Illinois Football: Illini in top 6 for 4-star Mississippi wide receiver

The Illinois football team is in the hunt for another four-star recruit who would help the team in the near future.

Bret Bielema and the Illini coaching staff have done a great job recruiting since joining the program in December 2020. The class of 2023 alone had three four-star recruits, which is a haul we haven’t seen in a long time.

The class of 2024 has also started on the right note, with nine commitments and a ranking of No. 44 in the country thus far. But Illinois isn’t even close to being done with this, potentially, great recruiting class. There are still plenty of big-time recruits still left on the board.

One of those recruits is Braylon Burnside. On Friday, Burnside took his recruitment a step further and decided to cut his top list down to just six teams. The six programs vying for his commitment include the likes of Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Illinois.

Illinois football already has a connection with four-star recruit Braylon Burnside

Burnside is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound athlete from Starkville High School in Mississippi. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 185 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 14 athlete in the nation and the No. 6 player coming out of Mississippi.

So far, Burnside visited Texas A&M back on June 2. His next official visit will be next weekend to Arkansas on June 23. With three official visits left after that, hopefully, Illinois will be able to host this superstar recruit.

Opinion

It looks like Burnside might come into the college ranks as a wide receiver. This past season with Starkville, Burnside would have 75 receptions for 1158 yards and 11 touchdowns. Who was throwing Burnside the ball?

Current Illinois commit, Trey Petty.

Petty pledged to the Illinois program back on May 4. He is a top 900 recruit and a quarterback who is going to compete for snaps from day one. The fact Bielema has Burnside’s quarterback has to play a factor in why we are in his top six.

If you have a chance, go check out some of Burnside’s clips. He is an amazing talent. He is a tactician out there on the football field. Burnside can catch the ball in space and then has the smarts to use his blockers in the right way. He also has another gear he can switch into to burn the defenders down the sidelines. Burnside reminds me a lot of Stefon Diggs.

Illinois was able to go into Starkville and land their starting quarterback. It wouldn’t shock me to see us snag their best wide receiver as well. This is a great recruiting job by the Illinois coaching staff.