Future Cats descend on Evanston

If you are looking to catch a glimpse of the future of Northwestern football, you don’t have to wait for the 2016, 2017 or 2018 seasons. You will be able to see it at Northwestern’s basketball game against Penn State on Saturday night.

Eighteen of the 20 commitments in Northwestern’s Class of 2016 are expected to be on campus from Friday through Sunday afternoon for their official visits. Seventeen of the commits will be traveling to Evanston from their homes, while the 18th, defensive end Tommy Carnifax, is already there, taking classes as an early enrollee for the Wildcats. The only ones missing, then, will be running back Jeremy Larkin and cornerback Roderick Campbell, who are both playing basketball for their respective high schools this weekend.

One of the planned activities for the players and their families is the Wildcats’ game at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

WildcatReport has talked to several commitments over the last several weeks about the visit, and virtually all of them used the same two words when discussing it: “Can’t wait.”

“We’re gonna have a blast,” said offensive lineman Gunnar Vogel in a Twitter direct message.

Many of the classmates know each other well, such as Katy (Texas) teammates Paddy Fisher and Travis Whillock, and wide receiver Ben Skowronek and quarterback Aidan Smith, who played with and against each other while growing up in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Others have taken visits together and have gotten to know each other through social media and group chats.

But this is the first time that most of them will be meeting each other face-to-face.

“I’m excited to meet everyone in person,” said Skowronek, who is one of the social butterflies of the group.

The commits will do a lot of the routine, official visit-type activities this weekend, including eating dinners together, touring the campus, meeting with coaches and players, and going to the basketball game. But the real purpose of the trip is to begin building the bonds that will be forged over the next four of five years together.

Northwestern adopted the approach of having all, or nearly all, of its commitments take their officials together years ago. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald didn’t particularly like his experience as a Wildcat recruit, when he showed up in Evanston just before fall camp began, not knowing a single player on the team.

Now, the future Wildcats and their parents know each other pretty well before they report to Evanston -- and they do it in June, when they begin summer school classes. In some cases, a player who committed early may have helped recruit another that committed later in the cycle. And this weekend ensures that virtually all of them have had an opportunity to shake each other’s hand.

Northwestern used to hold its commitment official visit weekend in December, but this year coaches opted to move it to January. The reason is that there are no bowl practices in January, so coaches and players can spend more time with the recruits. Plus, the December visits were held shortly before finals when players had to study and most of the campus was dead.

This weekend will also give several of the commits from southern states -- such as Jesse Brown from Georgia, and Fisher, Whillock and Brian Bullock from Texas -- a chance to get acclimated to Chicago winter weather. Saturday’s low and Sunday’s high temperature is expected to be 7 degrees.

“Brought all the cold weather gear,” said a member of Bullock’s party.