Kudos to the Illinois staff for putting together one of the highest rated recruiting classes ever for Illinois. This class has a lot of numbers, but also has some real potential difference makers. We had a really good finish to the class, flipping a few highly ranked recruits and adding a couple of hotly contested JUCO recruits. Our biggest flips were:
Micah Smith, OL - UCLA to IL (could be a day 1 starter, very highly ranked)
Jakwon Morris, CB - USC to IL
Jaylen Stewart, OLB - OK State to IL
Javari Burnett, RB - Bama to IL
Some of the headliners that could see the field right away are:
Nick Hankins, CB (Belleville West) - Highest ranked recruit in the class. Kid could've went anywhere, his high school film is so good. He's got the size and speed to play right away.
Nasir Rankin, WR (Chicago) - Major athlete, may try to play football and basketball at IL. Could play offense or defense, but will likely start out at WR.
Jacob Eberhardt, S (St. Louis) - Dad played at IL, big time athlete major schools were after him. Could play offense or defense, but likely ends up as a Strong Safety (think Matthew Bailey but a better athlete).
Cam Thomas, MLB (Ohio) - Great size and speed for a MLB, all kinds of high school accolades. Had offers from lots of big time programs. Shouldn't need to play right away, but he upgrades our size/speed on defense.
Football Recruiting Class
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Re: Football Recruiting Class
good to hear ...would like to see more OL. We need to replace all 5 starters, correct?
Re: Football Recruiting Class
4 of 5 starters are gone, Brandon Henderson at Guard is back.
So we signed the #1 JUCO OT in TJ Taylor. He had offers from other big schools and projects at RT or LT. We also signed the #1 Interior JUCO OL in Maika Matelau. He projects at either Guard or Tackle. I know that there's no way to know how a JUCO kid is going to project to big time conference football. We had good success with JC Davis the last couple of years and Isaiah Adams was drafted after being a JUCO guy.
We have the backup Center, TJ McMillen who was a well regarded recruit that will be fighting for a spot. Micah Smith is a recruit that many think will have the possibility of starting as a freshman at either Guard or Tackle. Eddie Tuerk was a highly regarded recruit a couple of years ago and will be fighting for a Guard spot along with Brandon Hansen.
The big question is do they think the JUCO guys are sure-fire starters. If they are, then I think we'll be fine. But there is a lot of unknown. I could see them adding at least 1 sure fire starter in the portal, maybe a couple.