Northwestern continued to add in the transfer portal Thursday, receiving a commitment from Weber State corner Montae Pate, according to a post to X from ESPN reporter Adam Rittenberg.
Pate, who has one season of eligibility remaining with the 'Cats, is coming off a fantastic season in which he earned first-team All-Big Sky honors. He finished the year with 53 total tackles, nine pass breakups, five TFLs and a pick.
In 2024, Pate was also solid, playing in all 12 games and finishing with 34 tackles, four passes defended and another interception.
The 6-foot-3 defensive back is long and athletic, and he's produced at a high level throughout his college career. The question now will center around how well his game translates to a much higher level of competition in the Big Ten. Frankly, a player with that kind of size and impact in the tackling game seems more likely to work out.
Northwestern is also a team that usually puts a big emphasis on winning at the line of scrimmage, on both sides of the ball. That bodes well for defensive backs trying to learn the ropes, since they hopefully won't be stranded in coverage for very long. But you can't discount the talent gap between Big Sky receivers and Jeremiah Smith.
Pate will join a defensive back room that already has some talent in players like Josh Fussell, Braden Turner and Robert Fitzgerald. But this is also a smart addition for Northwestern because it is losing some talent to eligibility like Ore Adeyi, who started this season at corner.
So far this offseason, David Braun's transfer targets have followed a few themes. For one, they've been at positions where the Wildcats are in need of talent due to existing roster holes or players graduating.
Second, quite a few of these commits are players who played a lot of football for their former teams last season and proved impactful. Pate, once again, fits the bill.
He's also the second corner Braun has added during this transfer portal cycle. He previously brought in former Central Michigan DB Brenden Deasfernandez. The Michigan native played against Northwestern at the end of this year in the GameAbove Sports Bowl, where Braun was able to scout him live and in person.
With both Deasfernandes and Pate now in the fold, don't expect corner to be high on the list of existing needs anymore. Northwestern could always still add there, but it's already done significant work.