Illinois football continued to build for the future, as two more players said yes to the famILLy.
Coming into Wednesday, the Illini had nine commitments and a class of 2024 that ranked No. 42 in the country. This was a great start to what is looking like the third straight top-50 recruiting class since Bret Bielema took over the program.
Karsen Konkel got the commitment party started for the Illini on Wednesday. The 6-foot-6 tight end pledged to the program and will now be a big part of the tight end room moving forward. But Illinois wasn’t finished with just Konkel.
In a surprise move, Illinois was also able to land Vernon Woodward III. He took to social media on Wednesday evening to announce his commitment to the Illini.
Respect it I’m home🔹🔸 @coachyoyo_ @BretBielema @IlliniFootball @ChadSimmons_ @Andrew_Ivins pic.twitter.com/6FFuebppO5
— Vernon Woodward lll ⭐️ (@_vern1) June 21, 2023
Vernon Woodward III is a Big Ten shifting flip for the Illinois football program
Woodward is a 6-foot-2, 180-pound cornerback from Winter Park High School in Florida. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 911 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 75 cornerback in the country and the No. 128 player coming out of Florida.
Illinois had been one of the teams that were vying for Woodward’s commitment a month ago. He unofficially visited the program, along with a few others, so I thought we had a decent shot at landing him.
On June 4, Woodward would commit to Wisconsin. This seemed to have ended his recruitment, but there were still some official visits left. He took an official visit to Champaign on June 9 and to UCF on June 16.
Bielema tweeted that there was some good news coming on Wednesday. I didn’t think that the news would be that Woodward had backed away from his Wisconsin commitment and would flip it over to Illinois.
Illinois now has 11 commitments for the class of 2024, and this group ranks No. 37 in the country. We haven’t had a top 40 recruiting class since Ron Zook, and it has been that long since Illinois has had three straight top 50 recruiting classes.
Opinion
For the roster, this is a good commitment. Illinois lost a ton of defensive back talent to the NFL this offseason, so loading up depth in the secondary is important.
Illinois brought in nine new faces in the defensive backfield from the 2023 class. This group featured numerous safeties and transfers. Woodward will now join these talented players as a freshman in 2024. I am impressed with how quickly the Illinois coaching staff has been able to reload the secondary with quality talent.
On a recruiting level, I think this is a bigger commitment than for the Illinois roster. The Illini just stole a recruit from the Wisconsin Badgers, a football program with a ton of tradition and power. I think the Illinois coaches did a great job with this recruitment.