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Wisconsin football recruiting: Badgers offer three 2024 visitors over the weekend

The Badgers extend scholarship offers to Payton Pierce, Christian Bentancur, and Parker Livingstone.

Matt Belz

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The Wisconsin Badgers are off to a strong start in the 2024 recruiting class. While the Badgers do not yet have a commitment from any sophomore prospects, they have already made significant inroads with some of the top players around the Midwest and nationally.

On Saturday, Wisconsin held a monster recruiting weekend, which featured several top targets on campus for unofficial visits.

Of the 30+ visitors on campus, three high-profiled 2024 prospects who made the trip to Madison left with a scholarship offer in hand.

The first offer extended was to 2024 linebacker Payton Pierce of Lucas, Texas. The Lovejoy High School four-star is 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, and he already looks the part of a Big Ten linebacker as a sophomore.

Wisconsin is the latest school to offer Pierce, who also holds scholarship opportunities from Arkansas, Baylor, Iowa State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech.

Pierce is a fast and instinctual player on both sides of the ball based on his sophomore highlights, and he moves fluidly from sideline to sideline. His ability to shoot defensive gaps quickly is reminiscent of former Wisconsin inside linebacker Leo Chenal.

Last season, Pierce amassed 131 tackles, 31 tackles for loss, six sacks, and five forced fumbles on defense. He also tallied 12 touchdowns on offense within one of the better districts of Texas high school football.

Pierce was not the only Lovejoy High School prospect on campus over the weekend. His teammate, wide receiver Parker Livingstone, also made the trip up north to Wisconsin and left with an offer.

Livingstone is not yet rated by 247 Sports or Rivals, but he already has a significant offer list. As things stand, he has offers from Arkansas, Baylor, Florida State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, and Tennessee, in addition to the Badgers.

The 6-foot-4 wide receiver is a tremendous athlete and flashed this past season with the Lovejoy Leopards with 44 receptions for just shy of 1,000 yards and 16 touchdowns. Livingstone is a long-striding down-field threat with the size and speed to be a tremendous college receiver.

You can see his sophomore film here.

The third 2024 prospect to earn an offer from the Badgers over the weekend was tight end Christian Betancur of Woodstock, Illinois.

At 6-foot-5 and pushing 240 pounds, Betancur already possesses some ideal measurables for the position as only a sophomore in high school.

As a result, Betancur has seen his recruitment skyrocket this spring with offers from Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State, Washington, and Wisconsin in April alone.

Betancur's ability to high-point the football and snag contested catches stands out on film, which should come in handy at the next level. He splits out frequently as a wide receiver for Marian Central Catholic High School, but considering his size, he should be more than capable of blocking in the Big Ten. 

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Matt Belz
MATT BELZ

Title: Publisher, Beat Writer for AllBadgers.com, a Sports Illustrated Channel Hello, my name is Matt Belz, and I am the site manager at All Badgers. I previously wrote for multiple years at Buckeyes 5th Quarter and have been the leading publisher here since March of 2022.  When I am not covering the Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball teams, I enjoy being outside and spending time with family and friends.  You can follow everything I write about on several different platforms. First and foremost on our site...AllBadgers.com You can follow me personally on Twitter at @savedbythebelz or check out our Facebook page at Wisconsin FanNation on Sports Illustrated.

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