Illinois Football: Chinedu Udeogu picks Illini as landing spot
By Jalen Wilson
The Illinois football staff is still doing a great job in the transfer market as they landed another transfer on Saturday evening.
This Illini coaching staff is still making moves. They landed transfer defensive tackle Chinedu Udeogu. Udeogu is a graduate transfer who used to play for California but decided to look for a new home to finish up his college career. This was a huge commitment that the Illini landed.
Udeogu took to Twitter to announce that he was committing to the Orange and Blue. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive lineman was rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1901 player in the class of 2016 coming out of Georgetown Preparatory School. He was also the No. 44 player in the state of Maryland.
Now Udeogu is 6-foot-4, 275 pounds, which transitions well into the defensive tackle role. He spent four years at Cal. During his freshman year, he recorded six total tackles while only playing in five games. In his sophomore year, he played eight games and recorded 13 total tackles. During his junior season, he played one game and recorded one tackle. But he didn’t play his senior year due to injury.
While at Cal, Udeogu played multiple positions. He was able to get experience at defensive end, linebacker and tight end. But he did confirm to Jeremy Werner of 247Sports that he was going to play defensive tackle at Illinois.
Udeogu’s role on this team will be big. Since Jamal Milan, Tymir Oliver and Kenyon Jackson have departed, the Illini will be looking for defensive tackles to step up. Udeogu will be joining a young defensive line. All in all, I believe this was a good land for Illinois.