Breaking down the Class of 2017
Once again, National Signing Day at Northwestern went off without a hitch as the program officially welcomed 19 new Wildcats.
The football office’s day went like clockwork. The new Wildcat with the fastest Send button was offensive lineman Sam Gerak, whose signing was announced by Northwestern at 6:04 a.m. Central time, four minutes after the official start of the day. The last one was received from wide receiver Berkeley Holman, the lone player in the Pacific time zone, who was announced at 9:16 a.m.
In all, 17 LOIs were received. Add them to the two Wildcats that were early enrollees, and all 19 members of the Class of 2017 are accounted for.
Here’s a breakdown of Northwestern’s newest Wildcats:
Heads of the class: While Northwestern did not have a four-star in this class, three players earned a 5.7 Rivals Rating, the highest for a three-star prospect: defensive ends Earnest Brown and Trevor Kent and superback Trey Pugh. Brown, who in this writer’s opinion should have been a four-star, had the only sack in the prestigious U.S. Army All-America Bowl last month. Kent is 6-foot-4 and 252 pounds and may be more college-ready than his counterpart. Rushing the passer is always at a premium in college football, and Brown and Kent will give the Cats formidable bookends for years to come. How good are they? Michigan went after Kent after he committed to NU, while Ohio State made a strong pitch to Brown after he pledged. People wonder if Pugh, who has already enrolled at Northwestern, will be more of a Garrett Dickerson or a Dan Vitale. He may be both. At 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, he could have the size to be a Dickerson on the line and the athleticism to play different positions and be a dangerous receiver.
Jump starts: Two members of Northwestern’s class got an early start on their college careers by enrolling in January. They are defensive tackle Sam Miller and superback Pugh. Miller, the younger brother of freshman tackle Alex Miller, and Pugh started taking classes at Northwestern last month. Both players are taking part in winter activities now and will participate in spring practice. Early enrollees are becoming a trend throughout college football and, even though Pat Fitzgerald is against the idea in principle – he prefers that players enjoy their final years of high school – it is now becoming a regular occurrence at Northwestern. Safety Parrker Westphal was the first early enrollee, in 2015, and Tommy Carnifax did it last year. This is the first time NU has had two players enroll early together.
The 49ers: Northwestern’s class is ranked 49th in the nation by Rivals at this writing, but that could move up or down on signing day as players sign around the country and schools move up or down the list. (Click here for up-to-the-minute rankings.) That’s about par for Northwestern, whose class ranked 49th last year and 56th in 2015. In the Big Ten, that’s good for only a No. 11 ranking, better than only Minnesota, Indiana and Purdue. The same old schools are at the top of the conference rankings, with Ohio State first and Michigan second. Nationally, Ohio State and Michigan are perched at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, but again, those rankings could change depending on today’s commitments. The Wildcats had been in the teens early in the season but fell steadily as other schools picked up commits. Class size is a factor considered in the rankings and Northwestern’s class is larger than only one, Wisconsin’s class of 16.
Three’s a charm: Sixteen of Northwestern’s 19 commitments are ranked as three-star prospects. Just two – kicker Charlie Kuhbander (kickers almost always get two stars) and quarterback Andrew Marty – are two-stars, and one, linebacker Chee Anyanwu, has yet to be ranked. That gives the Wildcats an average star rating of 2.74.
Georgia makes a state-ment: It’s no surprise that Ohio and Texas go one, two at the top of Wildcat-producing state leaderboard with five commits apiece, but this year No. 3, Georgia, was a bit of a surprise. Northwestern pulled Anyanwu, wide receiver Kyric McGowan and safety J.R. Pace from the state. The Wildcats pulled two players out of Georgia in 2015, the first Peach State recruits in years for the program, and then one last season. Defensive line coach Marty Long, who recruits Georgia, deserves credit for making inroads into the state, which ranked fourth in producing college football players last year, according to USA Today. Ohio ranked fifth on that list, while Texas was No. 2, behind only Florida.
What about Illinois? Fitzgerald likes to say that Northwestern recruiting begins and ends in his home state, but the Land of Lincoln finished fourth on the list this year with just two commits: wide receiver Jace James and cornerback Cameron Ruiz. While that will no doubt draw some local media attention, the reason is more cyclical than anything; there just weren’t that many recruits with the academic chops for NU this season, and a few of them chose to go elsewhere. The Class of 2018 is shaping up much differently, though, with at least nine Illinois players already collecting Northwestern offers.
Early birds: Northwestern’s class was once again formed well advance of signing day. Blake Gallagher was the first Wildcat to give his verbal pledge, way back on Dec. 14, 2015. He was followed eight days later by Gerak on Dec. 22. Those two have been waiting nearly 14 months to sign on the dotted line. Only one Wildcat, Anyanwu, committed after the start of the 2016 season; the others were all committed by the end of July. Last April was the most active month, with five Wildcats committing during spring practice: Bryce Jackson, Marty, McIntyre, Pugh and Ruiz.
A healthy balance: As usual, Northwestern’s class is fairly evenly divided by offense and defense. There are eight offensive players, 10 defensive players and one kicker. There were four positions that pulled in three recruits each: offensive line (Gerak, Rashawn Slater and Ethan Wiederkehr), wide receiver (James, McGowan and Holman), safety (Austin Hiller, Jackson and Pace) and defensive line (Brown, Kent and Miller).
Solid state: There’s one player in Northwestern’s group that’s the top in his state: Kent, who was the No. 1 prospect in Kansas this year. Two others were close: Gallagher was No. 2 in Massachusetts while Wiederkehr was No. 5 in New York. Those states aren’t exactly famous for producing college football players, so there were other impressive rankings for players in more competitive states. Four signees were ranked in Ohio: Pugh (20), McIntyre (33), Gerak (41) and Kuhbander (60). Brown (60) and Miller (99) made the top 100 in Texas, while Pace (89) did it in Georgia and Holman (93) in California. James was the No. 21 player in Illinois.
Assume the position: Seven newly minted Wildcats were ranked by Rivals at their respective position. Gerak is the No. 10 center, Kent the No. 15 strongside defensive end, Pugh the No. 23 tight end, Gallagher the No. 30 inside linebacker, Brown the No. 31 weakside defensive end, Miller the No. 31 strongside defensive end (he will most likely play tackle at Northwestern) and Slater the No. 36 guard.