Illinois Football builds Texas pipeline with Calvin Avery

Last night was huge for Lovie Smith and the Illinois football team.

The recruitment of the class of 2018 has been solid so far. Lovie has snagged good three-star recruits but what puts a class over the top is their four and five-star commitments. Lovie just landed his first four-star recruit for 2018.

Calvin Avery had a press conference to choose the program he will be committing to yesterday. This decision came down to Colorado, Oklahoma, USC, TCU and Illinois. That means the Illini beat out Colorado and TCU teams who are traditionally good programs, and they beat out Oklahoma and USC who are ranked No. 8 and No. 4 in the nation, respectively.

On the surface, this was a huge commitment for Lovie and the Illini. Just the fact they beat out that many good teams for this talented defensive tackle shows that Lovie and his coaching staff have pull and they are building something special in Champaign. In addition to Illinois beating out those great teams, they also just received a great player as well.

Avery is a 6-foot-2, 310-pound defensive tackle from Bishop Dunne High School in Dallas, Texas. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 188 player according to 247Sports and the No. 190 player according to Scout in the class of 2018. He is also the No. 18 defensive tackle in the nation.

Illinois now has 12 commitments for the season after Avery pledge his services for 2018. So far that is a solid group of players that I am sure will continue to grow with quality commitments over the next seven months. It is also clear what Lovie’s recruiting focus is as well.

Yes, getting players from the state of Illinois is important and winning the state will help win games. I have preached this often, but what Lovie is doing is amazing. Not only has he snagged players from the state of Illinois, he is also creating a solid pipeline to the states of Florida and Texas.

Florida has always been somewhat of a pipeline during the Ron Zook era but when Tim Beckman took over I feel like that pipeline dissolved. Lovie is bringing that back and it is really starting to gain some momentum. He is also doing great in the state of Texas, which is awesome for the program.

Texas hasn’t been a pipeline in the past. This is a talent rich state that can prove to be a game-changer for the Illini moving forward. Getting a player like Avery, as well as his teammate Kievan Myers, is huge for Illinois football.

Lovie has also worked hard on going after the in-state recruits as well. With this recruiting momentum in full-force, look out for some of the top in-state kids, like Luke Ford, to potentially come to Champaign.

Next: Top 5 non-conference games of all-time

One domino has fallen in the recruiting game and more are bound to follow. Watch out Illini fans, we could have a special class coming in next season.