Wisconsin spring football: Mickey Turner talks about taking over as head of UW recruiting

Wisconsin's new recruiting coordinator is a familiar face, with an enthusiasm to deliver success with the Badgers.

Author:
Matt Belz
Publish date:
Mar 26, 2022 3:50 PM EDT

In this story:

A long-time assistant for Paul Chryst, former tight ends coach Mickey Turner is embarking on a very different role this spring. This off-season, Turner was hired to oversee the recruiting department for the Wisconsin Badgers. As a former Wisconsin player and assistant, very few know the program as well as Turner.

With two spring practices in the books, the new recruiting coordinator took time to speak with media members on Friday about his new off-field position and the recruiting for the Badgers.

Here are some of the highlights from the press conference:

Mickey Turner sees his role with recruiting as the primary resource for the coaching staff. Additionally, this new position pushes him to find new ways to get recruits excited about Wisconsin.
One of the biggest storylines from last season was the lack of a recruiting department following the loss of Saed Khalif to Michigan State. Mickey Turner noted that they have added several people to help him with recruiting but that the staff still plans to hire additional people to help soon.
A small snippet that stood out was Turner stating that the team is putting more resources into player evaluation.
Turner mentioned that the overall development of top players like Jonathan Taylor and TJ Watt speaks for itself, but that "there is kind of a two-pronged approach. There is the recruiting aspect, the salesman aspect you might say, but then it's also just showing them (recruits) that the development hasn't changed here."
When asked what excites him about this new role, Turner said, "I've always been good at building relationships. I like dealing with people." Turner would go on to discuss his enjoyment of traveling to high schools and meeting with parents, as well as his ability to innovate and be creative in his approach.
in terms of the transfer portal, Turner highlighted the need to have someone dedicated to looking at updates each day and explained that the evaluation process is much quicker with transfers that "requires a whole different mindset."
With the expansion of NIL, Turner went on to say that Wisconsin "needs to be on the forefront of gaining that education for our guys currently and all the recruits that come in. What they want to know when they get on campus is that you've got a plan in place, there are resources for them to touch base into."
Lastly, Turner talked about the system that his team has in place to narrow down the number of prospective student-athletes that the staff will pursue. He noted that this funneling is necessary to simplify the process for the coaches when it comes to deciding to offer scholarships or not.

You can watch the entire video below...

Or catch up on our spring position previews here...

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