Congrats to the winners!

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Seems like we’ve wrapped our two major official visit weekends, time as good as any for a quick class of 2026 check-in. Collected below are available tape and thoughts on our commitments, priority targets, and next steps.

Commitments
QB Johnny O’Brien
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Login to view embedded media WR Keaton Reinke
Login to view embedded media WR Jaden McDuffie
Login to view embedded media OL Leighton Burbach
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OL Owen Fors
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OL Owen Jakubczak
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DL Nick Zalewski
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DL Calvin Lorek
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LB Jacob Curry
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LB Brayden Reilly
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LB Gabe Davis-Ray
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DB Davis Kinney
https://www.hudl.com/video/3/19324469/67510a8faa0c9298c947716a

Remaining Targets
* Primarily guys who have taken an OV to NU or are more recent offers
OL Lucas Tielsch

* Upcoming OV to Minnesota
* Would be my guess for filling the 4th/last OL spot

OL Rhett Gray

* Upcoming OV to TCU, already OV’d to Houston
* Feels like a kid who will stay in Texas

OL Bear Fretwell

* Upcoming OV to Georgia Tech
* Feels like a kid who will stay down south

OL Tristan Comer

* Upcoming OVs to West Virginia and Cincinnati
* Feels like a great fit for NU, but might lose his spot if he insists on taking both those visits


TE Tyler Ruxer

* OV’d to Oklahoma and Duke, upcoming to Minnesota
* Feels unlikely to end up at NU, IMO

K Micah Drescher

* Local high academic kid seems Iike a perfect fit for NU
* Not sure why he didn’t/wouldn’t commit right away

DL Elijah Satchell

* OV’d to Stanford and Kentucky, upcoming to NC State
* Tough to read, could come down to NU and Stanford

DL Nick Costa

* Recent camp offer
* Primary competition seems to be Syracuse, where he also earned an offer in camp

DB Jeremiah Favorite

* OV’d to Oklahoma State, Michigan State and Wake Forest, upcoming to Indiana
* Recently offered by North Carolina
* Feels unlikely to end up at NU, IMO

DB TJ Umenyiora

* OV’d to Michigan State and Mississippi State, upcoming OV to Auburn
* Feels unlikely to end up at NU, IMO

Thoughts
* I still think our offensive skill recruiting is underwhelming on the whole, but actually somewhat encouraged by the OL recruiting
* I would prefer to just not take a TE this cycle if we don’t land a top guy
* DL recruiting underwhelming on paper, but tape is OK and Smith has earned a level of trust from me
* LB and DB are typical “solid not spectacular” recruiting we have had in those positions for a while
* I would guess we have another OV weekend to try wrapping up the rest of the class, likely including at least Costa and Drescher
* Not surprised that our class is filling up pretty much as became the norm under Fitz with the bulk of commitments coming from the OV weekend(s)
* Somewhat worryingly, we don’t seem to be able to close on guys once they leave campus for their OV

I talked to 2027 OL Kellen Wymer about a surprising offer from Northwestern, his versatility, his camp performance and more.

What is going to happen to these forums with the merger?

Recent positive progress on at least filling out a class with passable players still has us sitting on a Big Ten bottom dweller class permanently. Meanwhile, even Stanford, who is a financial and NIL train wreck, is managing to pull a more competitive class that includes higher end talent NU hasn’t sniffed in several years. Stanford is flipping for stars from Baylor, meanwhile we’re losing three stars to friggin Tulane

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I appreciate that we had a step forward in the football transfer portal this offseason- though it was more to merely achieving baseline adequacy and not remotely being a big fish our power conference status and rich alumni base would indicate it could be - but I am mostly out of confidence in Braun’s ability to competitively recruit in the Big Ten at this point in his career and I continue to not understand our overall institutional commitment or strategy to competing in modern power 2 football.

This is a big one for NU!

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I talked to 2027 OL Kellen Wymer about a surprising offer from Northwestern, his versatility, his camp performance and more.

