his official visit the weekend of June 12-15. | Courtesy of Nicole Duncum

Luke Fickell and the University of Wisconsin football program are still in contention for an emerging edge rusher from Texas.

Ben Duncum, who plays for Austin Lake Travis, announced Thursday his top eight schools via Instagram. Wisconsin made the cut alongside California, Houston, Kansas State, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma State and BYU.

Duncum's had a busy June thus far, making official visits to Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Kansas State. He also had set an OV to Kentucky for this upcoming weekend.

Duncum, his mother and brother-in-law were in Madison the weekend of June 13-15.

"I had a great time here," Duncum told Wisconsin Badgers On SI on Sunday. "Did a lot of fun things, coming on a pontoon boat with the coaches, some of the other recruits, too. We had four boats out there. Coach (Luke) Fickell rode up on his jet skis with his kids. It was really personal, really family-orientated. Coaches were doing flips off of boats with us. It was pretty awesome.

"Then we had laser tag and hibachi last night. It was really cool, and then got to hang out with the players a lot also after all our activities."

Duncum also said Sunday that his timeline to give a verbal commitment was "most likely in July," though according to the Texas native, there were "some eye-turning schools starting to circle a little bit" that could affect that.

Baylor was one of the programs showing interest in him, and he announced Thursday an offer from Dave Aranda's Bears after he dropped his list of top eight teams.

Wisconsin doesn't have a commit projected to play outside linebacker for the 2026 class. Carmelow Reed (Olympia Fields Rich Township) flipped to Mississippi earlier this month, and four-star recruit McHale Blade (Chicago Simeon) has already committed to Michigan. The Badgers also hosted four-star recruit Jackson Samuels Ford (Malvern Prep, Pennsylvania) the weekend of May 29-June 1.

Had a great time in Wisconsin thank you @BadgerFootball @Coach_Mitch_ @RoseBrandon_ @CoachWhit_UW pic.twitter.com/1JnSkbHQ58

— Ben Duncum 4⭐️ (@ben_duncum) June 15, 2025

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