Illinois Football: Illini back in the race for LB Antonio Doyle

The Illinois football team might be back in the race for a big-time recruit in the class of 2020.

Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports is reporting that Antonio Doyle has backed away from his commitment to Missouri. He isn’t fully reopening his recruitment, though. It looks like he will still consider Missouri as a destination but is also considering Texas A&M, Oklahoma, LSU and Illinois.

Doyle is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound outside linebacker from Lutheran North High School in Hazelwood, Missouri. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 136 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 11 outside linebacker in the nation. He is also the No. 4 player in the state of Missouri.

This is massive news for all of the teams involved because of how highly rated Doyle is for the class of 2020. Illinois being one of the top teams for Doyle is huge too. The Illini are already building a solid class of 2020 that features four top 400 recruits – the most recent commitment coming from James Frenchie, who is from St. Louis, Missouri.

If Illinois would be able to land Doyle, he would make for the second linebacker to commit for the class of 2020. The other commitment is in the form of a transfer in safety Derrick Smith. He departed the Miami (FL) program and has to sit out this season. But Lovie Smith says he is coming in and will play outside linebacker for the Illini.

The combination of Smith and Doyle as Illinois linebackers in 2020 would be amazing for the program. We will be losing Dele Harding after this season. Milo Eifler and Jake Hansen will both be seniors in 2020. That would leave a lot of room for playing time in 2021.

Doyle reopening his recruitment is amazing news for Illini fans. While we might not be in the lead for this kid right now, we are still in the conversation. Let’s see if this coaching staff can pull in another state of Missouri talent.