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Northwestern’s recruiting quest across the state of Illinois continues to bring back positive returns as the Wildcats have earned the commitment of three-star offensive lineman Wyatt Blake out of nearby Crystal Lake, Illinois (Crystal Lake Central). Here is the video of his commitment:
— EDGYTIM.com (@EDGYTIM) March 17, 2017
Blake rocking the green Northwestern shirt for St. Patrick’s day is pretty cool, too.
A 6-foot-3.5, 308-pound guard, Blake is ranked as the 501st-best player in the class, 26th-best guard and the seventh-best player overall in Illinois. He earned a composite rating of .8651, which gives him three stars per 247. His frame is really impressive for a high school player and something that should transfer well to the college level.
Blake held a long list of competitive offers, including Power Five programs Boston College, Duke, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and Virginia. His highlights can be found below.
As you can see from his film, Blake is just an absolute mauler, especially when he gets going downhill, and he shows the ability to pull across formations and get in front of ball carriers as well. He plays tackle in the video, but 247 lists him as a guard, so it will be interesting to follow how and where he primarily develops in Evanston.
This continues a very strong class in-state for Northwestern: The Wildcats have already secured the state’s top overall player, defensive end Devin O’Rourke, superbacks Charlie Mangieri and Brian Kaiser and offensive lineman Charlie Schmidt. Of the top 21 players in Illinois’ class of 2018, Northwestern has commitments from five of them.