Illinois Football: A top in-state recruit has locked in Illini official visit

A big in-state recruit is eyeing the Illinois football program, and he has now scheduled an official visit.

When Bret Bielema took over the Illini program, he made a commitment to recruit state of Illinois kids. This had been something that the previous staff lacked greatly. We weren’t targeting players in our own backyard.

I also saw a post by Max Preps that had where every player who was selected in the 2023 NFL Draft went to high school. The state of Illinois had the fifth-most NFL Draft picks. That is a lot of NFL talent in our home state.

On Tuesday, the Illini inched closer to potentially landing a player who could see his name called one day in the NFL Draft. Eddie Tuerk took to social media to announce two official visits he will be taking. He is heading to Evanston to visit Northwestern on June 2-4, and then he will head to Champaign to see Illinois on June 9-11.

Illinois football needs to nail this official visit because Eddie Tuerk is a big-time difference-maker

There are always recruits who I think are must-gets for Illinois each season. They don’t have to be the top players in the country, but they are solid recruits who would show that the Illini are starting to win back some of the recruiting market share.

Tuerk is one of those recruits. Coming out of Lyons Township High School in Illinois, Tuerk is a three-star recruit who is ranked as the No. 468 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 42 defensive lineman in the country and the No. 11 player coming out of Illinois.

The recruiting attention Tuerk has received over the last year or so is quite impressive. He has a scholarship offer from teams like Tennessee, Michigan, and Miami (FL), to name a few. With those big names on the board, and Illinois getting an official visit, it raises the stakes for us to land him.

At 6-foot-4, 255 pounds, I would imagine Bielema wants Tuerk to play a JJ Watt role on the Illinois football team in 2024 and beyond. He has that physical strength to shed off any opposing offensive lineman. With another year in the high school ranks, I am excited to see how he develops.

Illinois is going to need more defensive linemen in the near future as well. We are pretty talented heading into the 2023 campaign, and there is a ton of experience. But behind that experience isn’t much.

On the roster for 2023, Illinois has nine defensive linemen, and seven of those nine defensive linemen are juniors or seniors. Illinois does play a 3-4 defense, so we are way more reliant on our linebackers, but the well is kind of dry when it comes to having a few big boys up front to stop the run. This makes the Tuerk recruitment that much more important.

I love that Illinois is right in the mix for one of the best in-state recruits. Tuerk is going to be a big-time player at the next level, and I want him to stay local. This is a big recruitment for Illinois in my eyes.