An Illinois football player received some great news on Friday afternoon.
Illini tight end, Louis Dorsey, was notified that he has made the 2018 John Mackey Award Preseason Watch List. This is a list that includes the potential tight ends who could win the John Mackey Award, which is given out to college football’s most outstanding tight end.
Dorsey has earned this watch list nomination for his great freshman campaign that saw him catch 22 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns. He was also second on the team in receiving yards and led the program in receiving touchdowns. He managed to put up these numbers with a quarterback carousel as well.
Coming out of high school, I thought Dorsey was an important piece to the class of 2017. I even wrote about his recruitment and mentioned how big of a commitment he would be for the program. But, recruiting sites didn’t see it the same way. He was only listed as a two-star recruit coming out of the class of 2017. Dorsey took that low ranking, crushed it, and is now on a list of the best tight ends in the nation heading into his sophomore season.
Dorsey was important for this Illinois football team last season, but he will likely be more important in 2018. In 2017, Illinois had a few quarterbacks who actually had some experience on the football field at the college level. While these two quarterbacks weren’t Big Ten caliber passers, they still had experience.
In 2018, Illinois might not start a quarterback with experience at the college level. The two quarterbacks who do have experience – Cam Thomas and AJ Bush – haven’t lit the world on fire. Thomas threw 66 passes last season for zero touchdowns and five interceptions. Bush is transferring in from Virginia Tech, and he has only thrown 11 passes in his career but does have a touchdown.
That is it for quarterback experience, so having a tight end like Dorsey is going to be huge. The quarterback – whoever it may be – will be able to have a big target where they can dump the ball off to. He is going to be big in the red zone as well.
Next: Next 3 Illini players to get picked in the NBA Draft
Dorsey’s talent is being recognized with the John Mackey watch list. This is the first time he has donned this list, but it won’t be the last time. Dorsey is a great player and will make the team even better in 2018.