The Illinois football team kept in-state with one of their most recent scholarship offers.
Maintaining a strong defensive line is extremely important for the future of this program. Illinois has a good defensive line right now, but the majority of the middle of the line will be departing. Lovie Smith and the Illini coaching staff need to find a few solid replacements for these talented seniors. One of the future defensive linemen could be Shontrail Key.
Key is a 6-foot-7, 250-pound defensive tackle from Morgan Park High School in Chicago, Illinois. He isn’t ranked or rated by the recruiting sites, but this kid clearly has the potential to be an impact player for this program. Just purely based on his size, the framework is there.
It looks like Illinois is the first DI scholarship offer Key has received. Since the offer by the Illini, Southern Illinois has also come in with an offer. I would assume there will be a few other programs come in with offers now that we have extended one to Key. That is how it works, usually.
There isn’t a lot on Key and what he can do on the football field. The attributes that stand out to me are is strength and size. The fact he is a 6-foot-7, 250-pound football player is always a bonus. He is bigger than most of the college football players right now. With this great size comes great strength. Key is able to push through the offense line with relative ease.
I would assume Illinois is in the lead for Key considering they are his only DI offer right now. He did take a visit down to Champaign this past weekend too. After his visit, there was a tweet that reads, “I’m just so blessed I made this decision!” You can read into that tweet all you want.
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Illinois has done a great job at bringing in big players who they can shape into great college athletes. I think Key fits into this mold. Let’s see how he finishes his senior year.