Cats land five of Illinois Top 30 in 2020 class

Northwestern signed four scholarship players from Illinois in its 2020 class, yet the Wildcats have five recruits in the Illinois Top 30.

How did that happen? It's because preferred walkon Greyson Metz made the list, even though he is going to play at NU without a scholarship. So the Wildcats wound up with one-sixth of the top 30 players in the state.

Northwestern signed more players from its home state than any other school. Iowa is next with four, while Illinois, the state's public flagship university, didn't land a single Illinoisan.

Let's take a look at where Northwestern's recruits wound up in the rankings.

Four-star, Rivals250 OL Peter Skoronski is the highest-ranked player in Northwestern's class. He is the program's highest-ranked in-state recruit since Devin O'Rourke was ranked third in Illinois in 2018.

Three-star LB Xander Mueller is the younger brother of current Wildcat LB Erik Mueller and one of three members of NU's class who earned a 5.7 Rivals rating, the highest mark possible for a three-star, along with RB Cameron Porter and OL Josh Priebe.

Three-star Sean McLaughlin is a L-O-N-G 6-foot-7 DE from state champion Lincoln Way East whose grandfather played for Northwestern in 1960. He will join fellow LWE alum O'Rourke at the Wildcats' deepest position.

Talk about a steal as a preferred walkon. Three-star LB Greyson Metz chose to walkon at Northwestern over offers from Power Five programs Iowa, Louisville and Syracuse, as well as Cincinnati, Air Force and a host of Ivy League, MAC and other schools.

A former hockey player, three-star SB Hunter Welcing didn't play football until he was a sophomore at Lake Zurich. He suffered an ACL tear last spring but came back in October to play his senior year for the Bears.