Along with Oregon State, Northwestern is one of Soesman's top schools after receiving an offer Tuesday (Photo credit: Adam Soesman).
Previous conversations with Northwestern coaches gave Adam Soesman no choice but to question the future of his recruitment with Wildcats. An expected verbal commitment in June from a defensive back kept NU from extending him an offer, but he acknowledged at the time that if said commitment never happened, Soesman would receive an offer himself.
On Tuesday night, Soesman’s promise was granted.
“Great news,” he said excitedly, minutes after a phone conversation with Pat Fitzgerald. “I got the offer”
With Soesman’s general descriptions of conversations with Fitzgerald and other coaches (notably defensive backs coach Jerry Brown), the prevailing assumption is that the defensive back Soesman was referring to at the time was Corona, California safety Ron Robinson. Over the weekend, Robinson received a UCLA offer and immediately put the Bruins at the top of his list.
Before receiving that offer, not only was Northwestern his top choice, Robinson indicated he might commit to the Wildcats during a June visit. One offer transformed that promise into a hollow statement.
The beneficiary, of course, is Soesman, who said Tuesday the Wildcats are tied for No. 1 with Oregon State on his school hierarchy. He and Fitzgerald arranged preliminary plans for a visit sometime later this summer; Soesman also hopes to tour the Beavers’ campus in the coming weeks.
“I’d say they are about even right now,” he said.
Two schools rank atop Soesman’s mixed bag of scholarship offers, which runs 10 strong and includes Arizona State, Fresno State, Houston, San Jose State, Washington State, Yale, Nevada, Colorado State, OSU and NU. He believes one or two more could be coming shortly after impressing Stanford and UCLA coaches at separate prospect camps this weekend.
“They liked what they saw,” he said. “They said they’d be getting back to me within the next few weeks.”
With three spots left to fill before closing the file on the 2014 class, Soesman is a name to watch the next few weeks. One offer from a surging California program subverted Robinson’s recruitment priorities. If the Bruins or the Cardinal follow up by offering Soesman, Northwestern would have to face the possibility of another of its coveted Golden State DBs being lost to a top Pac-12 program.
“I’d definitely be interested in those [if Stanford/UCLA offers a scholarship],” he said. “But Northwestern would still be in my top three.”
Defensive back is one of the prime remaining positional objective in the 2014 class, and right now, Soesman is a compelling candidate to track.