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Illinois Football: Top 5 recruiting targets for the Illini

By Rees Woodcock

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - OCTOBER 21: Head coach Lovie Smith of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 21, 2017 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Fighting Illini 24-17. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - OCTOBER 21: Head coach Lovie Smith of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 21, 2017 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Fighting Illini 24-17. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 21: Head coach Lovie Smith of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 21, 2017 at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Fighting Illini 24-17. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /

The Illinois football team had a good first day of the early signing period.

Lovie Smith and the Illini were able to sign 16 of the 17 commitments on Wednesday and the only one not to sign – Coran Taylor – says he is completely committed to Illinois but will likely sign in February.

While that makes me nervous, I am still happy with the group that ended up signing yesterday. I think there are a lot of great pieces there for the Illini to build a program that has sustained winning for the foreseeable future.

The fact Lovie can go down to Texas and pull out a top 300 defensive tackle – Calvin Avery – who is a four-star is impressive. Illinois also snagged a four-star offensive lineman in Reuben Unije who will be sensational for this program in the three or four years he is in Champaign.

MJ Rivers is going to bring a fire to this Illinois offense that we haven’t seen in quite some time as well. He is my favorite player in this class of 2018. The most underrated player in this class is likely Edwin Carter. He is a 6-foot-3 beast who will be a great target for Rivers.

But, Illinois isn’t done with the class yet. There are still a couple handfuls of players that need to be signed. That is why I put together a list of the top five targets for the Illini.

Here are the top five recruiting targets for the Illini.

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