Cats land pair of Texas commits

Northwestern doubled the size of its Class of 2013 on Thursday night as a pair of three-star Texas prospects committed to the Wildcats.

Interior offensive lineman Brad North of Allen and wide receiver Macan Wilson of Houston Kincaid both verbally committed to Wildcat head coach Pat Fitzgerald to bring the number of NU's class to four.

Both players' recruitments followed a familiar pattern, as Northwestern was one of the first schools to offer each of the prospects.

Northwestern was the very first school to offer Wilson, a 6-foot-1, 181-pound speedster who will be a slot receiver in the Wildcats' spread offense. Since then, he has added offers from Cal, New Mexico and Tulsa.

Last year, Wilson used his 4.45 speed to put up some big numbers for the Kinkaid School, which finished 10-0. He caught 91 passes for 1,639 yards and 25 touchdowns, the second straight campaign in which Wilson collected more than 1,200 receiving yards.

The Wildcats were the second school to offer North, after Arkansas State. The 6-foot-3, 280-pounder visited Northwestern last weekend and raved about it, rating the visit "at least a 9" on a scale of 1-10. He was most impressed by the Wildcat players on his trip, calling them "really cool guys I could see myself hanging out with."

The fifth-ranked center in the country was down to a final two of Northwestern and Boise State and was set to visit Boise this weekend. Those plans have been scuttled, however, as he decided that Northwestern's combination of Big Ten football and elite academics was too good to pass up.

North and Wilson join four-star quarterback Matt Alviti and three-star tackle Blake King in Northwestern's Class of 2013.

Log on to WildcatReport for more on North's and Wilson's commitments.