Amid fallout from the report of an outside investigation into hazing within Northwestern’s football program, recruits have started to reassess their commitments.
Northwestern fired football coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday with a statement from university President Michael Schill. Fitzgerald originally received a two-week, unpaid suspension from the university July 7. After pressure that followed reporting from the Daily Northwestern student newspaper, Schill said he “may have erred” in his initial decision to suspend Fitzgerald, citing a “broken” culture in the program.
In the days since Fitzgerald’s firing, four three-star recruits from the initial 14 members of the 2024 class have reopened their recruitment. Offensive linemen Payton Stewart and Julius Tate and wide receiver Brett Eskildsen announced on social media that they were decommitting. Defensive tackle Dillan Johnson, from Joliet Catholic, decommitted and flipped to Wisconsin.
The 10 remaining members of the 2024 recruiting class are committed to the Wildcats for now, but Allen Trieu, a Midwest sports analyst for 247Sports who has spoken with some of the players, said many are keeping their options and the lines of communication open with other programs.
“I imagine that some other schools are going to reach out,” Trieu told the Tribune. “College football coaches and teams are opportunistic. They’re going to see this as an opportunity to maybe come back in on some recruits that they missed the first time round or these are recruits they may now be interested in.
“When there’s a coaching change, (other universities) scan that school’s commit list to see if there are guys that they can recruit. And I’m sure that that’s happening with Northwestern right now. So these kids will have some new opportunities.”
Northwestern’s 2024 class is ranked 62nd nationally and 16th (last) in the Big Ten, according to 247Sports.
Trieu added that a coaching change, regardless of the circumstances, has the potential to have long-lasting impacts on recruiting, but it ultimately depends not only on what the current staff and interim head coach do but how quickly the university is able to bring in a new coach.
“If we use Penn State as an example, after Joe Paterno, that could have really had a big impact on the next couple of staffs,” Thieu said. “And I think that Bill O’Brien and then James Franklin have done a really good job of recruiting through that and making that a thing of the past. Penn State recruiting is not currently affected by that. It’s up to whoever the next coach or coaches are, to be able to try to quickly move on from this and get the program and recruiting back on the right track.”
Northwestern football players have 30 days from Fitzgerald’s termination to enter the transfer portal with no penalty.
According to Schill’s statement, the external investigation found 11 current or former players who corroborated the hazing allegations, but no current players have officially entered the portal.