Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#1      

Dan

Dan
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Dan
Welcome to the Illinois Football Recruiting Thread :illinois:


2026 Illini Football Commits

1) QB Michael Clayton (November 10th, 2024)
2) DL Kingston Shaw (January 1st, 2025)
3) WR Davon Grant (January 8th, 2025)
4) OL Landen Von Seggern (January 15th, 2025)
5) WR Kenyon Alston (January 23rd, 2025)
6) EDGE Jacob Alexander (January 27th, 2025)
7) LB Cam Thomas (February 6th, 2025)
8) LB Kaedyn Cobbs (February 7th, 2025)
9) OL Casey Thomann (March 4th, 2025)
10) RB Javari Barnett (April 6th, 2025)
11) LB Tony Williams (April 14th, 2025)
12) DB Almirian Thomas (April 14th, 2025)
13) DL/OL Tony Balanganayi (April 16th, 2025)


IL Transfer Portal Commits

1) OL Tyler McMillan (April 19th, 2025)
2) OL Nathan Knapik (April 26th, 2025)
3) DL Carter Hewitt (April 27th, 2025)
4) K/P Lucas Osada (April 27th, 2025)
 
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#2      
phats22
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#5      
Da88
Zweebs said:
Tennessee rumors still flying around.
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I wonder how aware the staff is of this?
While I don't think they should get into chasing internet rumors, what would it hurt for Luke to put out a quick Tweet denying it?
The longer there is silence, the more it feeds into this smoke.
I would think that something would happen today if there is legs to this. The portal closes Friday. We would be at a tremendous disadvantage if this drags out too long and he jumps ship. Not that there are any good options left at this point, but maybe we could pull a starter from someone else?
I'm hoping for #9 being our QB 1.
 
#9      
RockfordIllini
I know nothing and as others have said never say never but it seems to me if Luke was really interested in chasing a huge payday he would have portalled in the fall when there were multiple suitors and let them get into a bidding war for his services. That’s the way to extract maximum dollars as we are seeing with the current basketball portal cycle. At this point Tennessee would be the only market. It would have to truly be a godfather offer, but they just refused to pay their starting QB that type of money.

Buy like I say, who knows. If somebody was willing to pay me $3M to play football I would certainly listen and I wouldn’t blame Luke. That is life changing money.
 
#13      
Dkayak
RockfordIllini said:
I know nothing and as others have said never say never but it seems to me if Luke was really interested in chasing a huge payday he would have portalled in the fall when there were multiple suitors and let them get into a bidding war for his services. That’s the way to extract maximum dollars as we are seeing with the current basketball portal cycle. .
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My thoughts too. His big opportunity was back then, when he clearly and boldly said he’s finishing here.
 
#17      
From the cheap seats
As savvy as Luke was in announcing he was returning to the Illini with that great video, one would think he'd quickly calm this situation. I still have a very hard time thinking he would abandon his teammates and the staff at this point given all of the leadership qualities he has exhibited. Not even for more money.
 
#23      
BretMyBeachHouse
the juiceman cometh said:
He doesn't need to do anything.

But there's nothing preventing him from doing it and it would certainly make Illinois fans feel a whole lot better.
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Conventional PR guidance says you don't respond to gossip.

If I start an X account and get a few followers and then start a rumor that the McCray transfer happened because Kaleb Johnson is transferring in, does that require a response from Iowa or Johnson? How many followers necessitates a response? 100? 1000? 10000?

There's a whole economy out there based on getting clicks for gossip. I see no need for players to respond and feed the culture.

By the way, best I can tell the only benefit to him responding is to make you and a few other Loyalty posters happy. That's not Luke's responsibility.
 
#24      
the juiceman cometh
artist3 said:
You’re right that he could do that and it would be awesome for us fans if he did, but maybe we shouldn’t be so needy and just take Luke at his word from before.
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Yeah, look, Luke owes me nothing. He owes nothing to any of us. I think its more likely that not that all this amounts to nothing more than possibly some additional NIL from our boosters to Luke.

But at the end of the day, in the current landscape, a player that thinks he's coming back yesterday can change his mind today. Victor Singleton was maybe one of the most actively vociferous cheerleaders of any recruit we've had coming in over the years. I don't think that was for show. I believe he really thought he was going to be an Illini and was genuinely excited for it. Now he's going to A&M. On the basketball side, Morez had an NIL deal signed with us, then was in the portal, then was a Wolverine all in a span of a couple weeks.

Luke is probably our QB next season, but there is a non-zero chance he isn't. Which is to say that there's a non-zero chance all our aspirations for next season go up in a cloud of smoke in the next couple days. That's kinda crazy.
 
#25      
Pikeillinifan
Regardless of the Luke scenario, they desperately need to arrive at some level of binding agreements for players, at least on an annual level. I know that causes the whole employee thing to rear its head, but programs need to be able to plan on an annual basis.

At a minimum, if kids decide to leave for greener pastures after having already signed, they will need to pay buyouts similar to coaches. These roster moves at the last minute cause massive ripples and will ALWAYS hurt the smaller programs with less $$

Tennessee is going to find a QB from somewhere, and then that program will be stuck or need to poach from elsewhere; it will never end without someone being empty-handed at the end.
 
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