The Illinois football team has had a long history of putting defensive ends into the NFL and them having successful careers.
You can look back to the 1990s with Simeon Rice tearing up the college ranks for the Illini and then getting picked in the first round of the 1996 NFL Draft. The Arizona Cardinals took him with the third overall pick. More recently, you can look at Whitney Mercilus who was picked by the Houston Texans in the first round in the 2012 NFL Draft. Jihad Ward was picked in the second round and Dawuane Smoot in the third round. The history of Illinois putting defensive ends into the NFL is there.
Illinois has some solid pass rushers on the team right now. Players like Isaiah Gay and Ayo Shogbonyo should provide some experience for the Illini this upcoming season. Let’s also not forget about the defensive end talent that is coming in from the class of 2019 as well.
Three of the top six commits from the class of 2019 are all defensive ends. Defensive line coach Austin Clark has done an amazing job with recruiting top defensive linemen. Moses Okpala, Keith Randolph and Seth Coleman are all top 900 players from the class of 2019. These three recruits should be able to come in and see starts this season.
The future is extremely bright for the Illini at defensive end. Before the class of 2019 came in, I was kind of worried about depth at the position. Now I am much more comfortable with what we are going to see on the football field. This shouldn’t deter defensive end recruits, though.
There are two big-time defensive end recruits who have their eye on the Illini. Both Noah Arinze and Joe Moore are focuses for the Orange and Blue in the class of 2020. They both bring amazing skill to the table and could be the Bash Brothers for the program in the future.
The Illini offered Arinze back in March and then he visited the team in April. He is a three-star who is ranked as the No. 512 player in the class of 2020. Moore came to Illinois in April on the same visit as Arinze. During that visit, the Illini offered him a scholarship. He is a three-star recruit who is the No. 408 player in the class of 2020.
Let’s hypothetically say both Arinze and Moore commit to playing for the Illini. This would give the program amazing depth and the ability to focus on other areas of the defense. Illinois would be able to trot out five defensive ends from the class of 2019 and 2020 who would all be top 1000 recruits. That is an impressive grouping.
This Illinois program is starting to build into a contender. The front lines are where you have to start building, though. Lovie Smith and his coaching staff have done a great job in accomplishing this goal. This program is a sleeping giant that is about to be awake.