Rivers commits to fill critical linebacker need

For Northwestern, linebackers were at a premium for the Class of 2018. On Friday, the Wildcats landed a premium player.

Three-star outside linebacker Jaylen Rivers of Loganville (Ga.) Grayson committed to Northwestern to become the 14th member of Northwestern’s class.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder chose Northwestern over 20 other offers, including Louisville, Ole Miss, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia in the Power Five. A versatile athlete capable of playing several positions, Rivers is listed as a wide receiver in the Rivals database, though all of his offers came for linebacker or safety.

Rivers is the second linebacker in Northwestern's class, joining Grayson Mann. Linebacker was a critical position for the Wildcats after they lost one (Anthony Walker Jr.) to the NFL draft, two to graduation (Jaylen Prater and Joe Jones) and three more to early retirements in the last calendar year (Cameron Queiro, Simba Short and Tommy Vitale).

Rivals recruiting analyst Chad Simmons is a fan of Northwestern's newest Wildcat.

"I love this pick-up for Northwestern," he tweeted. "Versatile. Good length. Smart."

Rivers picked up his offer from the Wildcats in May. His recruiter is defensive line coach Marty Long.

Northwestern's 2018 class is currently ranked 14th in the country by Rivals.

More to come from WildcatReport…