It is often said that recruiting is the lifeblood of college football.

That’s tough to argue, as the actual coaching and performing on the field still counts for something. Just ask Ron Zook, a man known for his recruiting prowess, or Notre Dame, who always has a top-ranked class. I think we can all agree things haven’t gone too well on the field for them.

Of course, recruiting is crucial to any program’s success. Yesterday Wisconsin football head coach Bret Bielema announced his 2010 class.

Now, I’ll admit it is difficult to evaluate a class before any of its members have played a single collegiate down (I felt like a young Mel Kiper Jr. writing up those grades). It’s arguably tougher than grading an NFL team’s draft class, and we know how hard that can be (the Titans got a D+ for drafting East Carolina running back Chris Johnson in the first round).

So I’m not going to sit here and say the Badgers are destined for immediate success thanks to the 24 scholarship athletes and six preferred walk-ons they have added over the past few months.

Sure, I believe many of them will be valuable impact players, but what has impressed me most about this class is the way it was put together by the staff.

First and foremost, I have come to appreciate the way this coaching staff has approached the high school camps and assessed the prospects. While players will come to these summer camps to run some drills and show off some skills, UW will truly utilize the camps as a critical evaluation period.

Look at the Badgers’ enormous new lineman, Dallas Lewallen, who came to camp as a virtual unknown. But reports suggested that the 6-foot-5 Lewallen flat out dominated in camp, and the coaches took notice.

Lewallen received an offer, while better-known in-state lineman prospects like Matt Eggen and Zac Epping, who had more hype surrounding them, failed to reach the level Lewallen displayed. Hence, Eggen and Epping are now Gophers.

The same story can be told for Jake Irwin, a defensive end prospect from Waunakee.

Irwin came to camp, dominated and received an offer. He has no four-star rating attached to his name nor any fancy highlight videos circulating the Internet, but the UW staff got to see Irwin go head-to-head with other prospects and loved what they saw.

So while the star-ratings may not jump out at you, keep in mind how good the UW staff has been at evaluating under-the-radar talent.

In fact, it was just last year when the staff offered a scholarship to that kid named Chris Borland.

The prospect from Kettering, Ohio came to UW’s camp with no major offers and left as a future Badger who was told he would be playing a new position — linebacker. Bielema thought outside linebacker fit the versatile Borland’s skill set best.

One year and one Big Ten Freshman of the Year award later, I’d say the UW staff did a pretty decent job evaluating Borland.

But Bielema and his staff know they must attract the highly sought after kids as well and they have done a tremendous job securing commitments from the top prospects on their board.

This year was a great example as UW clearly needed to add an impact player at defensive tackle. With five of the top six tackles from last year leaving, some new guys need to step in.

Enter Beau Allen, a 307-pound defensive tackle from Minnetonka, Minn. The Badgers clearly had Allen near the top of their list as they made numerous in-home visits and traveled to see him play firsthand.

Allen was a prospect UW staff desperately wanted and down the stretch run of the recruiting cycle they got him. Notre Dame, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska and Minnesota all offered as well, but the Badgers won out.

And while Allen clearly was a top priority on the defensive side of the ball, it was clear the UW staff had their eyes on an intriguing quarterback (a position of need every cycle) early on as well.

Joseph Brennan, a 6-foot-4 signal caller from Cherry Hill, N.J., had plenty of options to choose from as Miami, Iowa, Stanford and UW all offered the quarterback a scholarship.

According to Rivals.com, Brennan revealed that UW had him at the top of their quarterback board from the start. In September, Brennan committed and ended up being the only quarterback taken in the class.

Once again, UW targeted a premier prospect and landed a commitment. For a school like Wisconsin, you cannot just offer scholarships to every four or five star player like Texas or Florida and sign players on reputation alone.

To sign top prospects, you need to identify a few targets and work tirelessly to get them. And unfortunately if you fail, you might be too late in the process to get in on a comparable second option.

Bielema and his staff identified who they wanted right from the start, and it paid off. No backup plan was necessary at defensive tackle or quarterback. That is critical in the formation of a solid recruiting class that fills this team’s needs.

But for me, I was most impressed with how this class ended, and it seemed to embody the 2009 football season as whole.

Heading into the bowl game I didn’t know what to make of the 9-3 record. A win over Miami was needed to validate the season, and in a similar way, Bielema and Co. needed to add some big names late in the year to their class.

And with one win over No. 14 Miami, the Badgers put a signature win on their season, and added two big-time signatures on signing day.

Running back James C. White and tight end Sherard Codagan, two highly ranked east coast prospects, were weighing their options heading into the bowl season.

But after watching John Clay tear through the Miami defense and Lance Kendricks haul in seven catches in a tremendous Badger victory, both prospects committed to UW.

It just goes to show just how crucial bowl game success can actually be.

Bielema got his team ready for a challenging bowl game and at the same time put the finishing touches on a class by adding two skilled players with multiple offers (White held offers from Clemson, N.C. State and MSU; Codagan held offers from Pittsburgh, MSU, Iowa and West Virginia, among others).

Not only does a head coach need to perform well in the bowl season, but he also needs to convert that success into victories on the recruiting front.

Luckily for Badger fans, UW came through on both counts.

Max is a junior majoring in journalism. Send your thoughts about the 2010 signing class to [email protected]