Ohio starting to become a hotbed for Illinois football recruiting

Certain coaching regimes have certain states they like to recruit in, but for the Illinois football program, the map is wide open.

Under Bret Bielema, the Illini have been able to win some solid in-state recruiting battles that we never used to win. Keeping kids home is a challenge, but he set out to achieve a goal and has done a good job doing so.

It is also interesting to see the states Illinois has been working on and has had success with during the Bielema era. One of those states is Ohio, as of late.

On Wednesday, Illinois was able to land one of the best players in the state of Ohio. Parker Crim took to social media to announce his decision to commit to the Orange and Blue.

Crim is a 6-foot-3, 235-pound edge from Elida High School in Ohio. He is rated as a three-star recruit and has a composite ranking of the No. 845 player in the class of 2026. 247Sports also has him as the No. 49 edge in the country and the No. 24 player coming out of Ohio.

Illinois has also been able to secure another talented Ohio player in the class of 2026. Cam Thomas, a linebacker, committed to Illinois back in early February. According to 247Sports’ ratings, both Thomas and Crim are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, among all of the Illinois commitments for 2026.

Bret Bielema is loading up the Illinois football defense for the future

Landing Crim was big for the Illini. He had double-digit scholarship offers, with Iowa State being the biggest contender for the talented edge defender.

Illinois is doing an impressive job loading up the roster with defensive talent, too. While some of the recruits are bound to transfer, Bielema is making sure we won’t lack for depth in the future.

The top four commits for the Illini are all defensive players. Almirian Thomas, a cornerback, is the top recruit. Thomas and Crim are No. 2 and No. 3, and then you have another edge in Jacob Alexander out of Illinois, who rounds out the top four.

I fully expect the Illini to be nasty on the defensive side of the ball moving forward. We have the coaching staff that can develop the recruits, and now we are getting the quality of players who can go from good to great in a short amount of time. I love what we are doing in the class of 2026.