Illinois Football: Trevon Sidney gives stability to Illini WR corps

In the midst of all of the Tiger Woods action on Sunday, the Illinois football team received some great news on the offensive side of the ball.

Trevon Sidney announced on Twitter that he has decided to commit to play football for Lovie Smith and the Illini. He is a graduate transfer from the University of Southern California and will help the Illini immediately. This makes the second USC graduate transfer to commit for Illinois in the last few days. The other transfer the Illini landed was defensive end, Oluwole Betiku Jr.

Coming out of high school, Sidney was rated pretty well. He was a four-star recruit who was the No. 143 player in the class of 2016 and the No. 26 wide receiver in the nation. He was also the No. 21 player in the state of California as well.

Sidney ended up picking USC over teams like Michigan, Notre Dame and UCLA, among others. He came into the USC program and redshirted in 2016. During his 2017 redshirt freshman campaign, Sidney had a chance in play in nine games for the Trojans as a backup wide receiver. This past season, he ended up playing in four games and caught seven passes for 104 yards. He is now with the Illini and has two years of eligibility remaining and can play right away.

Let me first start off by saying, wow, this Illinois coaching staff has done a great job with recruiting graduate transfers. We are becoming a destination and not a joke anymore. I would imagine Illinois snagging these players has something to do with Austin Clark, who was on the USC staff for a while before making the jump to Champaign.

Secondly, this is a huge pickup for the Illinois wide receiver corps. Honestly, I was extremely nervous about what I was going to see this season out wide. There aren’t a lot of players who have shown me trust with the ball. I think Ricky Smalling will make a jump. It would be nice to see Edwin Carter healthy again. I am also excited to see what Kendall Smith has after his move back to his natural position. But, I am not completely comfortable with any pass catcher we have.

Getting a player like Sidney gives this Illinois football team another weapon on the outside. He will be a great target for whatever quarterback wins the starter job this fall. This Illini program is building one brick at a time. I have to give the coaching staff all the credit in the world. They are doing a great job winning the offseason.