Illinois Football: Illini extend offer to 2022’s DJ Wesolak

The offers just keep on rolling in for the Illinois football team, targeting multi-positional 2022 prospect DJ Wesolak in its latest recruiting surge.

Wesolak becomes one of the latest Illini targets for the 2022 class, as the Orange and Blue offered the defensive end and linebacker February 2. A four-star recruit, Wesolak hails from Boonville, Missouri, and plays for Boonville High School.

At 6-foot-6, 235 pounds, Wesolak has a frame that is difficult for many offensive lines to compete with. So much so that as Missouri’s No. 11 best player overall, Wesolak has gotten plenty of interest from around the country.

Including the Illini, Wesolak has looks from Vanderbilt, Arizona, Cal, Indiana, Oregon, and Notre Dame, to name a few. Even with the ever-changing state of the global pandemic, Wesolak was able to complete his junior season.

The Pirates finished 6-4 while posting a .500 mark in Tri-County play at 3-3. The team’s record was good enough for a playoff berth, as the Pirates were eliminated in the second round by Blair Oaks, a team that had defeated them during the regular season by a score of 54-14.

In conjunction with the loss, however, the Pirates managed to win four of its final five games, which may lead to a sign of things to come in the fall of 2021.

As for Wesolak himself, he has showcased his ability to change games at any moment in time, which is no more evident than from his extensive highlight package from a season ago. He has a keen eye for the ball, and while he may not make every play, he flys around and disrupts the offensive rhythm of the opposition.

His 2020-2021 season reel can be viewed below.

What would DJ Wesolak bring to Champaign?

Ever since his hiring, Bret Bielema has been prone to the emphasis of winning right away instead of finding the best talent and going through a long rebuild.

Wesolak has a throwback, hard-nosed style that can fit Bielema’s mental and physical toughness approach. A signing like Wesolak also indicates that the Illini will continue to target Midwest-based recruits in the years to come.

Only time will tell as to where Wesolak will end up, but he is definitely a player that Illinois should continue to pursue under a brand new regime.