A commitment announcement is coming soon from 2026 three-star linebacker recruit Mason Marden, and the Wisconsin Badgers are among a handful of schools in top contention.
Marden, who plays for St. Louis Ladue Horton Watkins, announced his top five teams Monday. Wisconsin joined Oklahoma, Arizona State, Kansas and Michigan State as the contenders.
"The big thing that led to me [releasing my top schools] was over the last couple of months, just being able to visit Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona State, Michigan State and some of these other schools, and getting to be around the staff a lot," Marden said. "Whether that was through Zoom meetings or them coming for home visits definitely made me pretty comfortable with my overall decision to drop the top five."
Marden plans to announce his commitment in the next few weeks and expects to enroll early in January with whichever school he signs with. He had different reasons for why each school landed in his top five.
Arizona State: "The main thing that stuck out to me about the top five is just the overall relationship that they've been building with my family and the culture that they have there. Like a lot of the players, even on my unofficial [visit] going there, definitely like bonded, and I feel very comfortable around them. Especially the ones that are around my age, and will be there if I end up going there for two to three years with them. So I feel very confident about that."
"Also ... they're going to develop me and the tools that they have strength wise and recovery wise to get me to that state is definitely very impressive."
Kansas: "I'd say really, for me, Kansas is in the top five as well. Same thing. They have really good facilities. They have really good nutrition and everything, so I can get the best strength staff and stuff."
"And the way they see me in their scheme playing being able to play in spaces like as a 'Mike' linebacker but also be interchangeable at 'Will' backer, definitely stands out to me. Then also, the biggest thing for me is from all this was like relationships, and the relationship that coach (Chris) Simpson and coach (Lance) Leipold have built with my family is definitely really impactful on how I think about them."
Michigan State: "The biggest thing for me that stook out (about) them is definitely coach (Joe) Rossi, and he's put seven linebackers in the league over the last few years. He's very good at what he does, even coming from Minnesota. And I like the way he coaches and teaches, and he looks for smart linebackers who are willing to learn a bit of a harder scheme."
"But it's kind of like I feel that's important, because that's the type of coach I'm looking for. I'm looking for a very developmental coach that's going to teach me everything he knows to make me the best linebacker I can be and have a chance to go play in the NFL."
Oklahoma: "The biggest thing for me was they had been recruiting me a lot earlier on with their old linebacker coach, coach (Zac) Alley. But when coach (Nate) Dreiling came in, he was the first coach to really truly reach out to me a lot and start trying to build that relationship."
"And then when they finally came down and offered, I had already been down to campus before, so I'd seen what they have in terms of recovery stuff and seen the facilities. So I felt pretty confident to put them up there with the other schools, especially with competing in the SEC and putting a lot of linebackers in the league."
Wisconsin: "The biggest thing that popped out to me was what they're known for. That's LB-U (Linebacker University). Everyone says it. Coach Tuf (Borland) and coach (Mike) Tressel, just the way they've approached me throughout this entire process kind of blew me away with how many Zoom meetings they've done with me, watching over film and stuff, showing me where I can continue to get better, how they're going to develop me. Getting me on Zoom calls with the strength staff and all these important things."
"And also getting on campus, how they treated my family. They keep in touch with me a lot over not only just football stuff, but also how my life is going. So that definitely stood out to me."
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