Illinois Football: Maurice Massey narrows list to two programs

The Illinois football team made another top list on Friday afternoon.

Maurice Massey decided to cut his list down to just two programs and kept Illinois and Missouri alive for his commitment. This is huge news for both programs considering how much talent Massey brings to the table.

Massey is a 6-foot-4, 185-pound wide receiver from Kirkwood High School in St. Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 547 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 65 wide receiver in the nation.

Originally, Massey committed the Iowa State Cyclones back in December 2017. Something happened with him and that program, and he decided to decommit and reopen his recruitment on April 26 of this year.

After his decommitment from Iowa State, Massey then ended up narrowing his list down to North Carolina, Missouri, Oregon, Ole Miss and Illinois. This list has now been cut again to just the Illini and Tigers with the winner getting a great playmaking wide receiver.

Back on June 15, Massey took an unofficial visit to Illinois and then just a few days ago, he visited Missouri. He is back up in Champaign this weekend for a big recruiting visit with a bunch of the already committed recruits and targets for the future. This is a big weekend for the Illini.

Massey laid out why he picked both Illinois and Missouri for his final two. He started with the Tigers first.

“Mizzou, out of all the colleges, that’s where I felt the most connected with the coaches and the way they operate,” said Massey, “The way they throw the ball fits me best, and it’s where I feel like I’d have the best opportunity to go to school.”

The Illini were next with some similar words.

“The same goes for Illinois; I love the coaches,” said Massey, “It’s basically the same thing I said for Mizzou, they have very similar traits and Coach Corey is my dude.”

A decision is likely to come really soon as well. Massey told the Writing Illini that he plans on committing this upcoming week or the following week, at the latest. The Illini fan base is hoping for a good result out of this recruitment.

Illinois needs more wide receiver depth, especially with Isaiah Williams coming in next season at quarterback. Honestly speaking, Illinois only has one wide receiver who I can confidently say will be ahead of Massey entering 2019 and that would be Ricky Smalling. Beyond him, no one has shown me much.

With that being said, there is plenty of room on the Illini depth chart for Massey. He could be the big target for the Illini and someone they can rely on in the end zone.

Hopefully, Massey makes Champaign his home for three or four years. He is a talented wide receiver, and I would love to continue dominating the state of Missouri in recruiting.