At Northwestern, signing day is a pretty anticlimactic affair.
They expected 13, they signed 13. The final verbal committment came a good two weeks ago, and a defensive tackle from Orlando, Fla., made his decision last May. A glance at rivals.com or another recruiting service could have provided all the information — and probably more — than was made official at last night’s press conference/booster club shindig at the stadium.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s a lovely event for a lot of alumni and diehard fans, a great opportunity for them to mingle with the coaches and get excited about the future.
After all, you have to be impressed by the recruiting videos they show, which are basically highlight reels of the signees looking fast and athletic. Never mind the fact that they’re playing against high schoolers — look at that move!
“This is a don’t-miss event,” said Northwestern Gridiron Network member Marty Britt, who identified himself as an NU “superfan.”
Britt couldn’t really specify which players he was most excited about — “one of the running backs looked pretty good,” the Downers Grove resident recalled — but he said the food was good and he likes supporting the program.
Ellen and Jeff Braun, both 1965 graduates, have been in the booster club for 10 years and have attended the event for the last four or five signing days.
“It’s nice to get the inside track,” Ellen said.
Jeff, on the other hand, had done some homework beforehand.
“I follow (recruiting) on the Internet, who gets four stars, who gets five stars,” said Jeff, referring to the rivals.com star rating system. “But I think the important thing is what happens with them three years from now.”
Which brings us back to why signing day is, for lack of a better word, boring.
For one thing, it means getting excited about guys who will probably redshirt next season and won’t be contributors until the 2005 or 2006 season.
For another, at NU we know exactly who we’re getting.
Only a handful of players are making last minute decisions, and most of them are the high-profile guys who are holding their own press conferences to announce whether they will attend USC or LSU. According to the Miami Herald, 18-year-old Willie Williams actually tried on jerserys of different teams at a press conference in his high school library Wednesday morning. After building the suspense, he announced that the Miami jersey fit him best.
When you consider that, maybe it’s a good thing that NU’s signing day is on the dull side.
I, for one, am glad
