Northwestern Football made another offer in the 2027 recruiting class yesterday, this time to a three-star safety named Bryson Dossett.
Dossett currently plays at Fort Bend Ridge Point in Texas, and he stands at 5-foot-11, 180 lbs. The recruiting sites showcase a little bit of disagreement on where he ranks nationally.
On 247Sports and ESPN, Dossett is still an unranked player. But he's achieved the three-star ranking from Rivals, the On3 affiliated site that often updates rankings before its competitors.
It makes sense that they've done so, too, since Dossett has plenty of offers from high-level Division I programs. According to 247, Duke, Baylor, Houston, Illinois and Kansas State have all submitted offers in addition to the Wildcats. An offer-sheet like that usually means that talent evaluators around the country are ahead of the public websites in identifying premier talent.
It also means that Northwestern is already dealing with significant competition here, and it will likely get even more diff. Both Baylor and Houston will be difficult to beat, since Dossett is from Texas and might want to stay closer to home. Illinois is also a Big Ten-foe that has found some success in recent seasons.
Just because Dossett is unranked on a few websites doesn't mean he won't be difficult to convince to come to Evanston. David Braun and the 'Cats will have to rely on their program's position as an ascending team in the conference, as well as NIL money and the new stadium.
Northwestern seems to be targeting a lot of defensive players and offensive linemen in the 2027 class, which makes sense. Traditionally, the 'Cats have been best at developing players at those positions.
If it consistently fill the stables with high-school talent at those spots -- and always have someone waiting in the wings -- then they can use the transfer portal to acquire skill position talent.
Signing players like Dossett, who have a reasonable chance to become starters in the future, is important if that strategy is going to work to build a contender in Evanston. Northwestern won't be able to do it if it isn't capable of winning on guys like this.
Right now, On3 gives Kansas State the best odds of landing Dossett at 33.5%, but the site doesn't appear to have included Northwestern in its calculus just yet. Dossett announced his offer via X just yesterday, so an update is surely upcoming.