A huge win on the field was viewed by a massive Illinois football recruiting target

It was a snowy Saturday, but that didn’t stop the Illinois football team from scooping up a victory.

Northwestern came down to Champaign and was sent home with a loss. This was a great win for the Illini, marking the eighth victory of the 2025 campaign.

A big element of Illinois’ struggles in drawing in big recruits in the past was winning. While we have had recruits take a look at the program, winning has always been a big roadblock for talent to land in Champaign.

That lack of winning has subsided, and there are some quality players who have already committed to play for the program. One massive recruit is still eyeing the program, too.

On Saturday, Cameron Wagner was spotted by multiple news outlets taking in the Illinois game. Despite it being a near-blizzard and the conditions being sloppy and cold, this didn’t deter one of the biggest recruits in the country from taking in what the Illini had to offer.

Wagner is a 6-foot-6, 300-pound offensive tackle from St. Joseph-Ogden High School in Illinois. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 126 player in the class of 2027. He is also the No. 13 offensive tackle in the country and the No. 7 player in the state of Illinois.

Over the past year, Wagner has been to Illinois quite a few times. He has roughly 17 scholarship offers right now, with some of the bigger programs sniffing around being Notre Dame and Ohio State, in addition to Illinois.

Cameron Wagner showing up to the Northwestern game is great news for the Illinois football program

Everything that I am seeing from Wagner on the recruiting front seems good for the Illini. He has visited the program multiple times. He seems to really like the coaching staff as well.

I think it shows you just how much Wagner likes Illinois by the fact he shows up in this type of weather. He could have just canceled the unofficial visit and stayed home to watch the game. That wasn’t the case. He went out and wanted to freeze on the sidelines to watch Illinois play.

Carson Gourdie of WICS ABC 20 got a great quote from Wagner, too. The big offensive lineman said, “This is perfect football weather.” It is honestly probably the reason why Illinois, Ohio State, and Notre Dame are all among his top options right now.

Illinois is doing some great work with recruiting. The class of 2026 is special, and the class of 2027 has a chance to be even better. Adding Wagner would be massive for the program.