Illinois Football: Illini target Antonio Doyle Jr. is winning on and off the field

Big things are happening with the Illinois football program on and off the field.

The winning is fun to watch as a fan. Illinois has put together two-straight wins, one being over No. 6 Wisconsin. This has moved the Illini to 4-4 on the season, which is only two wins shy of making a bowl appearance. But winning this season is doing something else for the program. It is validating all of the words that have been said to recruits over the past couple of years.

There seemed to have always been promises of the future with Illinois. The team wasn’t good but the future was going to hold wins and the team was going to start trending upwards. That trend started to happen, and Illinois is now putting W’s on the board.

Before we started winning this season, Lovie Smith and the Illinois coaching staff was still able to bring in some solid talent. Some of these players are helping the team today. But I always had the mindset, if we start winning games just imagine the recruits we will land. Well, the relationship this coaching staff has built and the winning that is starting to come puts us right in the crosshairs for Antonio Doyle Jr.

Doyle is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound outside linebacker from Lutheran North High School in St. Louis, Missouri. He is rated as a four-star recruit who is the No. 142 player in the class of 2020 and the No. 10 outside linebacker in the nation. He is also the No. 4 player in the state of Missouri.

Back on August 29, just shy of three months after committing to Missouri, Doyle decided to reopen his recruitment. Since then, he has taken three official visits. He visited Oklahoma on September 27, Texas A&M on October 11 and Illinois was his most recent visit on October 18. But could his list be cut to just three teams right now?

You have to take everything with a grain of salt on social media, but recent tweets by Doyle include hashtags for Texas A&M, Missouri and Illinois. No other teams are included in his tweets. This could be a sign he is down to just three teams who are vying for his commitment. This is all bigger than just football for Doyle, though.

Doyle welcomed his first child into his life just a little over a month ago. This is a big responsibility for a young athlete, but Doyle is taking it in stride and this has been a blessing for the talented linebacker.

“I was hella pumped, the world was at my hands,” Doyle told the Writing Illini.

This blessing delayed his start to the high school season but, obviously, life is a priority over football. Doyle hasn’t missed a beat, though. He returned the field and his Lutheran North team continues to impress each and every week. They finished the regular season with a perfect 8-0 record and are ranked as the No. 6 team in the state. Now the Crusaders head into the class 2a state championship with their first game against Grandview.

Doyle will eventually finish up his high school career with Lutheran North. He is going to commit to a program sometime in the near future as well. I want him to come to Illinois but, more so, I want him to do what is right for him and now his family. Doyle is currently winning on and off the field. I want to see that continue through every chapter of this kid’s life.