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On Saturday, Pat Fitzgerald and Marty Long hauled in the second defensive line recruit and 11th overall commitment of the rapidly developing, record-breaking 2020 class.
Sean McLaughlin announced that he would follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who played for Northwestern under Ara Parseghian (h/t Louie Vaccher), and continue his football career in Evanston.
The list goes on and on from people who have affected my life so I can’t thank you all enough because I’m officially a wildcat and I couldn’t be happier to say it! pic.twitter.com/2SAMvFvGWR
— Sean McLaughlin (@sean_mac44) June 7, 2019
The 6’7”, 220 pound defensive end had a composite rating of 0.8516 from 247Sports. He held plenty of impressive offers, including six from Big Ten programs (including Northwestern).
McLaughlin marks the fourth member of the 2020 class to hail from Illinois. The group, as a whole, is still currently ranked 4th in the Big Ten and 19th nationally, though Fitzgerald and co. still have plenty of work to do to fill it out.
The Frankfort native currently attends Lincoln-Way East, following in the footsteps of fellow rangy defensive end and current Wildcat freshman Devin O’Rourke, and is a two-sport athlete for the Griffins, participating in both baseball and football. He certainly has the long, athletic makeup needed for his position, but will certainly need to fill out at the next level.
Here are McLaughlin’s highlights (note that he has played both tight end and defensive end in high school, though he will likely focus on the defensive side once he gets to Evanston):
With TeRah Edwards and McLaughlin in tow, NU is likely looking to fill in at most one or two additional defensive linemen to complete the class. Isaiah Raikes, pictured at the top of the article, is a high three-star defensive tackle who took his official visit at the same time as the other two and seems to be the prime target at the moment.