A huge surge in recruiting gives Illinois football a great early National Signing Day

It has been a wild last few weeks, as the Illinois football program made a splash in the recruiting game.

Nov 16, 2024; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema gives a hand to players before the game against the Michigan State Spartans at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images
Nov 16, 2024; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema gives a hand to players before the game against the Michigan State Spartans at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Images | Ron Johnson-Imagn Images

I am not someone who runs and hides from the opinions I have had in the past, and I have a doozy about the Illinois football program.

Back in July, I wrote an article about how the Illini class of 2025 is struggling. The article was titled “Transfer portal might be needed to save the Illinois football class of 2025.”

In fairness to myself, at the time of the article, Illinois had the No. 57 class in the country with 13 commitments, and honestly, there weren’t a ton of options on the table.

Over the coming months, Bret Bielema went to work. The coach has his flaws, like everyone else, but he has been able to go out and recruit his butt off, along with the great group of coaches he has assembled.

On Wednesday, early National Signing Day kicked off, and Bielema had a great day. He finished the day with 21 commitments and a national recruiting ranking of No. 43 in the country.

Bielema is on pace for another top-50 class, which would give him four in a row. In 2022, Illinois had a freshman class that ranked No. 46 in the nation. In 2023, we ranked No. 38. And in 2024, we ranked No. 49 in the country.

A top 50 class in 2025 wouldn’t have been possible without the past few weeks of recruiting. It has been a great run for the Illini, and it was capped off with a huge flip on Wednesday.

Just in the past month, Illinois has landed three out of their top seven signees. But there has been a myriad of commitments in this time frame.

It all started with Illinois flipping offensive tackle JJ Hirdes and cornerback Tywan Cox. Bielema was then able to flip linebacker Grant Beerman and offensive lineman Dylan Frechette. And on Wednesday, Illinois flipped running back John Forster. Those were five huge recruiting flips from this coaching staff.

Altogether, Illinois added six commitments in the past four weeks. That is a massive transition for the class of 2025 and one that will pay dividends down the road.

The class of 2025 is the deepest recruiting class Bret Bielema has brought into the Illinois football program

At the end of the day, no one really knows who is going to pan out and who is going to flame out. Recruiting is a tough game, but with recruiting, you have to go with what is on paper.

Illinois’ class of 2025 is quite impressive when you look at the 247Sports Composite Rankings. This lays out where each player is nationally.

Bielema has four recruiting classes under his belt right now with the class of 2025 still finishing up in the coming months. He was tasked with building Illinois from the ground up, so I give him a bit of a pass for the first recruiting class in 2022.

With that said, Illinois’ recruiting has gotten deeper and deeper each year. In 2022, Illinois had nine out of the 26 commitments rank inside the top 1000 nationally. The following two recruiting classes saw a slight bump from that, as the 2023 class had 11 top 1000 recruits and the class of 2024 had 10 top 1000 recruits.

With all 21 commitments signed and a couple of months until the regular National Signing Day, Illinois already has 14 top 1000 recruits onboard. That is a number that Illinois hasn't had in a long time.

Not only is the quantity where it needs to be for Illinois to be competitive, but now we are starting to get the caliber of player into the program that is needed. Bielema has Illinois football competing on and off the field at a high level.

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