Illinois Football: 2024 lineman picks Illini over Wisconsin, Oklahoma

We are now two days after a big recruiting weekend, the Illinois football program has landed another commitment.

Coming into Tuesday, the Illini had 12 commitments and a national recruiting ranking of No. 44 in the country. This was a good start to the class of 2024, and the group continues to get stronger by the week.

Among the recruits who have already pledged to the Illini include a few defensive linemen. Players like Eddie Tuerk, Demetrius John, and Angelo McCullom will all be valuable pieces to the Illinois defense in the coming years. But Bret Bielema isn’t done adding to the trenches on the defensive side of the ball.

On Tuesday morning, Joe Barna took to social media to announce that he was ending his recruitment and committing to Illinois.

Illinois football landing Joe Barna is showing that we can beat some big-time programs in a recruiting battle

Barna is a 6-foot-4, 240-pound defensive lineman from Wheaton North High School in Illinois. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1166 player in the class of 2024. He is also the No. 113 defensive lineman in the country and the No. 26 player coming out of Illinois.

The recruiting battle for Barna was tough. He had numerous scholarship offers with some of the bigger programs including Oklahoma, Iowa State, and Wisconsin. The Illini were able to show this talented defensive lineman that Champaign was the place to be.

Opinion

Clearly, Barna is better than his No. 1166 ranking. If you have the teams I mentioned above, along with Purdue, Washington State, and Kansas, all vying for your services, that screams top 1000 recruit.

There were a lot of programs coming after Barna, but Bielema was able to keep him in-state. That is something that the previous coaching staff would not have been able to do. These are the type of recruits that tend to bolt for other programs.

When I watch Barna play the game, he reminds me more of an EDGE than a defensive lineman. He has tremendous speed and great vision for where the ball is going. His ability to shed a blocker is extremely impressive as well.

If Barna does play on the defensive line, I see him as an end rather than on the nose. He is someone who is going to cause a lot of chaos for opposing offenses. Honestly, I am shocked he isn’t a top 1000 recruit. I think the recruiting sites missed on this one.