The Illinois football team suffered their first decommitment from the class of 2018 on Tuesday night.
Antwain Walker has pulled away from the program and will be playing college football somewhere else next season. He is a three-star cornerback from Oswego East High School in Oswego, Illinois. He is ranked as the No. 1602 player in the class of 2018 and the No. 46 player in the state of Illinois.
Losing players is not fun for the recruit and the fan base. I hate to see players decommit for one reason or another. Illinois could have used someone like Walker on the team to help create some depth at the cornerback position. I hope nothing but the best for him moving forward.
I’ve de committed from the university of Illinois, therefore I reopen my recruitment.
— Antwain Walker (@antwainwalker2) December 5, 2017
On the team side of things, this decommitment won’t hurt the program that bad. He isn’t a highly rated recruit and he likely wouldn’t have started in the foreseeable future. Illinois actually had some nice development from their young cornerbacks this past season.
I was really happy how Nate Hobbs progressed throughout 2017. He started off a little shaky but finished the season off well. He ended up playing in all 12 games for the Illini and even started 10 of those contests. I have full confidence in this kid at cornerback moving forward.
Hobbs’ freshman running mate was Tony Adams. He was on the same trajectory as Hobbs to start the season but then went down with an injury. He ended up missing the final seven games of the season but still got two starts in and played in five total games. He will be another one to watch for some starts in 2018.
Illinois has a few others who will be solid backups for this two moving forward as well. Walker was the only cornerback the Illini had committed for 2018, though. I am sure they will add some more but they currently only have 13 commits for next season which has them ranked No. 66 in the nation.
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It hurts to see Walker go and I hope nothing but the best for him. But, this program will move on and will continue to improve. I can’t wait to see who Illinois can snag next.