Top Northwestern Football Recruit Decommits From Program's 2026 Class

The Wildcats suffered an unfortunate recruiting loss this morning.

Nease linebacker/safety Jacob Curry is pictured at Baker's Sports/Jaguars Prep High School Football Media Day at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on Aug. 1, 2025. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union] | Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A high schooler football player's recruiting process is hardly linear. Players hear from schools sometimes as early as their freshman seasons. The reality is, even much later in the game, a lot can happen before they even step foot on a college football field.

Northwestern lost its top ranked recruit this morning in 2026 linebacker Jacob Curry, according to On3's rankings. That's a brutal loss, no question about it, but it's also something college programs have to be able to absorb and move on from.

What likely happened is simple: Curry committed to Northwestern fully planning on arriving to campus next fall. Then, he started to realize he might be able to do better. Maybe he got bigger. Maybe he knows he's going to put better tape out there.

Then, Curry decided to decommit, and the news was announced this morning on X by On3 reporter Steven Wiltfong.

Ponte Vedra (Fla.) Nease LB Jacob Curry "made the tough decision" to decommit from Northwestern on Tuesday. Moving forward Baylor, Miami and Oklahoma are top contenders. He talks about each program and upcoming visits here: https://t.co/7i1NsqGoIR pic.twitter.com/5CSxzyj3U4

— Steve Wiltfong (@SWiltfong_) August 27, 2025

There could be other reasons for Curry's decision. It's impossible to read his mind, of course. But it probably was as simple as a desire for more. And that's ok -- for Curry and for Northwestern.

At a certain point, assembling a recruiting class for a football team with a 105-player roster does have to be a little bit about quantity. A team needs quality, of course, but it can't get too hung up on one player leaving the class. There's tons of other players out there to recruit and many that have already committed to the school.

It's hard to sugarcoat this one, though. Curry was the Wildcats' highest ranked recruit in the class, No. 437 in the country per On3. So, while a recruiting loss can never be some unmitigated disaster, this is still bad news. Curry was an exciting talent headed to Evanston.

Standing at 6-foot-1 and weighing 200 lbs, the Florida native has outstanding offers from other top schools. Oklahoma, Iowa State and Louisville stand out amongst the many programs listed on 247Sports.

For Northwestern, losing Curry hurts the future linebacker room. Currently, its 2026 class does include two more linebackers in Owen Fors and Owen Jakubczak, but they're both ranked below No. 1,000 in the class overall.