Fort Wayne offensive lineman nets Purdue offer
More: Purdue 2020 offers
Purdue's robust list of in-state offensive line targets grew by one this weekend, when Boilermaker coaches offered Fort Wayne's Luke Wiginton.
The 6-foot-5, 275-pounder from Bishop Dwenger was offered shortly after leaving an unofficial visit to West Lafayette, an offer that came a few days after Indiana and Minnesota presented him with his first two Big Ten offers.
"As the game was coming to an end, Coach (JaMarcus) Shephard got up to leave with a couple of other recruits and said, 'As soon as you get in the car, Luke, call me,'" Wiginton said after attending the Purdue-Penn State basketball game. "He said it twice, and I said, 'OK, Coach, I'll do that for you.'"
They called and Shephard offered.
"It was huge," said Wiginton, who made his first-ever trip to West Lafayette. "I was very blessed to receive two Big Ten offers just a few days before, and then to get Purdue like that was really awesome. It meant a whole lot to me. I told them, 'Thank you, Coach, words can not describe what this means to me.'"
Now, Wiginton said, the next step is for him to visit again in the spring, and get to meet with Coach Jeff Brohm and offensive line coach Dale Williams, neither of whom were present this past weekend.
"They definitely want to get me back down for a spring practice," Wiginton said. "I just talked to them again (Monday) and they said they appreciated me coming down and emphasized they want to keep the best in the state in the state, and I appreciate that, because I know there's a ton of good football players in Indiana and for a program like Purdue to tell me that, it means a lot."
In addition to Purdue, IU and Minnesota, Wiginton — likely an offensive tackle recruit, due to his reputed athleticism — is being recruited by Northwestern, Iowa and Penn State from the Big Ten as well, he said.
"I definitely want (to commit) sooner rather than later," he said. "I'd say right now it would probably be sometime around the end of my junior school year. Probably around May or June."
His criteria for an eventual decision: "It comes down to three factors. First off, somewhere I can get a great education that'll set me up for life after football, because that's the biggest opportunity I have, to get a free education that'll set me up for 60, maybe 70, years. Then, culture is huge, somewhere the team is a huge emphasis and you're part of something bigger than yourself. And third, I want to go somewhere we can win and have success as a program."
Wiginton is the fourth Indiana offensive lineman in the Class of 2020 targeted by Purdue, which also has offers out to Beech Grove's Josh Fryar, Zionsville's Gus Hartwig and Fort Wayne's Randy Holtz.
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