Illinois Football: Illini land in top 5 for elite Missouri wide receiver

Illinois football is in the middle of building a tremendous class of 2023.

As of right now, the Illini rank No. 32 in the country for the 2023 class. We have 12 commitments on the board, and hopefully, more are soon to join.

There have been numerous 2023 recruits who have already used an official visit to check out the Illinois campus. One of those players is Fredrick Moore.

On Friday, Moore took his recruitment to the next step. He decided to cut his top list down to just five teams. The five programs that make the top list included Minnesota, Cincinnati, Michigan, Texas A&M, and Illinois.

Moore only has two official visits off the board right now. Illinois was his first visit back on June 3, and then he took a visit to Michigan on June 10. While the Illini did get his first visit, the Wolverines are favored to land the talented wide received with a six out of 10 confidence by 247Sports.

Landing Moore would be big for the Illini. He is a 6-foot, 175-pound wide receiver from Cardinal Ritter College Prep and resides in St. Louis, Missouri. Moore is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 491 player in the class of 2023. He is also the No. 61 wide receiver in the nation and the No. 12 player coming out of Missouri.

Adding Fredrick Moore would give Illinois football an extremely deep wide receiver corps.

The ramifications of Illinois landing Moore would be big. At No. 491 in the class of 2023, Moore would be the second-highest commitment for the Illini. He would be second to running back Kaden Feagin, who is a four-star and ranked as the No. 257 player in 2023.

Beyond the quality of player Moore would bring to the Illinois roster, he would also add to an Illini wide receiver corps that Bret Bielema has clearly focused on building.

In the 2022 class, Bielema landed five wide receivers, two of which were top 800 recruits. Illinois has had numerous weak spots on the roster over the past decade. Wide receiver has been one of those weak spots. Bielema is changing that, though.

Moore would add to this talented group of five wide receivers who will be on display this season. Reloading the wide receiver position every year is extremely important, and our coaching staff realizes that.

Hopefully, Illinois can turn that top five into a commitment from Moore. He would be one of the best players for the Illini and a wide receiver who would see early playing time in Champaign.