Quick Hits

POSITION: Defensive tackle

HEIGHT: 6-foot-5

WEIGHT: 260 pounds

HOMETOWN: Winnekta, Ill.

HIGH SCHOOL: New Trier

247 COMPOSITE SCORE: .8635

NATIONAL RANKING: 779

POSITION RANKING: 56 (SDE)

STATE RANKING: 13

OTHER OFFERS: Cincinnati, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Purdue, Rutgers, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wisconsin

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Background

Olges received an offer from Northwestern on May 10. Fifteen days later, he became the 10th commit of the 2019 recruiting class. With freshman superback Brian Kaiser and Olges, Pat Fitzgerald is starting to form some semblance of a pipeline from nearby New Trier.

Although Olges played tight end and defensive end in high school, it sounds like Northwestern wants him to grow into the defensive tackle position. Olges certainly has the frame to do so. He continuously dominated Central Suburban League offensive lineman with a combination of size and speed that made him the best athlete on the field.

I like Caleb Friedman’s analysis back from when Olges first committed.

“Olges shows great gap awareness and strength in the running game with his hand in the ground, but also the ability to stand up and attack the line of scrimmage from the outside. This will be harder to do as he gets bigger, but his baseline quickness is there, which is important for a defensive tackle.”

Here are his full senior year highlights:

Outlook

There’s an opportunity for playing time with interior linemen Jordan Thompson, Fred Wyatt and Ben Oxley all graduating. Alex Miller is a returning starter and Trent Goens saw plenty of snaps at tackle. That said, Northwestern will be looking for contributions and good health from Jake Saunders and Tommy Carnifax (each played in one game this season). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Joe Spivak and Trevor Kent as well. As for Olges, there’s going to be a learning curve. He dominated undersized offensive tackles in high school; that just won’t happen right away against Big Ten guards. That said, he’s a tremendous athlete that will be hard to keep on the sideline, especially with three key contributors graduating.