Northwestern offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian already has his 2021 quarterback and he's now turned his attention to finding his 2022 signal caller.
Northwestern's first-year assistant handed out five offers to 2022 quarterback prospects on June 26. Bajakian extended the offer and, sure enough, a short time later, the players announced their offers on Twitter.
Bajakian, who doubles as the Wildcats' quarterbacks coach, has already started putting his stamp on Northwestern's quarterback room. He landed three-star QB Carl Richardson as a last-minute addition to the 2020 class last December, and he was an early enrollee in January. Bajakian already has a 2021 QB in three-star commit Brendan Sullivan of Davison (Mich.).
In general, program's aim high with their early offers, and Bajakian's 2022 offers reflect that. Three of the five are four-star prospects and all have impressive offer lists.
Here are Bajakian's fab five, in alphabetical order.
STEVEN ANGELI
Four-star Steven Angeli comes from a very familiar school for Northwestern: Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic. That's the program that produced Bajakian himself, as well as two sets of former Wildcat brothers: Cameron and Garrett Dickerson, and Cameron and Kyle Queiro.
Bajakian will need all the Bergin mojo he can get to land the sought-after Angeli, whose 13 offers includes LSU, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. The Nittany Lions are ones to watch here, as Angeli's older brother went to school there and he already visited once. He's also visited Rutgers, the home-state school.
DEVIN BROWN
Devin Brown is an unranked QB from Queen Creek (Ariz.), on the outskirts of Phoenix. He had a disappointing 2019 season: he had to sit out the first five games due to transfer rules and then struggled once he came back, completing less than 50% of his passes and throwing 10 TDs and 12 INTs.
Interestingly, there are more Big Ten than PAC-12 schools among Brown's seven offers, as Northwestern joined Michigan State and Wisconsin on his list. The Badgers are an early favorite, as Brown has already visited Madison twice, a telling sign for a kid who lives more than 1,500 miles away.
AJ DUFFY
Another four-star, A.J. Duffy hails from the other coast and plays at Rancho Verde (Calif.) Moreno Valley. All five Power Five conferences are represented in Duffy's 27-school offer list, including nine PAC-12 schools.
Duffy has visited a handful of Pac-12 campuses, including Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington. He has identified USC, Oregon and Arizona State as three schools showing a lot of early love.
It's always tough to pull a player out of California for Northwestern, especially one like Duffy who has his pick of West Coast schools.
GARRET RANGEL
Garret Rangel, the other unranked quarterback, comes from Frisco (Texas) Lone Star. Frisco is a suburb of Dallas, a recruiting area that hasn't been as fertile as Houston for the Wildcats, but has seen an increase in recent years.
Rangel's nine early offers includes Northwestern, Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech from the Power Five. He has already visited Houston, Baylor, Texas and Rutgers.
While most of Rangel's focus has been on Lone Star State schools, the trip to Rutgers shows that he could be willing to go out of state to college.
TY SIMPSON
Ty Simpson, yet another four-star, comes from Martin (Tenn.) Westview. Simpson's eyebrow-raising offer list includes 27 schools from every Power Five conference. Some of the heavyweights include Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma and USC.
His father is Jason Simpson, the head football coach at UT-Martin.
While it will no doubt be difficult to lure a kid out of SEC country, at least this is a state that Bajakian knows well, having served as Tennessee's offensive coordinator in 2013-14.