Wisconsin flips commitment of DL transfer Brandon Lane from Louisville

Stephen F Austin transfer defensive lineman Brandon Lane won’t be attending Louisville after all. After committing to the Cardinals on Monday, Lane has signed with Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin football Twitter page posted the news on Friday.

Brandon Lane started his career at South Dakota State, before transferring to Stephen F Austin ahead of the 2022 season.

Lane saw the field early and often for the Lumberjacks. In his first season, he would play in seven games, recording 11 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and one sack. Last season, Lane was even more of a disruption along the interior of the defense line. He finished 2023 with 44 total tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, and a forced fumble in a total of 11 games.

Brandon Lane was initially a member of the 2020 recruiting class and played his high school football at Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic High School in Lees Summit, MO. Lane chose South Dakota State, a powerhouse program in the FCS division of college football, over a handful of other FBS programs such as Bowling Green and Air Force.

Luke Fickell reveals the key to Cincinnati-like jump in Year 2 at Wisconsin

Brandon Lane will be playing for an excellent defensive coach in Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. Fickell is entering his second season in charge of the Badgers program.

In Luke Fickell’s first year at Cincinnati in 2017, the team finished the season with a 4-8 record. Only one year later, Fickell turned the program around, guiding the Bearcats to an 11-2 overall record and a win over Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl.

Fickell gained notoriety as the program continued to ascend, eventually reaching the College Football Playoff in 2021. Following the 2022 campaign, Fickell left Cincinnati in search of a new challenge at Wisconsin.

In his first full season with the Badgers last year, Fickell boosted Wisconsin to a 7-6 record and 5-4 mark in conference play. In a conversation with On3’s Andy Staples, Fickell addressed if he can replicate the leap he took with Cincinnati in Year 2 at Wisconsin.

“I would love to say you’re gonna have that kind of transition. But, things got to kind of fall in line. And, for us there, they really did,” Fickell said. “We had some key players, whether they were great players as young guys or they were great culture guys, they were great guys that helped us build the things that we wanted to be able to do on a daily basis.

“There’s a lot of things that have to go on as you develop and work, and kind of formulate some cultural changes that you have to have a lot of buy in. There’s there’s some specific things that happened in that Year 1 to Year 2 in Cincinnati that gave us that opportunity.”