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Updated 06/02

Players listed: 2,570

Source:

Updates in bold
Still available underlined

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Illinois

(-)
Carey Booth - Colorado State
Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn - UNLV
Morez Johnson, Jr. - Michigan
Keaton Kutcher
Tre White - Kansas

(+)
Zvonimir Ivisic - Arkansas
Andrej Stojakovic - California

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Indiana

(-)
Jaden Bobbett
Kanaan Carlyle - Florida Atlantic
Gabe Cupps - Ohio State
James Goodis
Dallas James
Mackenzie Mgbako - Texas A&M
Jakai Newton - Georgia State
Malik Reneau - Miami
Myles Rice - Maryland
Bryson Tucker - Washington

(+)
Sam Alexis - Florida
Reed Bailey - Davidson
Tayton Conerway - Troy
Tucker DeVries - West Virginia
Nick Dorn - Elon
Jason Drake - Drexel
Conor Enright - DePaul
Josh Harris - North Florida
Jasai Miles - North Florida
Lamar Wilkerson - Sam Houston State

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Iowa

(-)
Trey Buchanan - South Dakota State
Ladji Dembele - UNLV
Josh Dix - Creighton
Owen Freeman - Creighton
Brock Harding - TCU
Isaiah Johnson-Arigu - St. Thomas
Carter Kingsbury - The Citadel
Luc Laketa
Riley Mulvey - Siena
Pryce Sandfort - Nebraska
Chris Tadjo - Santa Clara
Drew Thelwell
Seydou Traore - Utah

(+)
Tavion Banks - Drake
Kael Combs - Drake
Alvaro Folgueiras - Robert Morris
Brendan Hausen - Kansas State
Isaia Howard - Drake
Cam Manyawu - Drake
Bennett Stirtz - Drake

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Maryland

(-)
Ja'Kobi Gillespie - Tennessee
DeShawn Harris-Smith - Georgetown
Jahari Long - George Mason
Malachi Palmer - Villanova
Braden Pierce - Villanova
Julian Reese
Rodney Rice - USC
Lucas Sotell
Chance Stephens - Minesotta
Jayhlon Young

(+)
David Coit - Kansas
Collin Metcalf - Northeastern
Andre Mills - Texas A&M
Rakease Passomore - Kansas
Pharrel Payne - Texas A&M
Myles Rice - Indiana
Elijah Saunders - Virginia
George Turkson, Jr. - Texas A&M
Solomon Washington - Texas A&M
Isaiah Watts - Washington State

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Michigan

(-)
Phat Phat Brooks - Central Michigan
Tre Donaldson - Miami
Jace Howard - Fordham
Justin Pippen - California
Sam Walters - SMU

(+)
Elliot Cadeau - North Carolina
Morez Johnson, Jr. - Illinois
Yaxel Lendeborg - UAB
Aday Mara - UCLA

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Michigan State

(-)
Xavier Booker - UCLA
Tre Holloman - North Carolina State
Gehrig Normand - Santa Clara

(+)
Trey Fort - Samford
Kaleb Glenn - Florida Atlantic
Divine Ugochukwu - Miami

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Minnesota

(-)
Kadyn Betts - Montana
Tyler Cochran - Rhode Island
Trey Edmonds
Dawson Garcia
Frank Mitchell - St. Bonaventure
Mike Mitchell, Jr.
Femi Odukale
Lu'Cye Patterson
Brennan Rigsby - Radford
Max Sheridan

(+)
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson - Colorado State
Bobby Durkin - Davidson
B.J. Omot - California
Langston Reynolds - Northern Colorado
Chance Stephens - Maryland
Nehemiah Turner - Central Arkansas
Cade Tyson - North Carolina
Robert Vaihola - San Jose State
Chansey Willis, Jr. - Western Michigan

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Nebraska
(-)
Gavin Griffiths - Temple
Nick Janowski - St. Thomas

(+)
Kendall Blue - St. Thomas
Will Cooper - Air Force
Jared Garcia - Tulsa
Ugnius Jarusevivius - Central Michigan
Jamrques Lawrence - Rhode Island
Pryce Sandfort - Iowa

