Illinois Football: 2020 CB Dontae Manning receives Illini offer

The Illinois football team has recently been known to target Missouri recruits, but they mainly have been from the St. Louis area.

Illinois’ most recent scholarship offer is to a state of Missouri recruit, but this one is from a different part of the Show Me State.

Dontae Manning announced this past Thursday on Twitter that he had received an offer from the University of Illinois. The Illini targeting another Missouri recruit is great, but the fact this kid could come in and be an impact player on the defensive side of the ball is even better.

Manning is a 6-foot, 175-pound cornerback from Raytown Senior High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 181 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 13 cornerback in the nation. He is also the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri as well.

I don’t think I have to tell anyone that Manning is a super-talented player who has just about every team fawning over him. He has scholarship offers from teams like Michigan, Notre Dame and Oklahoma. He can now add Illinois to the list as well.

A lot of the big-time offers for Manning have come in the last month, so Illinois isn’t too far behind in this recruitment. He did tag new Illinois cornerbacks coach Keynodo Hudson in the post as well. It will be interesting to see what type of recruiting game Coach Hudson has here in the Midwest.

Honestly, if Illinois got in this recruitment, I would be a little surprised. Manning has a lot of big teams looking at him. I imagine he will eventually cut his list as well. I could see Illinois making his top 10, potentially, but this one will be extremely difficult to get into. I would love to see an unofficial visit to Champaign, though.

I like this offer by the Illini. Trying to get one of the best cornerbacks in the nation to join Marquez Beason in the secondary is a smart move. Let’s see if we can make some waves in the recruitment for Manning.