To be good enough to play in the college ranks is impressive enough, but Illinois might have one of the best athletes we have ever seen come through the program in 2026.
While the Illini are still trying to hold on to a top 20 class of 2026, the lead dog in this pack is Nasir Rankin. The 6-foot-1, 174-pound athlete committed to Illinois back in May and is our best commit yet.
Rankin is a four-star recruit who is ranked as the No. 84 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 9 athlete in the country and the No. 2 player coming out of Illinois. The Morgan Park High School product will likely be a wide receiver when he enters the college ranks.
But Rankin isn’t just a stellar football player. Illinois also sees him as a solid basketball recruit, too. When he committed to the Illini, he announced that he would play both football and basketball.
Usually, you see some type of dip in production when a player plays two sports like this. Illinois has had this in the past. Someone like Walter Young was a star on the football team, and he was on the basketball roster. Young didn’t get much playing time, though.
You can also go to the other end of the spectrum. A player like Julius Peppers for North Carolina. He was a star football player and went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career. Peppers was also good at basketball, averaging 7.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game before focusing on football.
On the basketball side of things, Rankin isn’t rated or ranked nationally. He does have other basketball scholarship offers from the likes of Eastern Illinois, Grambling State, and Northern Illinois.
What piques my interest is what Rankin is going to do in his senior year at Morgan Park. We all know what he is going to do on the football field, but what does his basketball season look like? How big of numbers can this kid put up, and when or where will he crack the 247Sports rankings?
As a junior, Rankin was a big part of the Morgan Park squad. He averaged 23.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.6 steals per game. His shooting isn’t bad either, as he hit 50-of-147, 34%, from three-point range.
Rankin took those basketball skills into the summer with the KL Power 5 AAU squad. In the adidas 3SSB AAU league, Rankin averaged 14.3 points, 2.7 assists, and 2.0 rebounds per game.
What should the expectations be for Nasir Rankin when he arrives at Illinois
The numbers are pretty impressive at the high school ranks. Is he LeBron James, where he is the best basketball player in the country, and then an All-State football player? Likely, no, but no one expects him to live up to the greatest player of all time.
Could Rankin be the greatest athlete to ever come through Champaign? I think that is something to think about.
Let’s say Rankin comes in and in the first two years, he hits 1,000 yards receiving in a season and is Illinois’ biggest offensive weapon. Being a top 100 recruit in the country, that isn’t farfetched by any means.
While being the best weapon Illinois has offensively, Rankin is a good rotational player for the basketball team. He averages 15 minutes per game and puts up 7.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game.
I am sure there were athletes back in the pre-World War II era who played both sports well, but since more people have been allowed to play sports, I can’t think of the last player Illinois has had who could play both football and basketball at a high level.
There is no reason to anoint anyone yet. Rankin still has an entire high school season to play, and it will be fun to watch what he can do on the field and court. But it is starting to creep into my mind that Illinois might have the greatest athlete in program history coming to us in 2026. That is a fun thought.