Illinois Football: Dru Mathis likes Illini atmosphere and fan base

A great way for the Illinois football team to build their team up quicker is getting a few junior college players who can play immediately.

The Illini are currently after a handful of JUCO recruits, and one of the top players Lovie Smith and the coaching staff has their eye on is Dru Mathis.

Mathis is a 6-foot-3, 240-pound inside linebacker from Moorpark College in Ventura, California. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 44 JUCO player in the class of 2019 and the No. 3 inside linebacker in the nation. He is also the No. 8 JUCO player in the state of California.

The recruitment for Mathis continues to narrow down. He has his top five right now as he has set up all of his official visits. He has already been on official visits to UNLV, Illinois and finished up his Nebraska visit this past weekend. After that visit to Lincoln, people are saying Mathis is going to end up at Nebraska. That might not be the case, though. He still has two official visits left.

Mathis will be taking an official visit this weekend to TCU. The following weekend, he will then head to Baylor to visit the Bears. That will be the end of his recruitment. But, up to this point, it seems like Illinois and Nebraska are in the lead for his commitment. He has a picture in an Illinois uniform as his Twitter profile, and last week he seemed to really enjoy his visit to Nebraska. So, what did Mathis like about each program?

“The coaches and atmosphere of Nebraska were crazy,” said Mathis, “same with Illinois.”

It makes me nervous when I hear a recruit talk about atmosphere. Illinois does have a great atmosphere, but Nebraska has had 368 consecutive sellouts. That is hard to beat. What sticks out about each program, though?

“Honestly, I would say they are pretty even,” said Mathis, “they both have money, and both have a good fan base.”

Mathis continued on talking about the fan bases for both teams.

“Nebraska fan base is pretty crazy, but I know Illinois’ fan base is pretty strong as well,” said Mathis.

The fan base and atmosphere are important to Mathis, and he makes that clear with his statements to the Writing Illini. That is tough to compete with, but I know the Illini fan base is one of the best in the country. As a member of this fan base, we want to win just as much as the next fan base. That is why we need a player like Mathis to join the program.

Mathis does have two more visits slated, though. What would he be looking for during the visits to TCU and Baylor?

“Coaches, education, opportunity and players,” said Mathis.

It will be interesting to see if Baylor and TCU can get in the race for Mathis. I think either Illinois or Nebraska will end up landing the kid. Mathis did tell the Writing Illini that there is not a commitment date in mind. But, I would assume that decision is coming not too long after his final visit on November 30.

Illinois needs more talented players like Mathis to join the team. He would see time immediately as depth is always a concern at linebacker for the Illini. Hopefully, we had enough firepower in our pitch to land this talented playmaker.