by Kevin Trahan (@k_trahan)
The busiest day of the college football offseason has come and gone. With National Signing Day over, things will be fairly quiet for Northwestern football until spring ball starts on February 27. However, Wednesday was a big day, as NU welcomed 21 new members to its football program — 19 scholarship players and two walk-ons. The Wildcats ended up No. 46 in the national Scout.com rankings and No. 8 in the Big Ten.
Check out our full coverage from National Signing Day, as well as coverage from around the web:
From InsideNU
- We put together an interactive graphic where you can read profiles of each of NU's 19 scholarship recruits. Each profile lists the player's other offers, plus links to their Scout.com profile, the article from when they committed and highlight film.
- Even Pat Fitzgerald said he has no idea about who which freshmen will play next year, and he likely won't know much until fall camp kicks off. However, we picked out three players who have a good chance to see time.
- The NCAA proposed changes to its recruiting rules to allow for unlimited texting contact, among other things, between coaches and recruits. Fitzgerald is strongly opposed to the rule changes and we went in-depth to point out the biggest problems he has with them.
Around the Web
- PurpleWildcats.com has lots of coverage, but everyone seems most interested in Matt Alviti, so check out their profile of his signing this morning at Maine South High School (subscription only).
- During his press conference, Pat Fitzgerald said that Gary Barnett had to sell the program to him based on faith that it would improve. Fitzgerald doesn't need his recruits to just have faith — he has results to help him sell NU, writes Teddy Greenstein in the Chicago Tribune. Greenstein also has a short piece on local quarterback-turned-wide receiver Tom Fuessel.
- Including the walk-ons, Northwestern got more players — six — from Illinois than any other state in this recruiting class. However, the Wildcats also picked up five players from Ohio and three each from Texas and California. It's an Illinois-heavy, but still national class, writes Seth Gruen in the Sun-Times.
- Philip Rossman-Reich of Lake The Posts has some great analysis of each recruit.
- A nice post from Sippin' on Purple on how NU is doing with elite talent in Illinois.
The Signing Day Press Conference
Pat Fitzgerald held a press conference today to announce the new class. Here are the highlights, via Twitter.
[View the story "Northwestern's National Signing Day Press Conference" on Storify]