Bret Bielema lands big defensive back flip for the class of 2025

The Illinois football team isn’t going to let the basketball program get all of the thunder on Monday night.

As the Illini were awaiting the tip of the 2024-25 season, and fans were digesting the fact Ty Rodgers was taking a redshirt, news broke of a talented defensive back flipping his commitment.

Tywan Cox took to social media on Monday night to announce that he is committing to Illinois. This is a big get for the Orange and Blue because we had to pry him away from South Florida.

Cox is a 5-foot-11, 165-pound safety from Northwestern High School in Florida. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 813 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 69 safety in the country and the No. 104 player coming out of Florida.

Back in June, Cox took two official visits, one to Florida Atlantic and the other to South Florida. He then committed to the Bulls a week later. Illinois then entered the mix in late October with a scholarship offer. This past weekend, Cox tripped up to Champaign for an official visit. It looks like that visit paid off, as Cox has decided to flip his commitment from South Florida to Illinois.

Tywan Cox had a first-hand view of why he is needed on the Illinois football team

This past weekend wasn’t great for the Illini. We had a chance to knock off Minnesota and get to seven wins on the season. That didn’t happen, though. Illinois’ offense didn’t look great and the defense broke toward the end.

What was really ugly was toward the end of the game when Illinois had multiple defensive backs depart the contest. We needed someone to step up, but the loss of Xavier and Miles Scott killed the Illini secondary. There were zero answers for what the Golden Gophers threw at us.

Adding someone like Cox will help build out the secondary. He is a top 1000 recruit, which is what I look for in talented high school athletes. Cox also had a lot of recruiting attention, as he had scholarship offers from teams like Miami, Nebraska, and SMU, to name a few.

Illinois did a great job recruiting Cox. This was a big flip for the program and look for more to come in the coming months. The Illini coaching staff is doing some serious groundwork for the class of 2025.