Pat Fitzgerald announced the 20 young men that were officially signed today. Those were the operative phrases today, “young man” and “young men.” We heard each of those at least a dozen times.
Rivals ranks those men in Northwestern’s recruiting class 12th in the Big Ten, #55 overall. Scout ranks the Wildcats #46 overall 12th in the league CBS’ 24/7 ranks the Cats #52, 10th in the B1G.
The positional breakdown for this year’s incoming NU class is as follows: defensive backs (5), wide receivers (4), linebackers (3), defensive linemen (3), offensive linemen (3), running backs (1), quarterbacks (1).
Here are some of the more choice quotes from the presser today, and beneath that you can find the podcast of the entire press conference.
Pat Fitzgerald on his recruiting philosophy:
“I don’t think I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth. There’s no hidden agenda. If the young man and his family want to look at Northwestern, it’s my job to recruit those guys. If they don’t, then we move on and find guys that want to. I feel pretty comfortable with what we do.”
Pat Fitzgerald on comparing committing to a school to getting engaged (again):
“What I tell guys is, I don’t think you should commit to a school until you’re 100-percent ready. And when you do, then you should. It’s like getting engaged. And then if you decide that you want to open up your recruiting, that’s fine. Then I’ll make the decision on whether or not we want to continue to recruit you. If we do, then we do, and if we don’t, we don’t.
Pat Fitzgerald on the recruiting/NLI process: “It’s an antiquated system.”
Here’s the Pat Fitzgerald audio:
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