2021 OL Josh Thompson commits to Northwestern

Kurt Anderson’s pack of #TrenchCats picked up its newest future member, with three-star OL prospect Josh Thompson announcing his commitment to Northwestern on Tuesday.

The lineman out of Fenton, Michigan becomes the first OL commit of the 2021 recruiting class. Thompson’s decision makes him just the second pledged Wildcat for this class, joining ATH Donnie Gray, who committed earlier this month. Northwestern was Thompson’s only Power Conference offer thus far, although he had received offers from nearly half of the MAC.

At 6-foot-4, 290 pounds following the completion of his junior season, Thompson is poised to bring some serious size to the Wildcat front as either a guard or tackle. In his junior season highlights, Thompson appears to take the majority of snaps as the right tackle where he shows great ability to pass protect as well as pull and deliver powerful blocks in the open field.

Thompson’s commitment was met with an enthusiastic response from offensive line coach Kurt Anderson. #NWO appears to be the group’s newest calling card.

For now, there is still an indefinite “moratorium” on all on- and off-campus recruiting activities for Big Ten schools, and we have not heard an update from the conference since that statement on March 13. All organized team activities have been suspended until April 6 as well.

We should still expect to see a few more 2021 commitments from earlier visits trickle in as the spring rolls along, but there is no doubt that football recruiting for all schools, including Northwestern, will be severely affected by this global pandemic.