Badin's Braedyn Moore officially signs to play football for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin

On April 20, 2022, four months after helping lead the Badin Rams to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state championship game, Braedyn Moore committed to stay local and play under Luke Fickell at the University of Cincinnati.

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Just 222 days after Moore's commitment, Fickell left Cincinnati to become the head coach for the Wisconsin Badgers. Moore would de-commit from the Bearcats and after a brief recruitment, announced he would be heading to Fickell and the Badgers.

'On, Wisconsin!'

Shortly after last season's state runner-up finish for Badin, the offers started rolling in. A number of Mid-American Conference schools started offering Moore in December, which led to offers from programs like West Virginia and Minnesota before an offer from the Bearcats in February.

"All the DI schools from the area and even out of state started showing up," Badin head coach Nick Yordy said. "That's a lot on a high school kid to deal with those type of things. The pressure and how to handle that amongst your peers. Credit to him on how he handled all that.

"Obviously when Coach Fickell decided to leave UC, it kind of threw everybody for a little bit of a loop."

Moore's second round of recruitment after the decommitment from Cincinnati was short but full of plenty of potential suitors.

Moore received an offer from Ohio University, had home visits with Indiana, Wisconsin and West Virginia and revealed he had scheduled an official visit at Wisconsin within a week of opened recruitment.

Two days after his official visit, Moore revealed he would follow his original recruiters and become a Badger.

"He handled it really well," Yordy said. "He went on his visits, he did his due diligence on all that stuff. He felt comfortable and was lucky enough to get that offer from Wisconsin and commit to those guys that were at UC that followed Coach Fickell there.

"It ended up working out all right for him. It was quite the whirlwind experience, to say the least."

Honors on defense, honors on offense

After his senior season ended, Moore was named the Greater Catholic League Coed's offensive player of the year. That wasn't much of a surprise as Moore was the conference's only 1,000-yard receiver and also led with 15 touchdown receptions.

It also wasn't a surprise when Moore received a defensive honor, grabbing the Division III district defensive player of the year honors. Moore, who will more than likely be a safety at the collegiate level, was a cornerback for a Badin defense that averaged fewer than 9 points per game allowed. Moore, who was tied for second in the conference in 2022 with four interceptions, had 14 interceptions across his three varsity seasons.

Elected a team captain, one who Yordy says leads by example with his work ethic, Badin combined to go 35-3 in three seasons and never lost more than once in a year.

The Rams finished as state runner-up in 2021 and regional finalists in 2022.

What to expect when Moore becomes a Badger

Standing at 6-foot-2, Moore would tie with just one current Badger to be the tallest member of the Wisconsin secondary.

Moore's big size and easy run ability give him the opportunity to challenge both passing and running attacks.

"He played corner for most of his career because we were able to put him on the best wide receiver," Yordy said of Moore's defensive skills. "He was usually able to contain that guy. From a safety standpoint, I think a lot of these schools see him as being a guy that can come down and help out in the run game.

"He can offer some run support because he's a physical guy. Tall, long, lanky-type kid. At the same time though you watch his film and schools saw he can help out in the secondary as well."

The Wisconsin coaching staff thought enough of Moore's ability to make him an offer as one of the new program's very first recruits.

Moore's football journey has been filled with team and personal successes. He'll have the ability to do the same as a starter for the Badgers and perhaps beyond.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Braedyn Moore makes official commitment to Wisconsin football