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 Transfer Portal Commits

1) DB Lavon Williams (January 4th, 2026)
2) DL Carter Janki (January 4th, 2026)
3) QB Katin Houser (January 4th, 2026)
4) ATH Maurice Smith (January 5th, 2026)
5) C Jake Renfro (January 5th, 2026)
6) OL Christian Martin (January 5th, 2026)
7) WR Jayshon Platt (January 5th, 2026)
8) LS Zach Haber (January 6th, 2026)
9) WR Ty Robinson (January 7th, 2026)
10) Edge William Holmes (January 8th, 2026)
11) WR Alex Perry (January 8th, 2026)
12) DB Deuce Fillmore (January 9th, 2026)
13) LB Robert Edmonson (January 9th, 2026)
14) DL Connor Sullivan (January 11th, 2026)
15) K Ethan Moczulski (January 14th, 2026)
16) DL Isaiah Thomison (January 17th, 2026)
17) DL Darrell Prater (January 20th, 2026)


2026 Illini Football Recruiting

Illinois Signs 30 on National Signing Day, Completes Top-Rated Class in Program History (fightingillini.com)


2027 Illini Football Commits

1) QB Kamden Lopati (July 27th, 2025)
 
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#4      
AirTran
Mr. Tibbs said:
one wonders if we will see any high - med 3* players committing to G5 schools in order to start right away & set themselves up for a transfer for $$ after a year or two
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Trying to understand. When you are speaking to a potential transfer, you have seen every play he has been involved with and spoken to most coaches who coached against him. What does star ranking (which is based prmarily on HS recruiting rankings) have to do with a player's transfer value? The number of snaps, his PFF, how his team played, his reference and team needs are what drives the clearing price, not some contrived star rating from media outlets.
 
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#5      
Mr. Tibbs
AirTran said:
Trying to understand. When you are speaking to a potential transfer, you have seen every play he has been involved with and spoken to most coaches who coached against him. What does star ranking (which is based prmarily on HS recruiting rankings) have to do with a player's transfer value? The number of snaps, his PFF, how his team played, his reference and a teams needs are what drives the clearing price, not some contrived star rating from media outlets.
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his hs star ranking has nothing to do with his transfer value

but his hs ranking often indicates where he will be as a frosh in college - rarely if ever playing as a lineman at a P4 school . so pretty hard to have any transfer value until after soph or rs Jr year , whereas he might be able to play right away at FCS or G5 level & transfer for $& sooner
 
#6      
STLflyinIllini
Mr. Tibbs said:
one wonders if we will see any high - med 3* players committing to G5 schools in order to start right away & set themselves up for a transfer for $$ after a year or two
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really interesting to see what happens going forward. If I'm a QB who is confident I can play right away, I would be tempted to go to a G5 school and try to dominate for a year or two and then get paid via the portal. If I'm a lineman who has the traits of a high prospect but needs to add strength, I'd be tempted to go to a big program with the best S & C resources for a year or two, then if I don't earn playing time, transfer down and try to dominate, then transfer again to get paid.
All of this will also depend on how much the big programs are paying HS recruits.
 
#7      
AirTran
Mr. Tibbs said:
his hs star ranking has nothing to do with his transfer value

but his hs ranking often indicates where he will be as a frosh in college - rarely if ever playing as a lineman at a P4 school . so pretty hard to have any transfer value until after soph or rs Jr year , whereas he might be able to play right away at FCS or G5 level & transfer for $& sooner
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Understood - but star rankings are not great predictors of performance ratings. We have several players in the NFL - not many were highly ranked.
 
#8      
the juiceman cometh
#9      
Mr. Tibbs
players arent going to school for a business degree.
they are all taking generic majors so where they take their classes doesnt matter.
for a large portion of them , its now a chance to get playing time and add value to their resume to get paid BEFORE the real pros, as most wont get to the real pros anyway.
 
#10      
Mr. Tibbs
AirTran said:
Understood - but star rankings are not great predictors of performance ratings. We have several players in the NFL - not many were highly ranked.
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we are not disagreeing at all.
just stating that some players on the P4/G5 margins might be tempted to start at G5 now , just to get experience quicker so they can get paid sooner
hs rankings simply are indicative of the on the margin guys

guys like Quinyon Mitchell , first round picks outta G5, wont exist anymore
 
#12      
AirTran
Mr. Tibbs said:
we are not disagreeing at all.
just stating that some players on the P4/G5 margins might be tempted to start at G5 now , just to get experience quicker so they can get paid sooner
hs rankings simply are indicative of the on the margin guys

guys like Quinyon Mitchell , first round picks outta G5, wont exist anymore
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Very true. But BB likes to refer to us a "develpmental program." Clearly we are going to use a rotational system in the front 7, so unless the next Jer 'Zhan Newton is in the mix we are looking at players getting 25 - 30 snaps a game. BTW Jer 'Zhan was a mid *** star recruit. I don't think rotational players command the same amount of money as Gabe Jacas. Hence why most (other than Angelo McCollum) saw better opportunity elsewhere. Similar to David Olano, McCollum's move clearly had some economic incentive we could not contend with.
 
#13      
TentakilRex
The thesis of this video is that the last two* National Champs plus Indiana has a roster of many 4+ year players with a ton of freshmen while having few 2nd and 3rd year players. It is very, very first look.


 
#16      
Mr. Tibbs
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
We're still looking into DLineman, right?
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we are far from done - they are never done

now , school starts tomorrow, so the time to get guys enrolled for spring semester & spring practice is ending real soon .

at some point, new additions won’t be part of that - but if these guys are 4th yr or grad students, it doesn’t matter that much that they participate in that
 
#19      
Simeon Rice
Username said:
The Dlinemen discussion was what the QB search started out as and has similarities to Bryce Hopkins and AJ Storr pursuits. Hopefully it goes like the first one and not the last two (although not landing AJ Storr hasn't worked out too bad for us).
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The issue is there aren't any AJ Storrs or Bryce Hopkins left in the portal. And, at this stage, we kinda need both (and maybe a LB and edge too)
 
#20      
Username
yeah - we are looking for Kylan Boswell, Marcus Damask, TSJ level incoming transfers, but at this point I'd settle for Quincy Guerier (no slight to QG). I fear there are more Omar Paynes left out there than anything. I do have a lot of faith in BB's ability (maybe even higher than my faith in BU) to manage the program correctly so I'm sure we'll be ok.
 
#21      
bigcityillini
How about a guy from like wake forest who played 300 snaps with like a 72 PFF grade. And then a guy from a big 12 school with like 3 sacks last season.
 
#22      
Fly Illini Fly!
Right now it's quantity over quality when it comes to the DL. Sure also need a proven starter, but we need depth and guys to suit up who are NOT underclassmen.

I like our secondary and the pieces we have on offense.
 
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