Northwestern Offers 2027 Safety Drawing Other Power Conference Interest

The recruit is currently unranked, but that might change.

Sep 14, 2024; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach David Braun gestures to his team against the Eastern Illinois Panthers during the first half at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images

The Northwestern Wildcats continue to make offers to potential recruits in the next few classes of high school players. Yesterday, 2027 safety Elijah Burns-Crump received an offer from head coach David Braun and the 'Cats.

Burns-Crump announced the news in a post on X.

After a Great conversation with
@HarlonBarnett I am Blessed to receive an offer from Northwestern University!! #NUFB @NUFBFamily @adamgorney @TomLoy247 @GregBiggins @Coach_CTaylor @TeamCTSP @seancooper_C4 @jdemling @TrinityHSFB @PetersNUFB @Smith_D55 pic.twitter.com/v54HSYGuB7

— Elijah Burns-Crump (@eburnscrump32) September 3, 2025

Currently, the Louisville native is an unranked prospect on 247Sports, according to their composite rankings. The key thing to understand about that is that the 2027 recruiting class is still far from beginning their college careers.

This means there's still time for them to further develop in high school, gain traction with scouts, earn more offers and, eventually, pick up a star ranking. Given the other offers Burns-Crump already has, he seems like a solid candidate to be ranked eventually, making him a good target for Northwestern to get in on right now.

According to 247Sports, Burns-Crump also has offers from Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Arizona State. This feels like the perfect sweet spot for the 'Cats. Those programs having interest suggests that teams are seeing something the rankings haven't picked up on yet, but they also don't box out a program like Northwestern in the same way an Ohio State or an Alabama might.

This means the Wildcats could actually have a solid chance to land a talented players whose recruiting cycle is heating up.

Northwestern could use a win right now. The program just lost its top 2026 recruit in linebacker Jacob Curry. He doesn't define the class, but his departure was far from welcome news in Evanston.

Then, the current team received a pummeling of a life time on ESPNU this weekend against Tulane. Starting quarterback Preston Stone threw four interceptions and turned the ball over five times en route to a 23-3 loss that was far worse than the score.

Figuring out a way to land some high school recruits would be a nice morale boost for the program as a whole. The current team needs to figure some things out, but if the Tulane loss signified anything, it's that Northwestern might have a ways to go in terms of competing in the Big Ten.

Looking towards the future, stockpiling players like Burns-Crump would certainly help. They need higher ranked recruits, too, but finding guys who can be developed into talent is as crucial as ever for Northwestern.