Illinois Football: Bryce Childress eyes Illini official visit
The Illinois football team is starting to build a great connection with many high school football programs in the nation.
Illinois continues to mine for players in the states of Florida, Texas and California, among others. They have done a great job in creating pipelines to these states. One of the other states that could pay dividends is Missouri.
The state of Missouri has a lot of talented players coming out of the class of 2019. Illinois has done great work building a foundation of recruiting trust with players from this state. Bryce Childress is one of the players who continues to look at the Illini as a possible destination as well.
Childress is a 5-foot-9, 155-pound wide receiver from Trinity Catholic High School in St. Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 1138 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 22 player in the state of Missouri.
The Trinity Catholic ties continue to get stronger for the Illini. They were already in the mix for a lot of their talented players and after hiring their head coach, Cory Patterson, to be the tight ends coach of the Illini, the connection seems to be getting strong. Childress expressed that connection when asked what makes Illinois an attractive destination.
“Just the love, former head coach (Patterson) over there and the coaching staff,” said Childress.
Childress had a chance to visit Champaign back in October of last year, and then he attended the Illinois junior day back in February. This is likely not the last time you hear about him visiting the Illini, though.
“I think I am going to come up there Thursday or Friday for an unofficial,” said Childress, “I am most definitely going to take an official, but I haven’t planned anything yet.”
The recruitment of Childress really started to heat up over the last five or six months. He went from a talented player with little notoriety to having a few handfuls of scholarships all from pretty big programs. The most recent offers are from Louisville, Nebraska and Kansas.
There is no doubt Illinois is going to have to fight for this kid to come to Champaign. Childress has a cut on his mind, though. He told the Writing Illini a cut to his list will be coming soon. He does want Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Toledo and Kentucky on the list for sure. He also wants Oregon State and Memphis in there too but they have yet to offer him a scholarship.
Childress has a lot to sort out with the offers he has and what programs fit him the best. He has options and that is the best thing for a young kid wanting to make it big at the next level. But, the Illinois coaches aren’t the only ones fighting to get this kid into the Orange and Blue.
“Yeah Quez (Marquez Beason) been on it,” said Childress, “He’s very serious about this and he’s basically like look let’s take over the Big Ten. We can really change the game with this so right now he’s done a good job trying to get guys onboard.”
Next: Top 5 recruiting targets left for Illini in 2019
There is a high possibly the class of 2019 turns out to be one of the best in program history. Illinois has one player committed already who happens to be a top 60 recruit in Beason. He is also helping recruit talented players like Childress. It is exciting to see what is happening with Illini recruiting. Childress would be a great addition to what should be a special class.