The Illinois football team has really been hammering the state of Florida lately when it comes to recruiting.
Florida used to be a pretty big recruiting state during the Ron Zook era. The Tim Beckman era then focused on the Ohio area. The start of the Lovie Smith era really focused on the state of Texas. Now it looks like this coaching staff is going to start focusing on Florida more as well. One of their most recent offers was to DeAngelo Taylor. He announced on Friday that he had received a scholarship offer from the University of Illinois.
Taylor is a 5-foot-11, 190-pound cornerback from Tampa Catholic High School in Tampa, Florida. He is rated as a three-star recruit who is the No. 984 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 85 athlete in the nation. He is also the No. 120 player in the state of Florida as well.
I know there are players who are outside the top 1000 in recruiting rankings who end up being good, but I tend to want Illinois to focus more on top 1000 players. That is how I judge a recruiting class. The fact Taylor is a top 1000 player makes me happy. He also has a ton of recruiting attention as well, and that is always a good thing. That means this kid has talent.
Taylor has, roughly, 21 scholarship offers right now. Illinois is one of the bigger programs, but he also has offers from teams like Arizona State, Duke and Iowa State as well. This will be a tough recruitment for the Illini to get into.
Illinois always needs more cornerback depth. Adding a player like Taylor would be great for this defense. The Illini have Marquez Beason and Joseph Thompson coming into the program. Beason will be a starter as long as he is with the program, and Thompson will likely see playing time early on in his career.
The depth just isn’t there for the Illini right now. I like what we are building in the secondary, but if one player goes down, there isn’t the quality depth at the position to not miss a beat. The talent that is there is getting older too. Nate Hobbs is going to be senior in 2020. I have Tony Adams switching to safety this year. Quan Martin got a lot of playing time last season, and he is going to be a junior in 2020.
There is plenty of room for Taylor to come into the Illinois program and make an impact early on in his career. The Illini need depth and that is what he would provide.