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Northwestern

(-)
Blake Barkley - East Tennessee State
Keenan Fitzmorris
Luke Hunger - George Washington

(+)
Max Green - Holly Cross
Arrinten Page - Cincinnati
Jayden Reid - South Florida

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Ohio State

(-)
Aaron Bradshaw - Memphis
Meechie Johnson - South Carolina
Evan Mahaffey - Akron
Austin Parks - Toledo
Sean Stewart - Oregon

(+)
Gabe Cupps - Indiana
Brandon Noel - Wright State
Josh Ojianwuna - Baylor
Christoph Tilly - Santa Clara

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Oregon

(-)
Brandon Angel
Mookie Cook - San Francisco
Ra'Heim Moss
Jadrian Tracy - VCU
Jesse Zarzuela

(+)
Miles Goodman - Penn State
Devon Pryor - Texas
T.K. Simpkins - Elon
Miles Stewart - Howard
Sean Stewart - Ohio State

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Penn State

(-)
Jahvin Carter - Middle Tennessee
Miles Goodman - Oregon
Puff Johnson
Kachi Nzeh
Hudson Ward - UC San Diego

(+)
Josh Reed - Cincinnati

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Purdue

(-)
Will Berg - Wichita State
Miles Colvin - Wake Forest
Camden Heide - Texas
Brian Waddell - Bellarmine

(+)
Oscar Cluff - South Dakota State
Liam Murphy - North Florida

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Rutgers

(-)
Jordan Derkack - Dayton
Nate Freisthler
P.J. Hayes
Peter Noble
Lathan Sommerville - Washington
Jeremiah Williams - Georgetown

(+)
Darren Buchanan, Jr. - George Washington
Baye Fall - Kansas State
Tariq Francis - NJIT

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UCLA

(-)
Dylan Andrews - Boise State
Dominick Harris - Loyola Chicago
William Kyle III - Syracuse
Sebastian Mack - Missouri
Aday Mara - Michigan
Devin Williams - Florida Atlantic

(+)
Xavier Booker - Michigan State
Jamar Brown - Kansas City
Donovon Dent - New Mexico
Steven Jamerson II - San Diego

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USC

(-)
Rashaun Agee - Texas A&M
Desmond Claude
Isaiah Elohim - Florida Atlantic
Kallai Patton - New Mexico
Kevin Patton, Jr. - New Mexico
Jalen Shelley - Loyola Marymount
Saint Thomas
Wesley Yates III - Washington

(+)
Ezra Ausar - Utah
Chad Baker-Mazara - Auburn
Jaden Brownell - Samford
Jacob Cofie - Virginia
Amarion Dickerson - Robert Morris
Gabe Dynes - Youngstown State
Kezza Giffa - High Point
Jordan Marsh - UNC Asheville
Rodney Rice - Maryland

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Washington

(-)
Wilhelm Breidenbach - Grand Canyon
Jase Butler - Colorado State
Dominique Diomande
Tyler Harris - Vanderbilt
KC Ibekwe - Pacific
Christian King - Montana State
Will Landram
Mekhi Mason - Wake Forest

(+)
Christian Nitu - Florida State
Jacob Ognacevic - Lipscomb
Quimari Peterson - East Tennessee State
Lathan Sommerville - Rutgers
Bryson Tucker - Indiana
Wesley Yates III - USC

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Wisconsin

(-)
Xavier Amos - Loyola Chicago
Daniel Freitag - Buffalo
Carter Gilmore
Chris Hodges - Montana State
Camren Hunter - Central Arkansas
Markus Ilver

(+)
Nick Boyd - San Diego State
Braeden Carrington - Tulsa
Austin Rapp - Portland
Andew Rohde - Virginia

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Landry Brede (OL)
Ronald Derrick (DL)
Owen Fors (OL)
Rhett Gray (OL)
Davis Kinney (DB)
PJ MacFarlane (TE)
Johnny O’Brien (QB) 🟣
Keaton Reinke (WR)
Lucas Tielsch (OL)
Nick Zalewski (DE) 🟣

Lots to digest here!

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