Illinois Football: Floor and ceiling for the class of 2018
It is hard to predict exactly where the Illinois football team will end up being ranked in the class of 2018.
Right now, the team currently sits at No. 67 in the nation with 12 players committed; six two-stars, five three-stars and a four-star recruit. Despite the low ranking right now, this is a great group of players who will help the program get back to a bowl game in the next couple years. But the question remains, how high can this Illinois team climb in the rankings?
One of the main reasons they are so low in the rankings is because of the quantity. They only have 12 commitments and these sites take into account the number of commits. An example of this is Arkansas State ranked No. 60 but they don’t have a four-star recruit. They do have 16 other players committed, though.
Lovie Smith will eventually fill in the roster and hit that magical 25 recruit mark. This alone, with the talent already committed, would put Illinois likely around the 50-55 range. That isn’t terrible but it is not as high as I would like.
Illinois still has a wide range of players left on the board, though. Four-star tight end Luke Ford is available and seems to like the program a lot. He is the No. 136 player in the class of 2018. Defensive end Ronnie Perkins would also be a nice addition. He is a four-star recruit who is ranked No. 239 in the class of 2018.
So, there are some big names still out there for the Illini to snag. They have the ability to bring in this type of talent because one four-star already signed up from Texas. In addition to these big-time players having the potential to come to Illinois, they also have a lot of three-star recruits eyeing Champaign as well.
With that being said, and the fact Illinois can still land some four-star recruits, I think their ceiling is likely No. 30 in the class of 2018. That would be the highest ranking since the beginning of the Ron Zook era. The Illini need to land a few more of those four-star recruits, though.
Next: Reaction to new Scout.com 2018 player rankings
Overall, I think the floor for this team is No. 55 and the ceiling is No. 30. Hopefully, it is more toward No. 30 but the fact Lovie landed a top 50 class last year and is likely to do the same in 2018 gives me great hope for the future. Consistently solid recruiting is how you build programs and that is what is happening in Champaign.