Illinois football has been on a recruiting tear in the Bret Bielema era, and it is only heating up more and more by the day.
Over the past week, the Illini have really bumped up its recruiting stock. Landing players like King Liggins and Nasir Rankin have helped elevate the Illinois class of 2026 to the current No. 9 class in the country.
Those two recruits are extremely talented, and that is why the Illini have seen a bump in recruiting ranking. Another tie Liggins and Rankin have is that they are both from around the Chicago area. Liggins is from Oak Lawn, on the southwest side of the city, and Rankin attends Morgan Park, a Chicago staple.
Landing in-state talent is huge, but Illinois has struggled to consistently land top Chicago talent over the past decade or so. Liggins and Rankin chip into that narrative, and landing someone like McHale Blade would also go a long way in developing a strong connection with Chicago.
On Friday, Blade decided to narrow the scope of his recruitment. He cut his list down to just seven programs, keeping Stanford, Notre Dame, Michigan, Purdue, USC, Wisconsin, and Illinois alive for his commitment.
Four-star Chicago Simeon DL McHale Blade names a top seven.
— Allen Trieu (@AllenTrieu) May 23, 2025
He has officials set with five with the final two in the works.
His comments on each program here:https://t.co/evEB2y6bKb pic.twitter.com/KbJuHfsw7I
Blade is a high-profile recruit who would greatly help all seven programs. He is a 6-foot-4, 245-pound edge from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 167 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 21 defensive lineman in the country and the No. 5 player coming out of Illinois.
Bret Bielema is doing a good job in the uphill battle to recruit the state of Illinois
It is not and has never been an easy task for the Illini to secure in-state talent. Players who are elite tend to head to bigger programs or more prestigious teams that have a winning tradition. Notre Dame has always been one of the biggest threats to in-state recruits, but over the years, it has become a free-for-all.
Bret Bielema is trying to fight back, though. Even though we are multiple recruiting classes in, the class of 2026 really seems to be the first class where Illinois has a fighting chance to pull in the top players in the state.
Illinois has already landed Rankin, who is the No. 2 player in the state. We also have Davon Grant, who is the No. 11 player in the state. If we can pull in Blade, that would give the Illini two out of the top six players and three out of the top 11 in the state of Illinois for 2026.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that Mack Sutter and JC Anderson are both still uncommitted. Bielema isn’t giving up on either of these two, and I think we can still land one of them. They are two of the top three players in the state. I truly believe Illinois can land one special recruiting class in 2026, and the roots would be in-state.