The Wisconsin Badgers have expanded their transfer portal offer to include an intriguing defensive lineman from a smaller school.
Langden Kitchen, a sophomore at Northwest Missouri State University, had confined offers beyond high school and ultimately decided to stay close to home as a Missouri native. The defensive lineman played two seasons at Northwest Missouri before entering his name into the transfer portal a few days ago in search of a jump in the competition.
Kitchen is 6-foot-7 and 270 pounds, providing a combination of extreme power and agility while playing along the defensive line. The defensive lineman is also a high-motor player, a type that Wisconsin was exclusively looking for on the defensive side of the football.
Kitchen played a total of 20 games in two years for Northwest Missouri, totaling 30 tackles in that time, as well as 5.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. Kitchen also recorded ten tackles for loss during his tenure, which really took a step forward last season where he played significant snaps in 11 games for Northwest Missouri.
The talented defensive lineman finished the season with the best league play of his career to date, recording four sacks in his final five games, six tackles for loss and both forced fumbles of his career. Kitchen was one of those unique players who simply needed time on the court against other opponents to improve his game as an iron-sharpen-iron player.
The Wisconsin Badgers offer Langden Kitchen in Oklahoma, California
The Wisconsin Badgers is one of the first programs to reach out to Kitchen, and could likely be the program that lands a defensive lineman in the future due to the playing time available.
Kitchen also currently has offers from programs like Cal, Oklahoma State, Kansas and Iowa State. The only significant difference between the programs will be defense, as Cal often employs a unique 2-4-5 with two tight ends on offense, thus moving Kitchen to the middle of the line. Oklahoma State uses a more time-honored 3-3-5 formation, which would be much closer to the defense Kitchen is currently accustomed to.
Some Wisconsin Badgers fans may be upset that Kitchen isn’t a massive recruit through the portal, but the Badgers are continuing certain trends. Coach Luke Fickell is a powerful believer in recruiting challenging workers and players who are football maniacs, and Kitchen would certainly fit that particular description of a player.
This trend can be seen with compact schools like Elijah Hills (Albany), John Pius (William & Mary) and Nyzier Fourqurean (Grand Valley State) and many others. The minor-league transfer may not have been the most productive player for Fickell so far, but that comes with an area where players are picking up the pieces quickly.
Every player inherently carries some risk, but even though Kitchen is a small-school athlete, he is still an excellent athlete on the field and clearly someone the Wisconsin Badgers feel comfortable investing in.
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