Northwestern lost out on a potential 2027 recruit Saturday when safety Jake Thies elected to take his talents to Iowa City.
Thies is a three-star prospect, according to both Rivals and 247Sports, and he hails from the state of Illinois. His decision to leave his home state comes as a bit of a surprise, as he chose the Iowa Hawkeyes over both Northwestern and Illinois.
Additionally, schools like UCLA, Duke, Vanderbilt, Purdue, West Virginia, Boston College and a whole host of others submitted offers for his services. For a three-star especially, Thies was receiving quite a bit of interest from high-major programs.
Standing at 6-foot-even with a weight of 185 lbs, Thies is squarely in the range required to play safety at the college level. He would have made for a solid addition to Northwestern's secondary had he decided to come to Evanston.
Head coach David Braun and the athletic department appear to have made a solid push, as well. The 'Cats are the first team listed on these recruiting sites after Iowa with the best chance to land Thies. Northwestern also had him in for a visit all the way back in last May.
This isn't a big story because the Wildcats lost out on a recruit -- that happens regularly. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and that rings especially true in recruiting.
But missing out on a quality prospect who elects to go to a Big Ten rival is never good, especially to a team like Iowa. Northwestern is always going to be competing with the Illinois's and the Iowa's of the world for players, not the Oregon's and the Ohio State's
If Braun truly wants to compete for Big Ten Championships with teams of that latter category, it has to first separate itself from the middling teams in the conference. Iowa is on the upper end of that tier, but even the Hawkeyes will struggle to win league titles in the modern landscape of the conference.
Obviously, missing out on one three-star safety is far from the end of the world. But it is an example of what the 'Cats need to work to overcome in the coming seasons under Braun.
With renewed commitment from the athletic department to try to win in athletics, the resources should be there to get players like Thies to come to Evanston. If it can start winning recruiting battles over teams like Iowa, then taking another jump to contender status starts to become more realistic and less like a pipe dream.