The news that Adam Cushing was leaving Northwestern’s coaching staff to take the head coaching job at Eastern Illinois came as a surprise to the Wildcat community. Cushing spent 14 years with the Wildcats, the last 10 as the offensive line coach.

So you can imagine the impact it had on Northwestern’s 2019 offensive line commits. They had all committed to the Wildcats in part because of their relationship with their future position coach.

Now, that man was gone, just a couple weeks before they were to sign with Northwestern. It was a shocking development for a group that suddenly didn’t know the identity of the coach they would be spending the most time with during their collegiate careers.

At least they were warned. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald called each of them on Sunday morning, the day the announcement was made, to break the news.

WildcatReport reached out to all four of the offensive linemen in the 2019 class – Dominick D’Antonio, Connor Foster, Zachary Franks and Conrad Rowley – to get their thoughts on Cushing’s departure in this WildcatReport premium story.

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