Illinois Football: Illini secondary takes depth hit with DB transfer

After every regular season, there are always a handful or two transfers who depart the Illinois football program.

Earlier, I wrote about the Illini losing wide receiver Daniel Edwards to the transfer portal. He will be missed, and I hope finds the right landing spot. But Edwards was not the only Illinois player to decide to bolt Champaign.

On Sunday, Illinois also lost defensive back, DD Snyder II. He tweeted out that after support from his family, he has decided to enter the transfer portal. He also mentioned that he appreciated his teammates in the announcement.

Illinois football can rebound from losing DD Snyder to the transfer portal.

As mentioned in previous articles, it is not fun losing players to the transfer portal, but Illinois football isn’t in the same spot we were just a few years ago.

The current regime led by Bret Bielema has started to build the Illini with youth and then patch any holes with transfers. The previous regime did it the opposite way, and this made the program struggle greatly.

Snyder is going to be missed, but the former three-star recruit didn’t see playing time with Illinois, so there isn’t any production missing. The biggest impact his departure is going to have on the team is depth, and I am not sure he was going to get much playing time in the next couple of years anyway.

Illinois will be losing a few pieces of the secondary this offseason. Beyond the transfer portal, we have players like Kendall Smith, Quan Martin, and Sydney Brown graduating. Devon Witherspoon will also likely depart to the NFL.

But the Illini have some nice young pieces to fill in for those guys. Elijah Mc-Cantos was a top 700 recruit and will start seeing a ton of playing time in the coming years. Xavier Scott was able to cut his teeth this season with 10 games played as well. Both players are only freshmen.

I never like to lose depth, but Illinois has talent ready to step into a starting role. I wish nothing but the best for Snyder. The future of Illinois football is bright.