Raphael Dunn’s credentials as a bona fide star football player were undeniable. In three seasons, he had been a dominant last line of defense at safety who quarterbacks often preferred to avoid. Dunn led his league as an 11th grader with 61 tackles while recording three sacks, three interceptions and eight pass breakups. The fact that he was 6 feet 4, with atypical agility, athleticism and length for his position made him a bit of a unicorn as a potential college prospect.
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But that unicorn first needed to be found.
Dunn had accomplished those feats while playing for the Lakeshore Cougars, his hometown youth football program in Montreal. Although Dunn flashed potential, he did so in 12-man football and with coaches uncertain about the talent level around him. If Dunn wanted to reach his goals, he had to make a big decision about his future.
“Everyone knows that if you want to play football at the highest level, you have to go to the United States,” Dunn’s father, Wayne, said. “This is not poo-pooing Canada in any way, but it’s facts. I think a lot of the kids, the ones that have those real aspirations to play football at the next level, know that their path goes through the United States.”
Wayne said Quebec’s education system is the only one in Canada that follows the CEGEP system (college of general and vocational education). That means students in Quebec graduate high school in 11th grade and then take a two-year pre-university program that is akin to junior college and is required before they can enter university. The family decided instead to send Dunn to boarding school in the U.S. and found a match in The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Dunn reclassified to redo 11th grade so he could have two full years of high school in the U.S.
After a great official visit I’m excited to announce my commitment to Wisconsin University. I would like to thank my parents @CoachPoeWins @CoachHitsch @CoachMikeTress @_maximus347 @CoachFick pic.twitter.com/4o2sjuKAza
— Raphael Dunn (@Raphaelball9) June 11, 2023
That move proved to be exactly what Dunn needed to land on the radar as a major college prospect. He started at safety last season and notched 68 tackles, seven pass breakups and four interceptions, including two that were returned for touchdowns. By February, programs began to take notice.
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Monmouth, Penn and Columbia extended Dunn scholarship offers. Vanderbilt then became the first FBS program to offer Dunn. By the end of May, he had added offers from Temple, Rutgers, Michigan State, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Illinois and Virginia.
Dunn took official visits to Virginia and Wisconsin and had plans to see Kentucky and Vanderbilt but committed to the Badgers last Sunday. It marked a wild year for a prospect who went from relative unknown to Big Ten commit.
“My recruiting class, the people that showed up on the official visit, they were just something else,” Dunn said. “They were so nice and kind. We were joking. At first, we were like, ‘Yo, if we came here, it would be so fun.’ And then as the time progressed, it was like, ‘No, this is actually going to be a fun class. We’re going to take over Madison. We’re going to win a national championship.’ And as the time progressed, it just got better and better.”
Dunn’s unique style of play perfectly aligns with defensive coordinator Mike Tressel’s vision for his unit. Although Dunn is listed as a safety, the Badgers envision using him as a hybrid safety and linebacker to occupy the dollar position in Tressel’s 3-3-5 defense. That is a role Badgers safety Hunter Wohler will play next season. Dunn, who is 205 pounds, said he is a firm believer in the dollar defense because he can cover receivers and tight ends in space but also has the versatility to play in the box or blitz off the edge.
“He plays the game like an actual tweener,” Wayne said. “Long ago, if you were a tweener, it was almost a bad word. Nowadays, it seems like everybody loves the tweener.
“I think that’s what Raphael gives them. Once he gets to a university program, he’ll probably put on 10, 20 pounds. He can legitimately play in the box and play that linebacker position. But his speed, his hips, his fluidity at that size allows him to play safety. I think that’s what’s really attractive to coaches. He can pretty much play every level of the field if he gains weight.”
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Lawrenceville coach Napoleon Sykes Jr. said that while Dunn’s physical gifts are evident, one of his most valuable traits is his on-field intelligence. He cited a play from Dunn’s first game at Lawrenceville. The defense was playing Cover 4, which has four deep zones occupied by two corners and two safeties who split a fourth of the deep portions of the field.
