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Illinois Football: Class of 2017 Position Grades for the Illini

By Rees Woodcock

Oct 1, 2016; Lincoln, NE, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith watches during the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers Illinois Fighting Illini in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 1, 2016; Lincoln, NE, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith watches during the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers Illinois Fighting Illini in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports /
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Illinois Football
Oct 1, 2016; Lincoln, NE, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Lovie Smith watches during the game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers Illinois Fighting Illini in the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports /

The Illinois football team managed to put together three wins last season in the first year under Lovie Smith.

Lovie didn’t know what he had on the roster and eventually changed things up throughout the year so he could see what he had for 2017.

Illinois had some talent on the roster last year, though.  Here are the players that graduated or departed the program for one reason or another.

Departures

Defensive Back: Taylor Barton, Dillan Cazley, Darius Mosely, Caleb Day

Linebacker: Hardy Nickerson, Mike Svetina

Defensive Line: Carroll Phillips, Chunky Clements, Gimel President, Rob Bain, Dawuane Smoot

Offensive Line: Austin Schmidt, Joe Spencer, Connor Brennan

Tight End: Ainslie Johnson, Tyler White, Andrew Davis

Wide Receiver: DJ Taylor, Justin Hardee, Man Berg, Zach Grant

Running Back: Ke’Shawn Vaughn

Quarterback: Wes Lunt

Punter/Kickers: Ryan Frain, David Resiner

Long Snapper: Michael Martin

There are a lot of opening day starters on this list of departures for the Illini. This has me slightly worried for the team in 2017.

But, Lovie did adjust the depth chart throughout the season and even stopped producing one before games to leave everyone a little curious on who will be out there come kick-off.

Since there is a total of 26 players departing from last year’s team, they will now have to fill those spots with the new additions.

Here are the additions from the class of 2017.

Additions

Defensive Back: Bennett Williams, Dawson DeGroot, Nate Hobbs, Tony Adams

Linebacker: James Knight, Del’Shawn Phillips, Marc Mondesir

Defensive Line: Bobby Roundtree, Jamal Woods, Deon Pate, Owen Carney, Kendrick Green, Olalere Oladipo,

Offensive Line: Alex Palczewski, Howard Watkins, Larry Boyd, Vederian Lowe

Tight End: Louis Dorsey

Wide Receiver: Carmoni Green, Ricky Smalling, Kendall Smith

Running Back: Ra’Von Bonner, Mike Epstein

Quarterback: Dwayne Lawson (Soon), Cam Thomas

This was a solid class for the Illinois football team.  They managed to get a full 25 commitments and signed 24 players.

Here are the grades of the positions and if Lovie and the coaching staff met the needs of the team.

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