The goal of the Illinois football team right now is to build a great class of 2018. There are still some big fish out there for the Illini to snag as well.
Illinois already has a solid bunch of players coming in for 2018 led by four-star recruit Calvin Avery. He is rated as the No. 192 player in the nation. This has been one of the most impressive gets by an Illini head coach since the early Ron Zook days.
I don’t think Lovie and the Illinois coaching staff is done there, though. There are still some big-time players that are available. One target that I have been keeping my eye on for quite some time is Dallas Craddieth.
Craddieth is a safety out of Hazelwood Central High School in Florissant, Missouri. He is a high three-star recruit who is the No. 515 player in the class of 2018. I honestly believe he would have ended up with Nebraska if they wouldn’t have fired their head coach but they did.
There are only two official visits set up for Craddieth right now. He is going to be visiting Iowa on December 8 and then Illinois is the next weekend. According to an article by Josh Helmholdt of Rivals, Indiana and Minnesota might be getting two of his final three visits. He is a big target for the Illini – especially since the Pat Nelson transfer – and I want to see him in Orange and Blue in 2018.
Another player who just came available after his decommitment from Florida State is Verdis Brown. He is a four-star offensive lineman from Chicago, Illinois but transferred down to IMG Academy to hone his skills. He is ranked as the No. 173 player in the class of 2018 as well.
Brown was a priority target for the Illini before his commitment to the Fighting Jimbo Fishers, but since there has been so much speculation on the coaching situation down there, this enabled a few players to back out.
Back on July 14, Brown committed to Florida State and then only took two official visits. He visited the Seminoles on October 6 and then took an official to Illinois on October 28. He is now back on the market and I look for the Illini to be real players in his re-recruitment. He would be a starter day one on the Illinois offensive line.
Next: Good, bad and ugly from Wake Forest loss
There are also more players the Illini are after. Keep an eye on the Twitter feeds for more information because things are about to get a lot more interesting.