Illinois Football: Top 10 Recruits the Illini Need to Snag for 2017

The Illinois Football team continues to recruit a wide range of players for the class of 2017.

Building the Illini program up to where it needs to be will take time and getting highly rated recruits.

Illinois is currently after some decent players that would benefit the team in the future.  Here is a list of 10 recruits the Illini need to snag for the class of 2017.

Developing the Illinois football offense is clearly a priority for Lovie Smith and Garrick McGee. They are focusing on building the wide receiver core to where it needs to be.

A piece to that championship puzzle might be wide receiver, Cartrell Thomas.

Thomas is a 3-star wide receiver out of Lancaster, Texas.  He is listed as the No. 849 player in the class of 2017 and the No. 110 player in the state of Texas.

Getting Thomas would be a nice pickup for Lovie considering he had 15 scholarship offers from solid programs.

But, just a few months ago, Thomas took to Twitter to announce that he had cut his list down to just six programs.

Those six programs that are still alive in the recruitment for Thomas are Colorado, Texas Tech, Texas State, Utah, Boise State and Illinois.

All of these programs are still alive for Thomas’ commitment, but I did want to just point out that according to Scout, Illinois had the only camp that he attended.

I don’t know if that would matter to Thomas or his decision, but more exposure to the Illini program and coaches the better.

Illinois needs a player like Thomas.  He is clocked at running a 4.6-second 40-yard dash and I think he would be a perfect slot receiver in the future.