NU football now has 15 official commits for their 2025 recruiting class, which is the bulk of the class, so here's a quick update, since most have committed in the past month. Here are the commits, including their star ratings, 247 composite rating, and other P5 offers. All info comes from 24/7.
- QB Marcus Romain: 3*, 86 rating, 1 other P5 offer (Boston College)
- WR Dube Enongene: 3*, 86 rating, 1 other P5 offer (Minnesota)
- WR Braden Bluitt: 3*, 86 rating, 3 other P5 offers (Cal, Kansas State, Texas Tech)
- TE Noah LaPorte: 3*, 84 rating, 2 other P5 offers (Kansas, Michigan State)
- TE Robby Preckel: 3*, 84 rating (247 only, no composite rating), 0 other P5 offers
- OL Michael O'Connell: 3*, 87 rating, 4 other P5 offers (Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, Indiana)
- OL Trey Boyd: 3*, 86 rating, 7 other P5 offers (Arizona, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Purdue)
- DL Caden O'Rourke: 3*, 87 rating, 7 other P5 offers (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisville, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska)
- DL Mason Mayne: 3*, 86 rating, 0 other P5 offers
- DL Jonah Hayes: 3*, 84 rating, 2 other P5 offers (Virginia, Georgia Tech)
- LB Josh Veldman: 3*, 84 rating, 1 other P5 offer (Iowa State)
- CB Jonathan Stevens: 3*, 86 rating, 2 other P5 offers (Duke, Purdue)
- CB Marquet Dorsey Jr: 3*, 88 rating, 11 other P5 offers (including Penn State, Florida, Wisconsin)
- S Alijah Jones: 3*, 84 rating, 4 other P5 offers (Boston College, Indiana, Michigan State, Pittsburgh)
- P Nikola Dugandzij: 3*, 83 rating (#1 punter), 3 other P5 offers (Kentucky, Illinois, Ole Miss)
A few of my thoughts after putting this together:
- These are mostly low-level P5 recruits. All but 2 had other P5 offers, so they're legitimate P5 recruits, but only 3 had 5+ of those offers, and only 1 had an offer from anything that could be considered a high-level program (Marquet Dorsey Jr). Clear step down from recruiting highs NU saw in late 2010s. They're mostly winning recruiting battles against mid-majors, with a few other low-level P5 programs. That might just be the new NIL reality, but will rely heavily on development and/or transfer portal to field a competitive team.
- Got their QB. Secured early commitment from a QB (he committed back in March, when he was 3rd member of class), and Romain is only the 2nd QB since Clayton Thorson who had another P5 offer (Sullivan is the other, who seems like the best homegrown NU QB in the post-Thorson era).
- More receiving TE focus. Both guys listed as TE here (because Louie Vaccher called them TE when announcing their commitment) are listed as WR on 247.
- Hitting Midwest hard. 5 are from Illinois. 4 more from Midwest, so 9/15 total from the region.
- Strong in trenches? This is hard to say, because 247 rankings can vary quite a bit from others/offer lists, but 4 of the top 5 ranked on 247 are in the trenches, 2 on each line. Felt worth mentioning.
Curious for anybody else's thoughts.
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