The impact of Franks' commitment
Three-star tackle Zachary Franks was a big get for the Wildcat program. And not just because he’s 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds.
The commitment made headlines on Saturday because Franks decommitted from Penn State, a blue-blood program, to pledge Northwestern, a turn of events that took social media by surprise. Flips like that are supposed to happen the other way around.
But the impact of Franks’ commitment goes beyond that. Our attempts to reach Franks since Saturday have been unsuccessful, but here are our top reasons that Franks’ commitment bodes well for the Wildcats.
He’s a tackle: Northwestern wanted to land two tackles in this class. Franks’ commitment means that they will add another bookend to join 2019 commitment Connor Foster.
The Wildcats will lose three-year starter Blake Hance after the 2018 season. They also lost Andrew Otterman and Adam Lemke-Bell last offseason after both of them were forced to retire for medical reasons. That left NU thin at a vital position that is always a recruiting priority.
He has a high ceiling: Like Foster, Franks is more of a developmental prospect – don’t expect him to come in and start as a true freshman like Rashawn Slater did last season. But he has prototypical size for a tackle at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds, with long arms and good feet for a player of his dimensions. That’s why he was able to draw 30 scholarship offers.
Franks also has NFL bloodlines. His father, David Franks, was a ninth-round draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks out of UConn in 1989.
The Cats flipped him from Penn State: This is what set Twitter ablaze with surprise emojis (and many unkind remarks). Franks committed to Penn State on Aug. 2, shortly after attending the Lasch Bash Barbecue in Happy Valley. But he began having second thoughts immediately, feeling that he rushed into his decision and didn’t feel like a good fit at Penn State. So just eight days later, he decommitted from the Nittany Lions and committed to Northwestern.
Northwestern has had its share of flips in the past, from schools like Duke (Quentin Davie and Flynn Nagel), Northern Illinois (Corbin Bryant and Ben Johnson) and Indiana (CJ Robbins and Nick VanHoose). But Penn State is on another level. It was a double whammy: Northwestern not only strengthened itself; it also weakened a Big Ten foe.
He’s a first-tier target: Northwestern coaches had their eyes on four tackle targets this summer after Foster committed on April 12: Franks, Walter Rouse, Zach Williamson and Barrett Miller. Franks, Rouse and Miller all took official visits to Evanston in June and raved about the experience.
Williamson was the first domino to fall when he committed to Louisville in July. Miller committed to Stanford last week after a visit to The Farm. Rouse, despite admitting to WildcatReport that he had to resist the urge to commit to Northwestern on his official visit, reportedly told coaches that NU was out of the running. So Franks was the last hope for the Wildcats. If they didn’t have him, they would have to wait to see if any seniors wowed them with film this fall.
He’s from Gilman: Northwestern has built a strong pipeline in recent years to Baltimore Gilman School, one of the powerhouse programs in Maryland. Current Wildcats Jelani Roberts and Alonzo Mayo were both former Greyhounds. The school produces college talent on a yearly basis, as prospects like Thomas Booker (Stanford), Stephen Spanellis (Michigan), Devery Hamilton (Stanford) and Kai Locksley (Texas) were all recent Gilman graduates.
A small, private school with elite academics, Gilman seems like a good fit as a Northwestern feeder program. Franks told WildcatReport that “the combination of athletics and academics (at Northwestern) are very similar to Gilman,” he said. “It has that feel.”
The school’s coaching staff has a good relationship with Wildcat coaches via the recruitment of Roberts and Mayo (as well as Booker and others over the years). Franks asked his coach to reach out to Northwestern’s when he first had second thoughts about Penn State.
The visit wowed him: Franks visited a total of 10 schools in June and July, including Maryland, Duke, Virginia, Boston College, Nebraska, Vanderbilt, Indiana and Ole Miss. But it was his official to Evanston on June 22-24 that resonated with him the most and drew him back to Northwestern.
“It was GREAT!! It was the best visit I’ve ever had,” Franks told WildcatReport via text message after his visit. “It was overall a really cool experience. I really liked the campus feel. And the athletic facilities are just crazy.”