Quarterback Kare’ Lyles, a 2016 prospect, only recently committed to Wisconsin, but his first memory of Badgers football goes all the way back to fourth grade. His father, former Wisconsin tight end Kevin Lyles, took Kare’ and younger brother Kayden to Camp Randall for a visit while living in Wisconsin.

Lyles, now an Arizona resident, remembers walking around the locker room, seeing the facilities and ending the tour with a surprise visit to Bret Beilema’s office to meet the head coach.

“We were just young kids and we’re meeting the head coach of Wisconsin. We go in his office and he asks us how we’re doing and we were speechless,” he said. “We went back to school and were bragging to our friends about seeing everything.”

His early experience and his father’s ties to the program factored in heavily into Kare’’s commitment to the Badgers. While brother Kayden is only a 2017 prospect, he has already established himself as one of the top prospects in the country, and also holds an offer from Wisconsin.

The two have played football together for the majority of their careers, but the first memory the brothers have is when their father was coaching the fifth grade team and asked them if they wanted to play.

“… Kayden was short and skinny, so he went out with the tight ends, and there was a kid named Teddy who was hitting people and knocking people around,” Kare’ said. “So Kayden catches the ball and gets decleated by Teddy and has his helmet flew off. Kayden got up and started screaming for our mom.

“He ran to our mom and sat behind her in the chair. My dad tried to get him back on the field, but Kayden didn’t want to play anymore.”

Kayden thought it was just going to be fun and games, but found out quickly that it was tough playing against older kids. He decided to stick it out, though, and by luck moved to a different position.

Roughly a week later, Kare’ was having trouble receiving snaps so their father asked Kayden if he would practice snapping and go under center. His first snap he rifled it perfectly into his brother’s hands.

Kevin asked his son to do it again, and sure enough another perfect snap. They try it in shotgun, in the middle of their kitchen, and Kayden fires it again into his brother’s hands.

Kayden was then named the center on the fifth grade team as a third-grader and it started their long journey playing together and building memories on the field.

The two have plenty of stories to tell of their time together, including the time Kayden, now a 290-pound offensive lineman, did the splits at practice while a Michigan State coach was in attendance. The Spartans offered Kayden that day.

They can go back and forth with stories, but both laugh when they talk about an infamous play in practice they now affectionately call the fat and go.

“The first thing we do after stretching in our walk-through we do a pat and go with all the receivers where they line up and run fades in the end zone. [Saguaro] Coach [Jason] Mohns said we were going to start a new tradition and told all the fat guys on the sideline to get in the line,” Kare’ said. “So we started calling it the fat and go and I was the quarterback with Kayden next to run a fade. Kayden does a ridiculous corner route, stems it, plants, goes up field, perfectly over the shoulder and he caught it.”

Kayden had already been racking up offers, but when Cal offered, he learned from his coach that he owed it partially to the fat and go. Coach Mohns had recorded the catch and showed it to the Cal coach, who offered after seeing the athleticism Kayden displayed.

Now entering the latter part of their high school careers, and with the elder brother committed to Wisconsin, the two could be making memories on the football field for the last time.

Kare’ will do his best to recruit his brother to pick the Badgers, but it will ultimately be up to Kayden on where he ends up and if they’ll have more opportunities to create memories on the field in the future.