Northwestern will never win an unofficial Big Ten crown, much less a recruiting guru's overall No. 1 ranking, on National Signing Day. And coach Pat Fitzgerald won't ever waste verbiage touting the high school seniors who sign with the Wildcats.

Northwestern is a place where players are forged over the long haul rather than fired out like a rocket on to the field. The Wildcats feature a grand total of six veterans on their 2010 roster—one senior-to-be, two juniors and three sophomores—who played as true freshmen.

All that having been said (or not said), Fitzgerald and his staff believed they attracted perhaps their most appealing class with this year's 17-man freshman group. ...More