Early enrollees are rising at Wisconsin and across college football. Why?

MADISON, Wis. — Sojourn Shelton was a high school sophomore in 2011 the first time he learned that early enrolling for college was an option. Two older teammates he looked up to at Plantation High in Florida — safety Jeremy Cash as well as linebacker and best friend Ryan Shazier — were leaving school at mid-year to participate in Ohio State’s offseason workouts and spring football practices.

If not for those examples, Shelton likely wouldn’t have pursued the same avenue upon committing to Wisconsin in its 2013 recruiting class. It certainly wasn’t a major sticking point for Badgers coaches. Shelton was one of just two players to enroll early in a class that featured 15 scholarship high school prospects.

Shelton starred during spring practices to earn a starting cornerback job in his first game as a true freshman. He set a program record with 51 career starts that offensive lineman Michael Deiter later broke. And it was all because Shelton had the foresight to try something generally considered the exception to the rule.

“I came to them and said I wanted to do it,” Shelton said. “I got to see my best friend go to school early, get stronger and then turn around and have a crazy good freshman year at O-State. It was super unusual. There weren’t a lot of people going to school like that early. Times are different now.”

Just how different? During a span of seven recruiting classes from 2007-13, the last of which included Shelton, Wisconsin had a total of 15 scholarship freshman early enrollees. When Wisconsin’s latest crop of players arrive in January from the 2025 recruiting class, there will be a program-record 15 early enrollees for Badgers coach Luke Fickell. That comes one year after there were 11 early enrollees, which set a program record and marked the first time there had been more than seven scholarship freshmen at Wisconsin for the spring.

The drastic increase in recent years is not unique to Wisconsin and speaks to an approach that is both encouraged by college coaches and appealing to top-end high school athletes. Shazier and Cash were among five early enrollees at Ohio State in 2011. The Buckeyes had 15 last year and are expected to have a similar number this spring. Michigan is set to have 16 early enrollees. Ten years ago, the number was two. Penn State will have 14 early enrollees, up from five a decade ago. Nebraska, which had 17 early enrollees last year, had four in 2015.

“We don’t mandate them having to,” Wisconsin director of recruiting Pat Lambert said. “To be honest with you, we would have more if some of the high schools would allow it. I think it’s just becoming the norm of the development and everybody recognizing it’s becoming the standard.”

Now, more than ever, the goal for high school players is to put themselves in position to play as early as possible. The more prospects report to college ahead of summertime, the more other players don’t want to be left behind by waiting to enroll. And while staffs don’t mandate early enrolling — many encourage multi-sport athletes to compete in the second semester — they are in the business of immediate results and have become more active in explaining the advantages.

“I think it’s always a benefit,” Fickell said. “It starts off academically. Spring football in that time of the year, in the winter, it’s a time of development. Not that fall isn’t and summer isn’t. But you start to get to summer and you get to fall, it’s about preparing yourself to win football games.

“It’s going to be about getting these other guys many more opportunities, competing, so that as you get to the summer and fall camp, you’ve got a little bit better idea of who you need to really give those reps to as you move forward.”

Inside linebacker Cooper Catalano, who will enroll this January, said Wisconsin director of football strength and conditioning Brady Collins gave players a presentation in the spring on how enrolling early can change physiques. Collins spliced together before-and-after photos, including of players he worked with while at Cincinnati. Catalano described the transformations as “eye-opening.” When Catalano considered his enrollment decision, he consulted with Landon Gauthier, a fellow in-state linebacker in the 2024 class who enrolled early and shared how much he improved.

Eight signees in the 2025 class won’t enroll early. Some, like defensive lineman Drayden Pavey, aren’t allowed to graduate from their high school early. Others have unfinished athletic endeavors they want to handle, like inside linebacker Mason Posa, who will be vying for his fourth consecutive New Mexico state wrestling championship this winter.

While enrolling early doesn’t guarantee playing time, it does give players two months of offseason workouts and 15 spring practices to make headway. Of the 11 early enrollees last spring, only offensive tackle Kevin Heywood exceeded the four-game redshirt limit rule. However, seven others did play snaps on offense, defense or special teams.

“More and more guys are seeing the importance of getting there early and all the benefits of it,” Catalano said. “Getting on that weight plan early and getting on the diet plan early. But most important, figuring out how to balance school and sports and everything.

“You get a whole semester with school and football before August comes and in-season comes and the bullets are really flying and you’re trying to figure out how to manage school right as you get there. I think it’s really good and beneficial to see how school and everything works and how to start managing your time before in-season really starts.”

Early enrollees form bonds well before the season begins. Defensive lineman Xavier Ukponu said he will be roommates with four teammates: tight end Emmett Bork, quarterback Carter Smith, wide receiver Eugene Hilton Jr. and outside linebacker Nicolas Clayton. They will live in a five-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment at the recently-constructed oLiv building, about a mile from Camp Randall Stadium. Catalano and offensive lineman early enrollee Michael Roeske will room together in the same complex.

The early enrollment process requires high school students to complete courses by December or early January of their senior years. That often means advance meetings with a guidance counselor to ensure the necessary credits are complete to meet NCAA eligibility standards.

Roeske said he contemplated enrolling early as a sophomore when he began to earn college scholarship offers. He took a Spanish I class online in the summer entering his junior year so he could fulfill his foreign language requirements with Spanish II as a junior. He also added a second English class in the first semester of his senior year to graduate early.

Catalano said he eliminated study halls from his class schedule and replaced them with courses that would meet graduation requirements. Catalano, like Roeske, needed to take two English classes in the first semester of his senior year.

Perhaps the biggest challenge Badgers early enrollees faced wasn’t what they had to add but rather what they had to subtract: spring sports, proms and vacations. Bork said he’ll miss out on a group spring break trip with his friends to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, while Catalano’s friends are heading to Mexico. Ukponu, a shot-put thrower, is giving up track and field. Catalano has played on the basketball team at Germantown (Wis.) High since his freshman season. His last day at Germantown is Jan. 10 — a day before he moves in at Wisconsin — which means he will only play in the first 10 basketball games of his senior season.

“I’ll definitely miss some of my high school friends, miss out on things like senior spring break, senior prom and stuff like that,” Bork said. “But I think the benefit of getting here early was more of a benefit than it is for me to still be at school. I just felt like moving forward, there’s not too much of a reason for me to keep being in school when I have all my credits done and I’m ready to move on to the next steps.”

Many seem to agree with Bork’s sentiment. When they arrive on campus in two weeks, they’ll be eager to demonstrate why they’ve made what they believe is the right decision for their futures.

“I want to be someone who can make an impact early,” Ukponu said. “I have to show them that I can do it, so that’s why you come early so that they believe in you and they trust you to put you out there.”

(Photo: Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)