East Coast offensive tackle locks in Illinois football official visit

Having a dominant offensive line is something the Illinois football team should strive for every season.

Over the past few years, I have been less than impressed with most of the Illini offensive line. We have had a couple of good pieces, but there have been some massive holes in the front five.

Bringing in and developing big-time talent on the offensive line will be crucial to the success of the program. That is why landing someone like Marlen Bright would be huge.

Back on February 15, Bright narrowed the scope of his recruitment down to just seven teams. The seven programs to make his top list included North Carolina, Texas A&M, Syracuse, Stanford, Tennessee, Penn State, and Illinois.

Bright is now setting up official visits to see where he wants to end up playing. On Thursday, it was announced that Bright would be taking one of his official visits to Illinois. He will be visiting Champaign on the weekend of April 11.

This would be another nice get for the Illini. Bright is a 6-foot-6, 260-pound offensive tackle from DePaul Catholic High School in New Jersey. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 521 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 45 offensive tackle in the country and the No. 8 player coming out of New Jersey.

Illinois football still has a top 10 recruiting class, but we need to add more offensive line talent

The haul Bret Bielema has added for the 2026 class is pretty impressive. We have nine commitments thus far, and our national recruiting ranking stands at No. 7 in the nation.

Finishing in the top 10 would be a dream, but adding a layer like Bright would help the cause. He would also do wonders to an offensive line that hasn’t done much building in the class of 2026 just yet.

Illinois has one commitment from the offensive line thus far. Landen Von Seggern pledged his commitment to the Orange and Blue back in mid-January. He will likely suit up at one of the guard roles for the program.

Getting someone who can protect our future quarterback’s blind spot is going to be extremely important. Bright has great quickness off the line of scrimmage. He has good footwork, and his strength is impressive. He is the type of player Bielema can mold into an All-Big Ten caliber offensive lineman.