It’s mid-June, and the Northwestern Class of 2022 has finally graduated. Although many Wildcat football players who graduated this past weekend will still return to fulfill their final year of eligibility, graduation marks the official departure of a historic Northwestern football senior class that took the program to new heights.

With that, it’s officially time to welcome in the newest class of Wildcat football players prepared to pick up right where this historic class of seniors left off. But before we get into Northwestern’s newcomers, let’s take one final look at which faces from the 2018 squad will no longer be with the program as summer practice prepares to get underway.

Who is gone?

OFFENSE (14)

QB - Clayton Thorson

RB - Jeremy Larkin (medically retired)

RB - Chad Hanaoka

WR/RB - Solomon Vault

WR - Flynn Nagel

WR - Jelani Roberts

WR - Jalen Brown

WR - Charlie Fessler (transfer)

SB - James Prather

SB - Cameron Green (medically retired)

OL/SB - Trey Klock

OL - J.B. Butler

OL - Tommy Doles

OL - Blake Hance

DEFENSE (6)

CB - Montre Hartage

LB - Nate Hall

DB - Jared McGee

DL - Fred Wyatt

DL - Ben Oxley

DL - Jordan Thompson

SPECIAL TEAMS (1)

P - Jake Collins

Including transfers, these are the 21 players Northwestern will be without from the 2018 roster who received some playing time throughout their NU career. This list does not include 2018 walk-ons who redshirted/did not play and have decided to leave the program. As you can see, the Wildcats are losing a good amount of key players from last season on both sides of the ball.

Who is new?

In a tweet on Sunday, head coach Pat Fitzgerald officially introduced the 25 newest members of Northwestern football who have arrived in Evanston for the summer to kick off the season.

The class includes 17 players who signed National Letter’s of Intent with Northwestern as well as eight confirmed walk-ons who will be joining the program this summer. Fitzgerald’s tweet did not include the three players who enrolled early in 2019 to join the team for spring practice: Rod Heard, Michael Jansey Jr. and Trey Finision. Fitzgerald also did not include transfer QB Hunter Johnson, who will begin his first of three years of eligibility this fall.

Here’s a breakdown of all the new eligible faces on the NU roster this year:

OFFENSE (15)

QB - Hunter Johnson (transfer)

QB - Zac Krause (walk-on)

RB - Evan Hull (three-star)

WR - Genson Hooper-Price (three-star)

WR - Bryce Kirtz (three-star)

WR - Wayne Dennis (three-star)

WR - Malik Washington (three-star)

WR - Preston Bacon (walk-on)

WR - Jack Kennedy (walk-on)

SB - Thomas Gordon (three-star)

OT - Connor Foster (three-star)

OT - Zachary Franks (three-star)

OT - Dominick D’Antonio (three-star)

OT - Luka Trifunovic (walk-on)

OG - Conrad Rowley (three-star)

DEFENSE (11)

DE - Duke Olges (three-star)

DE - Jason Gold (three-star)

DE - PJ Spencer (walk-on)

DE - Adetomiwa Abawore (three-star)

LB - Michael Jansey (early enrollee)

LB - Bryce Gallagher (three-star)

DB - Roderick Heard (early enrollee)

DB - Corien Azema (three-star)

DB - Cameron Mitchell (three-star)

DB - Tyler Haskins (walk-on)

DB - Brandon Joseph (three-star)

SPECIAL TEAMS/UNDECLARED (3)

ATH - Marcus Cisco (walk-on)

ATH - Connor Newhouse (walk-on)

K/P - Trey Finison (early enrollee)

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Be sure to stay in touch with our site all summer long as we continue to break down Northwestern’s most important players and preview Northwestern’s position groups/opponents as the summer progresses.