Illinois Football: Illini make Shammond Cooper’s top 10 list

The Illinois football recruiting momentum continued on Thursday as the Illini made another top list.

Shammond Cooper announced via Twitter that he has officially cut his list down to 10 teams and included Oklahoma, Clemson, Georgia, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M and Illinois. The Illini are on this list and it is exciting for many reasons. They have a shot at this talented player who would help the defense tremendously.

Cooper is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound inside linebacker from Trinity Catholic High School in St. Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 246 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 7 inside linebacker in the nation.

Just about every team in the nation is after Cooper including the likes of Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Clemson, among others. He has now trimmed the possible destinations to just 10 teams and it will be a dogfight to see who can snag this talented linebacker.

Illinois has some things going for them in the recruitment of Cooper. They have been on him for a while now. He was offered by the Illini and then took an unofficial visit to Champaign on October 14. He also attended the Illinois junior day back in February as well. He clearly has interest in the program and on top of that, the Illini also hired his former head coach, Cory Patterson, to be the tight ends coach.

I would think Illinois’ location is a good pitch as well. They are the closest program to Cooper and this enables his family to come see him play every Saturday they are in Champaign.

The final pitch for Cooper would be playing time. He would come in and likely start day one for this team. Illinois doesn’t have depth at linebacker and the players who are currently projected to be starters in 2019 haven’t really proved much on the field. There is no doubt in my mind Cooper would be starting immediately.

Next: Top 5 recruiting targets left for Illini in 2019

It is exciting Illinois made another top 300 player’s top list. Cooper is a special talent and, hopefully, the Illini can land him and a few of his teammates for 2019.