Illinois Football: Illini add another offensive lineman to official visit list

You can add another big piece to an already important weekend for the Illinois football program.

This weekend starts the barrage of official visits for the Illini. The class of 2024 has a chance to be pretty special, and showing these high school athletes that Champaign is the place to be is the next step in getting them into the program.

Numerous players are taking an official visit this month, and this weekend starts everything. One player who is visiting Champaign and ready to take in the atmosphere is Zafir Stewart.

Stewart is a 6-foot-4, 320-pound offensive lineman from Imhotep Institute in Philadelphia. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1034 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 74 interior offensive lineman in the country and the No. 31 player coming out of Pennsylvania.

Zafir Stewart now joins a handful of other offensive linemen who are eyeing the Illinois football program

I know that it says that Stewart is an interior offensive lineman, but with his size and strength, I see him more as a tackle in the Illinois program. He reminds me a lot of someone like Vederian Lowe.

Stewart isn’t the only offensive lineman who is checking out the Illinois program this weekend either. Joining him is Brett Carroll out of Olathe East High School in Kansas. He is also a three-star recruit.

In the next round of official visits, the weekend of June 23, Illinois has a couple of other offensive linemen coming in. Current commit Brandon Hansen is taking in Champaign that weekend. He is our lone offensive lineman commitment, and he is a three-star recruit who is ranked as the No. 1305 player in the class of 2024.

Joining Hansen that weekend will be Caleb Pyfrom. He is out of Central High School in Nebraska. Pyfrom is a three-star recruit who is ranked as the No. 675 player in the class of 2024.

The coming weeks are going to be extremely important for the future of the Illinois football program. It all starts this weekend with some big official visits.