Illinois Football: Biggest surprise for the Illini on National Signing Day

Heading into National Signing Day, there weren’t too many surprises for the Illinois football program.

I would say the biggest surprise is the flip of Gabriel Jacas. There had been rumblings that the Illini might be able to flip the talented linebacker, but nothing was official until Wednesday.

Jacas is a 6-foot-3, 246-pound linebacker who was listed as an edge rusher coming out of high school. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1223 player in the class of 2022. He is also the No. 65 edge rusher in the nation and the No. 160 player coming out of Florida.

Since July 5, Jacas was committed to Tulane to play his colligate football. Illinois would swoop in with an offer to Jacas on October 15. He would then take an official visit to Champaign on November 27 and followed that up with an official visit to Tennessee on December 10.

On Wednesday, Jacas officially made the move and flipped his commitment to Illinois. A short time later, he would sign with the Illini and become one of the final pieces to the 2022 puzzle.

There were a couple of other surprises for the Illinois football team on National Signing Day.

In addition to flipping Jacas, I was also surprised by a couple of other things on Wednesday. One thing that I was pleasantly surprised about was the commitment and signing of Tyson Rooks.

Illinois had a Crystal Ball Prediction for the safety just a few days ago. They were favored in the Rooks recruitment, but he wasn’t committed until Wednesday. It was nice to see Rooks sign so we don’t have to worry about another team stealing him over the next couple of months.

And the last note I wanted to mention was the retention rate for this Illinois football coaching staff. In the past, Illinois would have two or three players flip their commitment or at minimum back away from their commitment at the last second.

Illinois only had one of those players who de-committed on Tuesday night. But the Illini replaced that player quickly with Josh Kreutz, who committed just minutes after the other player de-committed.

Those are all of the surprises I had on National Signing Day. This was a great haul and the foundation for future success.