Illinois Football: Illini extended offer to top 50 recruit Erick Young
Tuesday was very active for the Illinois football coaching staff. They gave out scholarships to a select group who could help the program succeed moving forward.
An offer the peaked my interest for multiple reasons was the one to Erick Young. Young is a 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback from Fort Bend Bush High School in Richmond, Texas. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 24 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 4 cornerback in the nation.
I realize there are some pipe dream scholarship offers every team hands out. These are the players that have relatively no shot at coming to your program. Most of the time, that would be the case with the offer the Illini extended to Young. He is a top-level recruit who has offers from a wide range of programs including the likes of Alabama, Auburn and Ohio State.
Illinois started in late on Young’s recruitment and to put the team even further behind the eight ball, he actually already cut his list down to 10 teams back on February 20. Of course, Illinois wasn’t included partially because they weren’t pursuing him and partially because just look at the list. All ten teams are insanely good right now.
Even after all of that, for some reason I still have some hope maybe just maybe Young could include the Illini in his top five. I know that sounds weird. But, according to his top 10 post, he will be cutting his list down 40 days from when he posted that tweet. That would make his top five cut on March 31.
I am probably reading a little too much into this, but usually, when a player gets an offer by a team they aren’t interested in they tweet out they are blessed and then that is it for the mentions of that program. But, Young’s case seems different. He is retweeting a few people including Illinois tight ends coach Cory Patterson. He also tweeted out that he had a great conversation with Patterson as well.
In addition to talking with Patterson and seeming interested in the Illini, he also witnessed another top recruit from the state of Texas commit to Illinois just in the last week. Marquez Beason picked the Illini and he is a top 60 player in the class of 2019.
Next: Top 5 recruiting targets left for Illini in 2019
Listen, I realize it is a long shot. Illinois has to get on Young’s radar first. They seem to be creeping in on his recruitment which is a great thing. Getting Young would be huge for the program. I am not going to hold my breath, but the fact they can make an impact on this kid already is a great sign.