Illinois Football: Elite in-state athlete picks Illini over Tennessee & others

The commitments are coming fast and furious right now, as the Illinois football team has landed another in-state recruit.

This past weekend was the start of official visits for the class of 2024. The Illini hosted numerous players and will continue this process throughout the rest of June.

Bret Bielema and his coaching staff had a chance to show these talented players what the Illinois program was all about. He was able to get recruits in the building to convince them that Champaign was the place to be and guess what? Bielema’s pitch worked.

Illinois started landing commitments on Sunday, and it hasn’t slowed down since. Midway through Monday, the Illini had six commitments with the most recent being Eddie Tuerk. Well, that clock can reset again, as we have landed another pledge.

On Monday, Tysean Griffin took to social media to announce that he was committing to the Illini. Illinois is loading up on quality talent.

Tysean Griffin is another great in-state commitment for the Illinois football program

Griffin is a 5-foot-11, 165-pound athlete from Morgan Park High School in Illinois. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 481 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 43 athlete in the country and the No. 11 player coming out of Illinois.

There were numerous teams eyeing Griffin. He has roughly 19 scholarship offers, and the vast majority were from power-five programs. But Illinois was able to get Griffin in the door and snag his commitment.

Opinion

Bielema and the Illini are on a roll right now. Griffin now joins Tuerk as the highest-rated recruit in the Illinois class of 2024. We have seven commitments right now, and five of those players are top 1000 recruits.

I am curious to see where Illinois has Griffin lined up. This kid can do everything on the football field. Offensively, he is similar to Isaiah Williams. He can lineup at wide receiver but then become a running back on jet sweeps and other plays of that nature.

On defense, Griffin can be a lockdown cornerback. He has the speed to keep up with any wide receiver in the country. Overall, I think Griffin is a special talent who will see snaps from day one. Bielema just got an extremely versatile player for 2024.