The 19-member class Northwestern signed on Wednesday is the highest-rated of head coach Pat Fitzgerald's 17-year career.

Rivals currently ranks the Wildcats' class 40th in the nation. The previous highest-ranked class of Fitzgerald's tenure was 46th ,in 2016. It's the first time that the Wildcats made the top 40 in the Fitzgerald era, and just the third time he's had a class ranked above 50th.

You might remember that Northwestern's class spent some time in the top five over the summer as they pulled in 18 of their 19 commits by the end of June. Just the sheer number of pledges boosted the Wildcats' group into rarified air, even if everyone knew their time at the top would be short-lived as the Georgias, Alabamas and Ohio States started catching up.

Northwestern's class may move up or down several more times during this early signing period from Dec. 21-23, and until the traditional signing day in February. But chances are it will finish above the previous high-water mark.

Wherever it winds up, there really can't be an argument that this was Fitzgerald's finest recruiting job. This class was formed on the heels of a 3-9 2021 season. Then, Fitzgerald and his staff managed to hold it together through a disastrous 1-11 2022 mark, losing just two commits in the process. That's remarkable.

No matter where this class finally ends up in the rankings, we thought it would be fun to look back at the five highest ranked classes of Fitzgerald's career to see how this group stacks up.

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Class Notes: Four-star quarterback Matt Alviti was seen as the jewel of the class on signing day but never started a game for Northwestern. The real stars on the field were a couple of three-stars -- Anthony Walker Jr. and Godwin Igwebuike -- who are both playing in the NFL right now. There were several other multi-year starters among the three-stars in this group, including Matt Harris, Tyler Lancaster, Brad North and Kyle Queiro.

Class Notes: This time, the star-system was spot-on: left tackle Peter Skoronski, the lone four-star of the group, turned out to be one of the best players to ever wear purple, starting every game of his three-year career and becoming the first Wildcat to be named a unanimous All-American this season. He'll be a first-round NFL draft pick in April. However, there are more misses than hits in the rest of the class so far, as Jaheem Joseph, Marshall Lang, Sean McLaughlin, Cameron Porter and Josh Priebe are the only players who have started games for the Cats.

Class Notes: There was not a single four-star in this group, but plenty of impact players among the 19 signees. Safety Brandon Joseph is the headliner. His name is on the second deck at Ryan Field when he was named a consensus All-America safety in 2020 as a redshirt sophomore before he transferred to Notre Dame last year. Adetomiwa Adebawore, Coco Azema, Bryce Gallagher, Cameron Mitchell and Malik Washington have all been playmakers for the Wildcats, as has the lone two-star in the group, running back Evan Hull.

Class Notes: Once again, the lone four-star didn't make much of an impact, as Roderick Campbell Jr. battled injuries throughout his career. Three-star Paddy Fisher turned out to be the biggest star as a four-year starter at middle linebacker. But there were plenty of other starters in the class, like three-stars Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman, Riley Lees, Alex Miller, Jake Saunders, Ben Skowronek, Nik Urban and Gunnar Vogel, and two-star Travis Whillock. And oh, what might have been had running back Jeremy Larkin not suffered a career-ending injury in just his second year.

Class Notes: Obviously, we don't know how any of these players will perform once they get to Evanston, but this is the only class in the top five with more than one four-star player: tight end Chico Holt and defensive end Michael Kilbane both earned that designation. What sets this class apart is that five members are 5.7 three-stars, just .1 away from four-star status: Tyler Gant, Nigel Glover, Camp Magee, Dylan Senda and Damon Walters. The strengths of the group are at tight end and defensive line.

One lesson we learned in this exercise is that recruiting rankings are not a reliable predictor of on-field success, nor is on-field success a reliable predictor of high recruiting rankings. Four of the five highest-ranked classes have come in the last four cycles, since 2019, when the Wildcats have lost nine or more games in a season three times.

Recruiting rankings don't have the benefit of hindsight, but we do. Which class would get our vote for Fitz's best? It's the 2014 class in a landslide.

Class Notes: Just look at those four-stars: you have Northwestern's all-time leading passer in Clayton Thorson and all-time leading rusher in Justin Jackson, and a productive tight end who played in the NFL in Garrett Dickerson. Parrker Westphal, who battled injuries and never developed, is the outlier. Still, that's an impressive haul right there. Among others in the class were three-stars Tommy Doles, Blake Hance and Solomon Vault, the best return man in NU history; and two-stars Nate Hall and Jared McGee. What hurt this class in the rankings is that it only had 15 members; Rivals' ranking formula penalizes smaller classes.

If this 2023 class really turns out to be better than the 2014 group, Northwestern may get back to the Big Ten title game sooner than you think.