Two months ago, Northwestern had yet to land a single commitment from greater Chicagoland. Now it has three … and the latest is one of the most significant ones in recent memory.

On Saturday, the Wildcats received a pledge from four-star offensive guard Peter Skoronski, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound human snowplow from Maine South High School (Park Ridge, Ill.). Skoronski holds nine scholarship offers, and is precisely the kind of student athlete who traditionally would have been widely assumed to be a slam dunk as a Notre Dame commit.

Now, after Northwestern authored a run to the Big Ten championship game in 2018, the Wildcats are themselves a viable destination for elite talent. That includes both Skoronski and fellow 2020 four-star Aidan Atkinson, an elite pro-style quarterback from Colorado.

Still, Skoronski’s decision strikes a more powerful chord for Pat Fitzgerald and the Northwestern staff. Despite the Wildcats’ recent run of success, they’ve landed just one four-star recruit from the greater Chicago area — defensive end Devin O’Rourke from Frankfort (Ill.) High School in 2018.

Now, perhaps Skoronski and Northwestern’s own success will change that.