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Illinois Football: Top 3 running back targets for the Illini class of 2021

By Rees Woodcock

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS - NOVEMBER 02: The Illinois Fighting Illini helmet on the field after a win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Memorial Stadium on November 02, 2019 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS - NOVEMBER 02: The Illinois Fighting Illini helmet on the field after a win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Memorial Stadium on November 02, 2019 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
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Illinois Football
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – NOVEMBER 04: An Illinois football helmet sits on the field before the start of the Big Ten Conference game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Purdue Boilermakers on November 4, 2017, at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The Illinois football team needs to continue reloading for the future of the program.

The class of 2021 is the main focus for Lovie Smith and his coaching staff. Illinois is coming off a season where they hit the six-win mark and became bowl eligible for the first time in a few years. We need to take this momentum and produce a great group of recruits for the upcoming class.

On top of needing to build on the momentum, Illinois will also be losing a lot of talent after the 2020 campaign. While the class of 2020 didn’t need to be a big one because we weren’t losing much from 2019, we will have a lot of seniors this upcoming season. That means the class of 2021 needs to be special at the top and deep throughout.

There are a ton of positions we need to focus on as well. I will put out the top targets for multiple positions over the coming weeks. For this one, I wanted to focus on the running backs. The state of Illinois is rich with talent at running back for 2021. The Illini need to take advantage of this fact.

Here are the top three running back targets for the Illini in 2021.

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