Illinois Football: Adding Jahleel Billingsley would change Illini history
The history of the tight end position for the Illinois football team has been kind of sad.
Illinois really hasn’t had a top tier pass-catching tight end in a very long time. The John Mackey Award for the nation’s best tight end was created in 2000, and Illinois has failed to have a finalist for this award in every year of its existence.
If you start from last season and go back a decade, do you know who has the most receiving yards in a single season at the tight end position for Illinois? I will give you a moment. Okay, the answer is Louis Dorsey in 2017.
That is right true freshman Louis Dorsey, with a quarterback carousel that is comical to talk about today, has the most receiving yards in a single season in the last decade for Illini tight ends. He had 22 receptions for 395 yards and three touchdowns in 2017. No. 2 on this list is Jeff Cumberland back in 2008 when he had 20 receptions for 352 yards and four touchdowns.
Let’s just say, there is a lot of room for improvement at the tight end position. But, I think Dorsey has a chance to be the greatest tight end in program history as well. If he just has 395 yards receiving every year for four seasons in Champaign, he would accumulate 1,580 yards receiving which would put him No. 11 all-time in receiving yards and No. 1 among tight ends in Illinois history.
The great thing about this coaching staff Illinois has right now is that they aren’t done with just Dorsey. He will become a legend with this program, but they are also after another tight end who has a great chance to be a superstar with the Orange and Blue as well.
Lovie Smith and the Illini coaching staff has been after Jahleel Billingsley for quite some time now. He is a four-star tight end who is ranked as the No. 258 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 9 tight end in the nation. This kid is also 6-foot-5, 225-pounds. He has a chance to come in and start immediately as well.
I can’t express to you how excited I am about the possibilities of having Dorsey on one side of the offensive line and Billingsley on the other side. Dorsey has supreme talent and then you add a top 300 player like Billingsley. I am wondering who they will double team and who will be left one-on-one with a linebacker who is slower or a defensive back who is smaller.
Illinois has the possibility of forming easily the greatest tight end duo in program history. But, they have a chance to do something special in college football as well. They have a chance to be what Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were with the New England Patriots.
Next: Top 5 in-state recruiting targets for the Illini
Illinois doesn’t have the tight end history of some programs, but Dorsey is here to change that and the combination of him and Billingsley would rewrite record books for years come. Special things are happening in LittyvILLe.