Illinois Football: Illini hosting freshman All-American transfer portal DB

Illinois football is in serious contention to land one of the hottest transfer portal players on the market.

When a program starts winning games, the players get more notoriety and attention. This is what happened with the Illini. We had eight wins in 2022 in large part due to the great talent on the team. Some of the important pieces from that team have now departed for the NFL.

Illinois had four NFL Draft picks and numerous undrafted players who signed with NFL teams. These departures left holes on the Illinois roster, specifically in the defensive backfield. Losing Devon Witherspoon, Sydney Brown, and Quan Martin to the NFL Draft is a big blow. We need to fill the voids left by these three departing defensive backs.

That is why landing someone like Demetrius Hill would be such a big get for the Illini. He is a talented safety from Florida International who played one season and entered the transfer portal. On Friday, Hill took to social media to announce that he was in Champaign vising the Illinois program.

Landing Demetrius Hill out of the transfer portal would greatly elevate the Illinois football defense

Coming out of Miami Springs Senior High School in Florida, Hill was looked at as a solid player. He was rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 991 player in the class of 2021. He was also the No. 78 safety in the country and the No. 123 player coming out of Florida.

Hill had a few options entering the college ranks, but he would choose FIU as his landing spot. After a redshirt year in 2021, Hill would bust onto the scene this past season with 95 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 forced fumbles, 2.0 pass deflections, 1.0 interceptions, and 1.0 sacks.

Hill’s great numbers as a redshirt freshman earned him a spot on the Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-American Team. Likely wanting to show his talents at a higher level and win more games, Hill is now looking for a new home and has his eyes on Champaign.

I see Hill coming in and starting from day one. Obviously, he is going to have to compete for a starting job, but Illinois has a bunch of unproven talent, so I don’t see much in the way of a freshman All-American earning the starting nod.

Landing Hill would be big for the program. I think we take a little bit of a step back on defense in 2023, but if we can land Hill, that step won’t be a very big one.