Massive 4-star recruit has Illinois football in top 3, sets commitment date

While the news on Monday was bad with a player flipping his commitment, the Illinois football team did get some good news a few hours later.

The Illini were hopefully going to keep all of our committed players, but that was sadly a pipe dream. On Monday, we had a three-star running back who decided to flip to Alabama. That is all a part of the recruiting game, though.

Just hours later, after the bad news, Illinois then received some much-needed good news. JC Anderson took to social media to announce that he has narrowed the scope of his recruitment to just three teams. The three programs to make the cut were Ole Miss, Auburn, and Illinois.

A decision date was also set. Anderson will be making his pick on Tuesday, July 1, at 11:00 a.m. CT at Mt. Zion High School.

This is a massive recruitment for the Orange and Blue. Andreson is a 6-foot-6, 230-pound tight end who is the No. 147 player in the class of 2026. He is also the No. 8 tight end in the country and the No. 3 player coming out of the state of Illinois.

It is all speculation, but I would give Illinois football the edge in the JC Anderson sweepstakes

If this recruitment were just three or four years ago, I doubt Illinois would win. In the past, we had always been in the running for recruits, but when the final decision was made, we were always left standing at the altar.

This time around kind of feels different. The only thing that makes me the most nervous about Anderson’s recruitment is the fact that Illinois’ official visit was over two months ago. Meanwhile, he took an official visit to Ole Miss three weeks ago and to Auburn just a couple of weeks ago. Anderson was back on campus for a camp in the past week, though.

At the end of the day, I love Illinois’ chances of landing Anderson. The Illini have shown proof of concept on the field, and we have the ability to keep up in the NIL game. Let’s pull in this top tight end and keep building for 2026.