Illinois Football: Illini one step closer to landing Tennessee athlete

Illinois football moved one step closer to landing another player for the class of 2022 on Wednesday.

Bret Bielema has already put together a solid start for the 2022 class, as eight recruits have pledged their commitment and the Illini class ranks No. 26 in the nation. But the work is not even close to being finish. There are still talented players who need a home. One of those players is Anthony Brown.

Brown is a 6-foot-2, 192-pound athlete from Milan High School and resides in Milan, Tennessee. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 474 player in the class of 2022. He is also the No. 40 athlete in the nation and the No. 17 player coming out of Tennessee.

On Wednesday, Brown decided to narrow the scope of his recruitment. He has roughly 35 scholarship offers, but there are only 12 teams still vying for his commitment. The 12 programs Brown kept on his top list included Mississippi State, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Oregon, Miami (FL), Virginia, Memphis, Arkansas, Indiana and Illinois.

Does Illinois football have a shot and where would Brown fit on the roster?

As far as the recruitment of Brown goes, I think Illinois is somewhere in the middle. I am taking what 247Sports has with a grain of salt considering Alabama and Michigan State are two of the top three schools but they didn’t make his top 12.

Brown is originally from Detroit, Michigan and transferred down to Tennessee in the spring of 2020. From the interviews I have watched of Brown, it doesn’t seem like he knows what he is going to do or what programs he is fully leaning towards. When official visits start happening in the next couple of months, that seems like when he will start making better decisions on his future.

I do believe, from the vibes I get from Brown’s interviews, that he wants to stay relatively close to Tennessee. That might mean teams like Memphis and Tennessee have a leg up on the competition. But as of right now, it feels like a pretty open recruitment.

Brown would be a great help to the Illinois football program. It sounds like he can play both wide receiver and running back at the next level. He reminds me a lot of a Percy Harvin. This kid is explosive off the line of scrimmage and can fly past any defender. Brown would get early playing time with the Illini as well.

It is exciting to see Illinois in the top 12 for this talented of a player. I think Brown will only continue to get better, and he should rise in the recruiting rankings throughout the year.