The Wildcats are back at it in the 2027 recruiting cycle, offering another three-star prospect on the offensive line yesterday. Miller Westerfield, a tackle out of Georgia, is the latest name to add to the list of outstanding offers.
Westerfield is a big kid, standing at 6-foot-6 already and weighing 290 lbs. He still has even more time in high school to build on that, which is a scary proposition.
Northwestern will be up against some stiff competition to land his services. Georgia and Georgia Tech have both submitted offers, and those will obviously be the biggest challenge to overcome, especially as Westerfield rises in the rankings. LSU, Florida State and Boston College are also in the mix, according to 247Sports.
I assume that Westerfield will continue to rise because that's how these things typically work. Currently, he's a three-star per Rivals, but 247Sports still has him listed as unranked. He's in that time period where programs have recognized his talent and submitted offers, but the recruiting websites are still catching up.
For that reason, expect the competition to get even tougher for the Wildcats as his recruitment carries on.
The good news is, Northwestern has money. It might not be Georgia money, but they can offer him a fair deal. It also has a beautiful campus, an up-and-coming roster and a new stadium on the way.
On top of all of that, it has a tremendous track record in the past decade at developing offensive tackles into NFL talents, the most recent being last year's starter Caleb Tiernan. He's likely to be selected in the first half of this year's NFL Draft.
For the Wildcats, recruiting a lot of offensive lineman also makes sense for this reason. Northwestern struggles more to develop skill positions and quarterbacks in house, so it makes more sense for them to be spending financial resources in the transfer portal on those positions.
In order to do that, though, it has to continue to churn out lineman through its development system. We're far off from a world where the 'Cats have a high-flying offense that can withstand any sort of weakness in the trenches. They have to be able to block and pound the rock.
Westerfield is obviously not going to be a contributor any time soon even if he does come to Evanston, but he's yet another example of David Braun and his staff attacking that strategy.