Wisconsin football picks up Rivals forecast to land three-star class of 2025 DT

Wisconsin football received a Rivals’ FutureCast prediction to land class of 2025 three-star defensive tackle Xavier Ukponu on Saturday.

The prediction comes from Rivals’ national recruiting analyst Marshall Levinson, who boasts a 94.1% accuracy rate in correct FutureCasts.

The 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle is one of the most coveted uncommitted prospects in his class at this stage of recruitment. Ukponu has received a whopping 35 offers from some of the country’s most prestigious programs, including from Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, USC, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee and Washington.

The Guyer High School product announced his top nine schools back in April. The list included Arkansas, California, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Texas A&M, USC and Washington.

Ukponu is 247Sports’ No. 108 defensive lineman in the class of 2025 and No. 160 recruit from his home state of Texas. Wisconsin had yet to join the recruiting sweepstakes until today, July 27.

On July 23, Ukponu broke his high school record on the bench press after hoisting 380 pounds onto the rack. As a two-sport athlete in shotput and football, his strength is quite remarkable at this age.

Rivals currently has Wisconsin’s 2025 recruiting class ranked No. 22 in the nation. Ukponu would become the second defensive lineman to commit to Wisconsin after three-star Wilnerson Telemaque offered his pledge in June.

Wisconsin’s current defensive line depth includes James Thompson Jr., Curt Neal, Ben Barten, Elijah Hills (transfer) and Brandon Lane — a flipped transfer commit from Louisville.