Illinois Football: TJ McMillen gives Illini another in-state commitment

Illinois football had a pretty big weekend with another top recruit pledging to the program.

Entering the weekend, the Illini had two players committed for the class of 2023, but those two players have been committed since late March. There was a bit of a dry spell for the Orange and Blue the last couple of months, but that all changed on Saturday.

On Saturday, TJ McMillen announced via his Twitter account that he was committing to the Illini. This was a huge pick-up for Illinois and one that puts the program inside the top 50 for 2023.

McMillen is a 6-foot-3, 270-pound interior offensive lineman from St. Francis High School and resides in Wheaton, Illinois. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 726 player in the class of 2023. McMillen is also the No. 51 interior offensive lineman in the nation and the No. 14 player coming out of the state of Illinois.

The commitment happened quite quickly. On Saturday morning, two different 247Sports analysts put in a Crystal Ball Prediction for the Illini, and then hours later, McMillen pledged.

TJ McMillen gives Illinois football another top-tier player for the class of 2023.

Getting a commitment from McMillen is huge for the Illinois football program. On paper, this is a great addition. McMillen is the No. 726 player in 2023, so the Illini now have three top 1000 recruits. It used to be a struggle to stack up top 1000 players, but it seems that Bret Bielema is able to recruit well when it comes to this type of talent.

An underrated aspect of Illinois’ class of 2023 is where the commitments are coming from. Not only does Illinois have three top 1000 recruits, but they are all from the state of Illinois. That gives Illinois back-to-back recruiting classes with at least three top 1000 recruits from the state of Illinois. That hasn’t happened since the class of 2008 and 2009.

McMillen’s commitment also gives the Illini more offensive line help moving forward. I love what I saw from newcomers Isaiah Adams and Zy Crisler in the spring game. They will be mainstays in the offensive line for the next couple of seasons. Jordyn Slaughter is poised to have a big year as well. But there isn’t much depth on the offensive line, and most of the talent is at least a junior right now.

Illinois is going to need replacements and depth in the next couple of years. That is where McMillen steps in. He is a huge addition to this program, and don’t be surprised if he sees starts early on in his career.