Northwestern head baseball coach Ben Greenspan announced on Monday that quarterback Jack Lausch, who started 10 games for the Wildcat football team last fall, would be joining the baseball team as an outfielder.
Lausch was a standout two-sport athlete at Chicago (Ill.) Brother Rice High School in Chicago but has focused on football. Now, after his third football season, he will give baseball a shot and play both sports.
A Northwestern spokesperson told WildcatReport that Lausch is already practicing with the baseball team and will be with the team this spring, adding that head football coach David Braun is “completely on board” with Lausch’s decision to pursue both sports. Another source said that Lausch will focus primarily on baseball this spring, meaning that spring football practice will take a back seat, even though he is on a football scholarship.
This isn’t some pipe dream, and many thought Lausch was a better baseball than football prospect coming out of high school. He was rated as the No. 1 outfielder in Illinois and the No. 23 outfielder in the country by Perfect Game, and was named a top 250 prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft by Baseball America, according to Northwestern’s press release.
"Jack is an elite athlete with a high-level skillset and has an opportunity to make an immediate impact," Greenspan said. "His leadership qualities and character attributes are exactly what we look for in players, and we are thrilled to have Jack as part of our program."
So what does Lausch’s decision mean for Northwestern? Here’s why it’s a win-win-win: a win for Lausch, for Northwestern and for backup quarterback Ryan Boe.
It’s a win for Lausch: Lausch can see the writing on the wall. After a year as a starter, Northwestern signed Preston Stone out of the transfer portal to lead the Wildcats next fall. Stone was a backup for most of the season at SMU, but his 13-3 career record as a starter and a strong resume of stats that make him a clear-cut choice to lead the team next season. If Lausch is no longer going to be the starter, he deserves the right to pursue baseball if he wishes.
He was the 2022 Chicago Catholic League Baseball Player of the Year and was named to the Class 4A All-State team. He hit .386 with a .521 on-base percentage with five home runs, 43 RBI, 51 runs scored and 33 stolen bases in his senior season, according to Northwestern’s release.
Lausch was all set to commit to Notre Dame as a dual-sport walkon in December of 2021 when Northwestern quarterback commit Bennett Meredith decommitted and the Wildcats offered Lausch a scholarship as a last-minute addition. Indiana State was his only other offer for football, and he didn’t have any offers to play baseball – though he might have if he didn’t commit to Notre Dame so early.
The plan initially was for Lausch to play both football and baseball at Northwestern, but he elected to focus on football. (Given the state of the baseball program then under since-fired head coach Jim Foster, it’s not a surprise he opted for the gridiron.)
Now, three years later, after Braun and offensive coordinator Zach Lujan made it clear that Lausch would be back to backup, Lausch can take a shot at baseball and see if he has a future there.
It’s a win for Northwestern: Obviously, it’s good for Northwestern’s baseball program, who get a potentially valuable player as a walkon. But it’s also good for the football team.
The Wildcats already know what they have in Lausch, who has been in the program for three years and started 10 games last fall. He completed 53.7% of his passes for 1,714 yards (53.7%), with seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. A true dual-threat QB, he rushed 87 times for 213 yards and two touchdowns.
Lausch showed some flashes, but the bottom line was the offense and the passing game, in particular, struggled. The Wildcats scored just 17.8 points per game and were ranked 128th out of 133 teams in the FBS. It wasn’t all Lausch’s fault, of course, but he was the lowest-rated passer in the Big Ten.
It appears that the coaching staff has decided that Lausch will return to his role as a backup/running quarterback for the Wildcats moving forward. He’s performed well in that role before, as he’s more gifted as a runner than a passer.
He may even be demoted to No. 3 so that the staff can get a better look at Boe, but Braun may continue to use him as a change-of-pace option to Stone. He can still be a valuable asset for the Wildcats, but they don’t need to see him take a ton of reps this spring to prove it.
The Wildcats know that Stone will be the starter in 2025. Now they can begin to look ahead to 2026 and determine if Boe will be the answer, or if they’ll have to look to the portal again.
It’s a win for Boe: Stone will obviously get the lion’s share of reps in the spring as the presumed starter. Add in Mike Wright's rumored move to wide receiver, and the path is clear for the Wildcats to give their No. 2 reps to Boe.
Boe played in just one game in 2024, the finale against Illinois, when he came on in relief of Lausch. He generally looked like a true freshman playing his first college game, completing 4-of-13 passes for 42 yards, with one interception. He was also sacked once for a 15-yard loss.
Braun, however, has praised Boe repeatedly and thinks he may be the future of the position. Last year told Braun and Lujan that Lausch was not the answer. Now, in spring practice and next fall, they can determine if Boe might be the man for 2026 and beyond.
Northwestern would like to get off the transfer merry-go-round and develop a quarterback who can play for more than one season. They haven’t had a quarterback they recruited out of high school start a season opener since Clayton Thorson in 2018. Peyton Ramsey (2020) and Ben Bryant (2023) fared well; Hunter Johnson (2019 and 2021), Ryan Hilinski (2022) and Wright (2024) did not. Stone's resume aligns much more with Ramsey and Bryant, but fans will still wait with bated breath to see the rubber meet the road on the latest transfer in 2025.
Like Lausch, Boe was an 11th-hour signee in the 2024 class. He was a North Dakota State commitment out of Batavia (Ill.) that Braun recruited for the Bison before leaving for NU. Boe flipped to the Wildcats a week before National Signing Day in December of 2023.
Can Boe be the Wildcats’ future at the most important position in football? Can he lead the Wildcats into the new Ryan Field? Now, Northwestern’s staff can begin to find out the answer to those questions sooner rather than later.
