Illinois Football: Antonio Doyle schedules Illini official visit

When Antonio Doyle reopened his recruitment, the Illinois football program was toward the top of his list of teams he was eyeing.

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.

Originally, there were so many teams jockeying for position with Doyle. This kid is one of the most coveted defensive players in the country. But Missouri ended up landing him as he announced his commitment back on June 8 after an official visit.

Something changed in the span of about three months, though. Doyle didn’t see Missouri as a fit anymore and reopened his recruitment on August 29. With four official visits left, Doyle needed to find four teams that he was comfortable with. It looks like he has three of the four visits already setup.

On Wednesday, Carl Reed, head coach of Lutheran North, posted on Twitter that Doyle has scheduled three of the four official visits he has left. He will be visiting Oklahoma on September 28, Texas A&M on October 12 and then he will make a trip to Champaign to visit Illinois on October 19. The final official visit hasn’t been finalized, according to Coach Reed’s tweet.

If Illinois wasn’t a serious contender for Doyle’s commitment, they wouldn’t be involved in his official visits. I believe we are right in the running here for multiple reasons.

I would imagine the great connection with the Missouri recruiting base has to be attractive for Doyle. Illinois currently has six players suiting up from the state of Missouri and another three already committed for the class of 2020.

Another big draw for the Illini is their coaching staff. Illinois’ defense is now coached by Lovie Smith, who helped develop NFL linebackers like Brian Urlacher and Lance Brings, among others. His coaching ability and knowledge of the game has to be enticing.

I also look at playing time availability. Illinois is going to need more linebacker help moving forward. Dele Harding is gone after the 2019 campaign. After the 2020 season, both Milo Eifler and Jake Hansen will depart the program. That means the current Illinois starting linebackers will all be gone entering the 2021 campaign.

Can you just imagine, Shammond Cooper and Antonio Doyle as bash brothers in the middle of that Illinois defense? Mix in our other great linebackers like Khalan Tolson and we will have one of the best linebacker corps in the country. Needless to say, the Doyle recruitment should be priority No. 1 for the Orange and Blue.