Northwestern’s experience with early enrollees began with a couple drips. Parrker Westphal was the first to do it, in 2014. Tommy Carnifax followed suit in 2016.

Then last year, the faucet produced a steady stream as both Trey Pugh and Samdup Miller enrolled in school early.

But with this 2018 class, the floodgates opened. Five newly signed Wildcats will start classes at Northwestern in January: Isaiah Bowser, Khalid Jones, Andrew Leota, Jeremiah McDonald and Greg Newsome.

Enrolling early has been commonplace at many schools for quite some time. For Northwestern, though, this represents quite a change. The Wildcats are finally keeping up with the Joneses.

What are the reasons for the spike in early enrollees and why are more players choosing to do so? Find out in this WildcatReport premium story.

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald has been portrayed in the past as someone who opposed early enrollees for philosophical reasons. That wasn’t necessarily the case, he says, as he’s always supported kids who were ready to make the jump to college.

“It’s gotta be the right kid,” said Fitzgerald on Wednesday, when Northwestern signed 16 players as part of the early signing period. “It’s got to be the right kid who’s ready to do it and wants to do it. I’ve never discouraged it. If I had a kid that wanted to do it, I said ‘great’, and we’d try to get it done through admissions.”

That was the real sticking point: a Northwestern admissions process that wasn’t necessarily conducive to early enrollment. But that has improved with practice, making early enrollments a more viable option for players who graduate high school in December.

“Now that it’s become more normal for our admissions department, it’s not an issue anymore,” he said.

It takes a certain kind of player to enroll early. First, they have to be ready to contribute on the field. Then, they have to have enough credits to graduate from high school a full semester early.

Somewhat surprisingly, the academic side of things was not a problem for the early enrollees this year. All had more than enough credits to graduate in December. In fact, Bowser and Jones told WildcatReport that they could have graduated last June if they wanted to, a full year before their high school classmates.

So for this overachieving quintet, the decision to enroll early was more of a football decision than an academic one.

McDonald and Jones said that they had been planning to enroll early throughout their recruiting process, even before they knew they would wind up at Northwestern. Bowser and Newsome came to their decisions much later. Leota did not respond to WildcatReport’s inquiries.

“Even before I was thinking about committing, I was thinking about early enrolling into whatever school I chose,” said McDonald, a three-star safety from Slidell (La.) Northshore. “Me and my dad initiated the idea ourselves. It wasn't anything colleges said.”

Jones, a three-star linebacker from Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes, says that “enrolling early has always been a part of my plan since the beginning.”

Bowser and Newsome are on the other end of the spectrum. They came to their decisions only in the last month or so.

Bowser, a three-star running back from Sidney (Ohio), thinks that enrolling early will give him a leg up to seize an opportunity for playing time as a true freshman.

“A big reason for me was that, with Justin Jackson leaving, (running backs) coach (Matt) Mac(Pherson) told me I’d be one of the top three or four backs already and that I could work up from there,” said the Ohio Player of the Year. “Hopefully, the top two is my goal.”

Bowser and Newsome will live together on campus next month, and Newsome’s decision to enroll early helped Bowser make his.

There’s nothing like a little peer pressure, it seems.

“I know Greg was doing it, so we talked about the benefits of it,” Bowser explained. “Coach Mac and Coach Fitz never told me to do it. They just encouraged me to do what I thought was best for myself. They never pressured me.”

Much of Newsome’s thought process had to do with his experience at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy this year. The three-star cornerback had previously played at Carol Stream (Ill.) Glenbard North and committed to Northwestern over the summer when he was still a part of the Panther program.

Playing at IMG got him acclimated to a college-like schedule, he says. He had weight lifting at 7 a.m. every day, then breakfast at 7:30 before starting classes. “It really helped me with my time management,” he said. He also got used to living in a dorm, away from home.

The weight training and training table at IMG helped Newsome put on weight, and he feels that practicing against elite players from around the country every day sharpened his skills.

“The Big Ten is one of the hardest conferences in the country, with some of the best wide receivers in the country,” he said. “I got better every day (at IMG)…I got the opportunity to play with the best and against the best.”

Newsome was a little bigger, a little better and a little more confident. That’s when he knew that he was ready to make the jump early.

“I love (Northwestern),” he said. “I want no part of waiting.”