Illinois Football: Erick Young talks Illini in interview with Rivals

The Illinois football team has gained a tremendous amount of recruiting momentum over the last month.

The class of 2019 has a chance to be really special. Marquez Beason started the class of 2019 for the Illini when he committed a little over a week ago. He has been on the recruiting trail since help the Illinois coaching staff try to persuade top players to come to Champaign. That is what is happening with one of the top defensive backs in the nation, Erick Young.

Young is a 6-foot-1, 195-pound defensive back from Fort Bend Bush High School in Richmond, Texas. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 100 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 10 cornerback in the nation. Getting Young would be a great accomplishment for the Illini, especially after hearing the interview he did with Nick Krueger of Rivals.

Krueger asks Young about his top schools right now and he says Texas A&M and Oklahoma are recruiting him hard. They have coaches reaching out to him almost daily. He also wants to get up to Alabama as well for an official visit. Krueger then asks who has been turning up the heat trying to get into the top 10.

Young mentions Illinois and how their coaches reach out to him every day. Krueger then mentions the win total for Illinois and asks what the Illini can do to get you to choose them. Young then responds by saying, “I really don’t know, they have to do a lot really I ain’t going to lie.”

Krueger continues on with the interview and asks if Illinois is on the short list for an official visit for Young, and he responds by saying they might be and he is still thinking about it.

There are a few things that I took away from this interview. One is that I am not a fan of Krueger essentially laughing at Illinois when the idea of Young potentially visiting and going there comes up. But, I understand the laughing because the Illini have been the laughing stock of the college football world for the last half-decade.

The other thing I take from this interview is how big of an impact Beason has had on the Illinois football program. He has these top recruits thinking of taking an official visit to Champaign when normally they wouldn’t even give the Orange and Blue a second look. This kid is a superstar on and off the field in my books.

Illinois has a lot of work to do to build the program back up to being respectable again. The foundation being built is a great step forward. All we need to do is put up some wins on the field.