Illinois football tapping into Wisconsin market with latest scholarship offer

The class of 2026 isn’t in full motion yet, but the Illinois football team is now eyeing an offensive lineman from Wisconsin.

There is still plenty of work left for the Illini in the class of 2025. We don’t have nearly enough commitments, and the national ranking is outside the top 50. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work on future classes at the same time.

Illinois will need to continue stacking talent on top of talent if we want to win games and continue competing at a high level. That means getting players like Samuel Simpson in the door.

Simpson is a 6-foot-4, 285-pound offensive lineman from River Falls High School in Wisconsin. He doesn’t have too much recruiting coverage on him, but 247Sports lists him as a three-star recruit who is the No. 42 interior offensive lineman in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 2 player coming out of Wisconsin.

247Sports hasn’t evaluated Simpson fully, nor the class of 2026. But you can kind of tell how good a kid is by the scholarships he has early on in his recruitment.

On Wednesday, Illinois joined a slew of other programs in offering Simpson a scholarship. Some of the other teams to eye this kid include the likes of Wisconsin, Kansas, and Iowa State, to name a few.

Illinois football likes offensive linemen from the colder states to put on the front lines

Bret Bielema is someone who knows the offensive line or really any line of scrimmage. He has produced quite a few talented linemen in his time as a head coach.

When you look at the Illinois roster, especially with the offensive line, you will notice that the vast majority of talent comes from states in the north.

You have quite a few offensive linemen from the state of Illinois. There are a couple of them from Missouri and Indiana. Most of our starters or players who have gotten quality snaps are Melvin Priestly (Missouri), Josh Kreutz (Illinois), Josh Gesky (Illinois), and Brandon Henderson (Illinois).

So, Bielema targeting an offensive lineman from Wisconsin isn’t surprising. That is a state he knows, and a position he loves. Look for Illinois to make a push for Simpson over the coming year or so. This is a recruitment I would keep an eye on.