Illinois Football: Illini trying to get into the mix for a top 150 recruit

Illinois football is trying to land a big fish late in the recruiting cycle for the class of 2023.

It isn’t late for the 2023 class as far as commitments go, but by offering a player right now, it is going to be tough to get in the mix. The Illini actually have a great start to the class of 2023. We rank No. 55 in the nation with two commitments. Kaden Feagin is a four-star who is the No. 240 player in the nation. Antwon Hayden is a three-star who is the No. 790 player in the nation. These two are a great start to what could be a special class.

But adding more talent to the class of 2023 is important. Illinois needs to find more players who want to suit up for the program. In the next month, we will have numerous players on campus for an official visit. Hopefully, we can make up some ground and eventually get Markis Deal to come see what Illinois has to offer.

Deal is a 6-foot-4, 290-pound offensive lineman from Naaman Forest High School and resides in Garland, Texas. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 131 player in the class of 2023. He is also the No. 5 interior offensive lineman in the country and the No. 26 player coming out of Texas.

On Saturday, Illinois entered the recruitment of Deal. He announced on Twitter that Illinois had extended him an offer. I love the offer by the Illini, but we now join roughly 40 other programs that have also offered the talented lineman.

Illinois football needs more top-level offensive linemen on the roster.

Bret Bielema is currently on his second full class as the head coach of the Illini. In his first class, 2022, he managed to put together the No. 46 ranked class in the country.

Out of the 2022 class came seven offensive linemen, which was needed badly after nearly every starter departed the program. Bielema was smart about the seven offensive linemen he brought into the program as well.

Two of the offensive linemen, Isaiah Adams and Zy Crisler, were junior college transfers, so they already have experience. We saw in the spring game the impact both players are going to have on the Illinois offensive line in 2022.

Four out of the other five offensive linemen who are coming to Illinois as freshmen are all ranked inside the top 1100 in their class. Two of those four players, Joey Okla and Magnus Moller, are both ranked inside the top 1000.

Having a player like Deal, who is inside the top 150, would be great for the Illini. He would join a solid offensive line unit that is building by the class. Deal would also come to a program with a head coach in Bielema who also coached some great college and NFL talent.

Bielema helped develop offensive line talent like Joe Thomas and Kevin Zeitler. Illinois also just had two offensive linemen get picked in the 2022 NFL Draft. The development ability of Bielema is evident. Illinois would be a good landing spot for a player like Deal. Hopefully, over the coming months, he sees that too.