2020 OLB Cullen Coleman commits to Northwestern

Did Northwestern just beat out Stanford, Notre Dame, Alabama and Ohio State for a recruit?

Yes, yes they did.

2020 outside linebacker Cullen Coleman committed to NU on Saturday, just over two weeks after the three-star made his official visit to Evanston. Coleman hails from Rye, New York in Westchester County and is the second OLB commit of what’s shaping up to be a monumental 2020 Wildcat recruiting class.

Coleman is the 15th NU recruit to the 2020 class, and the second highest-rated defensive commit after Garnett Hollis Jr., who committed back in June.

After narrowing his decision down to five schools (Stanford, Northwestern, Cal, Purdue and Virginia) earlier this week, Coleman ultimately chose the Wildcats over an impressive list of over 30 offers. As mentioned before, the high school running back/linebacker standout had garnered serious interest from the likes of Alabama, Ohio State, Stanford and Notre Dame.

Here are Coleman’s junior year highlights (linked here for Apple News users):

Although the majority of these clips show Coleman as a running back, the 6’3”, 220 lb. athlete seems to have been primarily recruited to play outside linebacker. NU linebackers coach Tim McGarigle led the efforts to secure Coleman’s commitment, and the recruit told 247sports this past week that he sees his highest potential as an outside linebacker.

Whether he’s trying to tackle the ballcarrier or he’s the ballcarrier himself, Coleman’s sheer athleticism is ridiculous. At 6’3’’, he’d be one of the tallest linebackers on the Northwestern roster and could reasonably be expected to add 10-15 pounds as he gets going with the program. His speed-size combo checks all the boxes for an outside linebacker, and his pure strength is fun to watch as well. Check out the 2:00 mark of his highlights where he carries half of the opposing team into the endzone with him.

Coleman is Northwestern’s first commit from New York since Ethan Wiederkehr in the class of 2017. Before the addition of Coleman, Northwestern had the 30th ranked class in the nation and the 6th ranked class in the Big Ten, per 247sports.com.