Sykes had given his players the freedom to make adjustments to man coverage if they thought it would provide an advantage on a particular play. Based on his film study, Dunn recognized that the opponent liked to run a switch concept on third-and-medium with its two receivers on the field side, where there was more room for the play. The receiver on the outside would run vertically up the field while the slot would run an out route. Dunn changed the call, perfectly read the pass on the out route and undercut it for an interception.
“A lot of kids in college don’t make that in Week 1, Week 2, Week 3,” Sykes said. “Your veteran guys can make that call. But you’re talking about a kid that had just arrived. You knew right away that he could pick up on a lot of that stuff really quickly.”
Wisconsin didn’t offer Dunn a scholarship until April when he visited campus for spring practice, and Dunn’s path to play for the Badgers was one of good fortune. Sykes said Wisconsin safeties coach Colin Hitschler, a Philadelphia native, happened to have a friend who worked in Lawrenceville’s development office.
After that friend saw Dunn play his first game at Lawrenceville, he approached Sykes and told him he would call Hitschler to tell him about Dunn. Sykes knew some members of Wisconsin’s previous coaching staff but none of the new staffers after head coach Luke Fickell was hired in late November. Hitschler visited the school over the winter and couldn’t believe what he saw from Dunn.
“We started talking and he immediately fell in love with Raph’s film,” Sykes said. “He was just like, ‘Hold on. Is this kid legitimately 6-4, 6-5?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, he is.’ It was like a perfect fit.
“Raph is 100 percent a unicorn. You’d go out and try and look for a young kid down the road that you can bring in like that, they just don’t have them.”
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Wayne said he and his son were particularly impressed with a presentation that Hitschler gave during the official visit. Hitschler had compiled video of coverages from some of his former players now in the NFL, as well as clips of players from Cincinnati and during Wisconsin’s spring football practices. He then showed Dunn clips from his time at Lawrenceville and explained how he would fit into Wisconsin’s defense. Dunn informed Hitschler, Tressel and Fickell on Sunday that he was committing to Wisconsin.
“The detail that coach Hitschler put into that presentation, it just spoke volumes to us and my wife and myself and Raphael,” Wayne said. “We’re like, ‘Wow, this is a coach that if he’s putting this much detail into a presentation, you know on game day these kids are going to be ready to go.’ And I’m sure it’s not just him. I’m sure coach Fick is like that, coach Tressel is like that and the entire coaching staff.”
Wisconsin is clearly changing what it looks for with its defensive backs under the new staff, adding bigger bodies who can be versatile and physical against Big Ten receivers. The 6-2 Wohler was the only member of the Badgers secondary last season listed at taller than 6-1. Wisconsin added 6-2 four-star safety Braedyn Moore and 6-3 four-star cornerback Amare Snowden in the 2023 class. The Badgers have commitments in the 2024 class from Dunn, 6-2 cornerback Vernon Woodward and 6-1 cornerback Kahmir Prescott. No cornerback on the roster last season was taller than 6 feet.
Sykes, who was the outside linebackers coach for Navy from 2016 through 2018 and faced against Fickell’s Cincinnati teams twice as a fellow member of the American Athletic Conference, said Dunn already does all of the things at Lawrenceville that he’ll be asked to do at Wisconsin.
“One of the things that they’ve just done a great job of is finding guys that fit what they do,” Sykes said. “They go after big-name kids and all that stuff. But I think what coach Fickell has done in his time as a head coach is find people who work in what he’s doing.
“It doesn’t really matter who else is recruiting the kid. They find long, fast, physical kids and it works. It’s worked wherever he’s been. You look at what they’ve done at Cincinnati, I will not be shocked when it happens at Wisconsin where they just change how they do things.”
(Photo from Raphael Dunn’s Twitter page)
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