Illinois Football: Illini come in with offer to 2023 athlete Kenari Wilcher

There are certain players who rise up the recruiting rankings quickly, and the Illinois football team is now targeting one of those under-the-radar recruits.

If there was one thing the Illini have been good at over the past decade it is finding diamonds in the rough. We have been able to pluck some great talent out of the pool of players who have essentially been looked over by recruiting sites. Our downfall was trying to build a program completely on those players.

But Illinois is now recruiting a Kenari Wilcher. He is a 6-foot-1, 175-pound athlete from Moore Haven JR./SR. High School and resides in Clewiston, Florida. 247Sports doesn’t have Wilcher rated or ranked, but that hasn’t stopped the kid from getting noticed by numerous college programs.

As of right now, Wilcher has roughly 10 scholarship offers on the board. The 2023 recruit already has an official visit set up to Indiana on June 24 as well. So, his recruitment is in full force.

Illinois football needs a player like Kenari Wilcher who can play anywhere in the secondary.

If you have paid attention to the Illini over the past five years, you will know that the previous coaching staff moved our secondary around a lot. An example of this was Tony Adams who started at cornerback and, I believe, moved to safety and back to cornerback a couple of times during his career.

It is nice to have players who have this versatility. I believe that is what Illinois would be getting with Wilcher in 2023.

Wilcher brings so much skill to the secondary. His vision is incredible, and this makes him a great safety. I love his footwork at cornerback. This is going to be extremely important when predicting which route a wide receiver is going to run. Wilcher tops those fundamentals off with tremendous speed. That is always a bonus in the secondary.

Illinois needs to build depth on defense. That has been lacking greatly for much of the past decade. I think Bret Bielema is going to fix that flaw with this program.