{"id":50756,"date":"2017-02-01T17:40:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T23:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=50756"},"modified":"2017-02-01T17:40:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T23:40:17","slug":"northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Burgher<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sat down to greet the media Wednesday at the team\u2019s national signing day event, he knew he\u2019d be introducing one of the best classes of his tenure.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats\u2019 2017 class is ranked No. 46 in the country and No. 10 in the Big Ten, according to 247sports. And while projections from 247 and other recruiting services indicate this group has the potential to be one of the most successful of Fitzgerald\u2019s tenure, he\u2019s not ready to talk about its impact\u00a0on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always talked about our fit,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cWho we\u2019re looking for as a young man and our uniqueness starts with our academic profile. And if you fit our academic profile then we\u2019re going to be really excited about getting to know you.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Northwestern is still far from being a top destination for recruits, even within the Big Ten. But after consecutive bowl appearances and five in the last seven years, the team\u2019s on-field achievements are part of the profile, especially given the recruiting success they\u2019ve had after winning seasons.<\/p>\n

The last Northwestern class that\u00a0ranked this high \u2013 which included current All-Big Ten honorees Justin Jackson and Clayton Thorson \u2013 was recruited in 2012, when the Wildcats finished with their first 10-win season since 1995 and first bowl game victory since 1948.<\/p>\n

The 2017 recruits, many of whom were targeted as juniors in 2015, saw the Wildcats finish 10-3, the team’s\u00a0best record since 2012. A program source said the 2015\u00a0success helped Northwestern nab top recruit Earnest Brown, a four-star defensive end who Wednesday chose the Wildcats over Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas.<\/p>\n

And given the success Fitzgerald has had on the defensive line lately with Ifeadi Odenigbo, Dean Lowry and Deonte Gibson, it\u2019s possible that the top three players in this year\u2019s class – Brown, Sam Miller and Trevor Kent, all defensive linemen – will have an opportunity to see the same type of results.<\/p>\n

But with 17 of Northwestern’s\u00a022 starters from last season returning, this group is under no pressure to produce right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got time for these prospects in this class to develop and bring them up the right way, the way they want to,\u201d said ESPN college football recruiting analyst Tom VanHaaren. \u201cThey\u2019ll have a chance to sit behind some of these guys and learn from them and figure out what it takes to be a college football player and what it takes to win at Northwestern.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen the kind of long-term impact this class will have, but it shows that while Northwestern will continue to use Fitzgerald\u2019s \u201cgo 1-0 every week\u201d mantra, the program\u00a0still has a keen eye on the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we continue to climb the mountain of being a championship program, it\u2019s just solidified more and more to me that who we are is what makes us special and unique,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got to continue to push that envelope to recruit that fit harder and harder. Because I think it\u2019s a pretty unique group of guys and when they have that shared vision, man, look out. You have a chance to have something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Northwestern held its signing day event Wednesday at the Chicago Sports Museum. (Eric Burgher\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Burgher As Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sat down to greet the media Wednesday at the team\u2019s national signing day event, he knew he\u2019d be introducing one of the best classes of his tenure. The Wildcats\u2019 2017 class is ranked No. 46 in the country and No. 10 in the Big Ten, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":50768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[901,3669,1112,137,3670,2156,3668,641],"class_list":["post-50756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-big-ten","tag-earnest-brown","tag-football","tag-northwestern","tag-northwestern-wildcats-football","tag-pat-fitzgerald","tag-signing-day","tag-wildcats"],"yoast_head":"\nNorthwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Eric Burgher As Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sat down to greet the media Wednesday at the team\u2019s national signing day event, he knew he\u2019d be introducing one of the best classes of his tenure. The Wildcats\u2019 2017 class is ranked No. 46 in the country and No. 10 in the Big Ten, according […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-01T23:40:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ericburgher2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ericburgher2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/\",\"name\":\"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-01T23:40:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/757871066f0d4b6f31e0da32d1f191b2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":825,\"caption\":\"Northwestern held its signing day event Wednesday in Chicago\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/757871066f0d4b6f31e0da32d1f191b2\",\"name\":\"ericburgher2017\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7fd49a9b1fb3957e3d28b0f13ee1a2e728ed29920b45175edb67a83e4d4c252?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7fd49a9b1fb3957e3d28b0f13ee1a2e728ed29920b45175edb67a83e4d4c252?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ericburgher2017\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/ericburgher2017\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Eric Burgher As Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sat down to greet the media Wednesday at the team\u2019s national signing day event, he knew he\u2019d be introducing one of the best classes of his tenure. The Wildcats\u2019 2017 class is ranked No. 46 in the country and No. 10 in the Big Ten, according […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2017-02-01T23:40:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":825,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ericburgher2017","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ericburgher2017","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/","name":"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-01T23:40:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/757871066f0d4b6f31e0da32d1f191b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/SigningDay.jpg","width":1100,"height":825,"caption":"Northwestern held its signing day event Wednesday in Chicago"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/northwestern-football-keeps-eye-on-the-future-at-signing-day\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Northwestern football keeps eye on the future at signing day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/757871066f0d4b6f31e0da32d1f191b2","name":"ericburgher2017","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7fd49a9b1fb3957e3d28b0f13ee1a2e728ed29920b45175edb67a83e4d4c252?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7fd49a9b1fb3957e3d28b0f13ee1a2e728ed29920b45175edb67a83e4d4c252?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ericburgher2017"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/ericburgher2017\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}