BREAKING NEWS: Wisconsin Football Will Welcome an In-State Defensive Lineman on junior day

The relationship between Middleton native Torin Pettaway, an in-state defensive lineman for the Wisconsin Badgers football team, is starting to heat up.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound three-star recruit from down the street, Pettaway, has confirmed to Badgernotes.com that he will be on campus for the Wisconsin Badgers’ second round of junior day recruiting visits.

Despite playing for the Cardinals in his debut high school football season last year, Pettaway is ranked as the No. 8 player in Wisconsin and the No. 59 defensive tackle in the 2025 recruiting class by 247Sports.

“Most of my time has been spent conversing with Coach [Greg] Scruggs,” Pettaway said to Badgernotes. “What has most struck me is how similar we are and how much we can relate to each other—mostly because we both started playing football later than most—in our senior year of high school.”

According to WisSports, Pettaway finished as a junior at Middleton High School with 25 tackles, 5.0 TFLs, four sacks, two interceptions, and a forced fumble on his way to being named to the first team of the conference.

Wisconsin Football Hosting Torin Pettaway on Recruiting Visit 

Torin Pettaway’s recruiting is starting to pick some steam nationally, so the Wisconsin football coaching staff made a wise decision by pushing to bring him on campus for Badgers junior day.

In the past week alone, Pettaway has received scholarship offers from Nebraska, Minnesota, and the USC Trojans. Pettaway hasn’t received an offer from the Wisconsin Badgers, but it would be fascinating to watch if defensive line coach Greg Scruggs decides to make a move following his visit.

“They [Wisconsin coaches] think that I have a lot of potential and am a duel threat on the defensive line because I can with pass rush attempts as well as stuff the run when the ball is heading my direction,” Pettaway shared.

Coach Scruggs did a fantastic job during the 2024 recruiting cycle at the position, landing a pair of four-star defensive linemen in Ernest Willor Jr. and Dillan Johnson. Not to mention, he also helped bring in Hank Weber.

How Wisconsin football follows those efforts in this next cycle will be critical to the continued effort of rebuilding the Badgers’ defensive line in a mold that better suits the vision of their new schematic direction.

There’s a lot to like about Pettaway’s upside—so getting involved before his offer list explodes seems like a no-brainer.