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NU Signs '18 Recruiting Class
Northwestern
has welcomed a new class of 18 scholarship recruits as part of signing
day 2018, a class that includes 16 new 'Cats who signed their letters
of intent back in December and two students who signed today.
This year the class leans to the offense, with 10 students on offense
(plus 2 walk-ons, both on offense) and 8 on defense, balancing last
year's defense-heavy recruiting class.
The
'Cats followed up last year's relatively light state representation by
going heavy in the home state, recruiting seven players from Illinois,
including one from Chicago itself.
The
recruiting analyst crowd thinned a bit this year: Scout.com has now
folded into the CBS-247 group and no longer does independent recruiting
analysis or rankings. Both of the remaining recruiting sites, Rivals
and 247, rank NU's 2018 class 14th in the Big Ten and 59th in the
nation, one of the lowest rankings for the Wildcats in the last two
decades. This is despite the fact that CBS-247 gives every NU recruit
at least three stars. If misery loves company, note that Stanford-- one
of NU's key recruiting rivals-- ranked 70th nationally this year.
The following table shows the
list of recruits who have committed to Northwestern. The comments are compiled
from
material taken from Rivals.com and CBS's 247Sports.
Recruiting
is always a somewhat challenging topic for me to cover. I have no interest at all in
college recruiting. Yet, I recognize that success in recruiting is
critical to Northwestern's program.
For more
detailed info and analysis, be sure to check out Lou V.'s reporting at
Rivals and the work at CBS's 247 Sports.
| RB |
Drake Anderson
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Chandler, AZ
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CBS 3-Star. Illinois, Nevada, and NM St. offered.
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DL
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Wyatt Blake
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Crystal Lake, IL
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 14 offers, incl. Boston Col., Duke, Indy, Minny, Mizzou, Vandy, and 'Cuse.
|
| RB |
Isaiah Bowser
|
Sidney, OH
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 10 offers, incl. Cincy, Harvard, Navy, and Yale.
|
| DB |
A.J. Hampton
|
Warren, AR
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 10 offers, incl. Columbia, Neb., Penn.
|
OL
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Payne He'bert
|
Pearland, TX
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 6 offers, incl. K. St., Rice.
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| WR |
Jacob Jefferson
|
Houston, TX
|
Rivals and CBS 3-Star. New Mexico, Rice offered.
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| LB |
Khalid Jones
|
Greenville, SC
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 14 offers, incl. Duke, Indy, M'Land, Minny, Miss., NC St., TN, Wake, Wisky, and Yale.
|
| SB |
Brian Kaiser
|
Wilmette, IL
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 10 offers, incl. Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Princeton.
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| DE |
Andrew Leota
|
Asheville, NC
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 9 offers, incl. Ark., Duke, NC, Purdue, R'gers, TN, VA Tech.
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| SB |
Charlie Mangieri
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Peoria, IL
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. Indy, Miss., NIU offered.
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| LB |
Grayson Mann
|
Fort Worth, TX
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 10 offers, incl. Air Force, Harvard, Indy, Neb., Rice.
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| DB |
Jeremiah McDonald
|
Slidell, LA
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 8 offers, incl. Miss., Navy, Vandy.
|
| DB |
Greg Newsome II
|
Chicago, IL
|
Rivals
and CBS 3-Star. 23 offers, incl. Ark., Boston Col., Cornell, Harvard,
Illinois, Iowa, Minny, Princeton, Purdue, R'gers, 'Cuse, Vandy, VA
Tech, Yale.
|
| DL |
Devin O'Rourke
|
Mokena, IL
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Rivals and CBS 4-Star. 14 offers, incl. Illinois, Indy, Iowa, Minny, Neb. Notre Dame, PSU, Princeton, R'gers, Wisky.
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| LB |
Jaylen Rivers
|
Decatur, GA
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 21 offers, incl. L'ville, UMass, Miss., Navy, R'gers, 'Cuse, Yale.
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| OL |
Charlie Schmidt
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Libertyville, IL
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 7 offers, incl. 'Cuse, Vandy.
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| OL |
Sam Stovall
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Chattanooga, TN
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CBS 3-Star. 14 offers, incl. App. St. and Tulane.
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| QB |
Jason Whittaker
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Rockford, MI
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Rivals and CBS 3-Star. 6 offers, incl. Indy.
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In addition to the recruits listed above, NU announced the following walkon players:
- Willy Boatman, OL
- Raymond Niro III, WR
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