Illinois football adding a wrecking ball defensive lineman from the transfer portal

Illinois football is adding another defensive lineman from the transfer portal.

This offseason has been crazy for the Illini. We have gone through a major change on the roster, as 22 players have entered the transfer portal.

Bret Bielema has done a solid job replacing this talent with incoming freshmen and transfer portal players. Defensive line was a major point of concern entering the offseason.

Illinois lost the entire starting defensive line from last season. Bielema went out and snagged Dennis Briggs Jr., Enyce Sledge, and Anthony Johnson from the transfer portal. Since then, Johnson has re-entered the transfer portal.

Still needing to patch some holes on the defensive line, the Illini weren’t done scouring the transfer portal to help the front lines.

On Wednesday morning, Matt Zenitz of 247Sports reported that Illinois is expected to land defensive lineman Gentle Hunt.

Coming out of Gainesville High School in Florida, Hunt was a three-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 1414 player in the class of 2020. He was also the No. 104 defensive tackle in the country and the No. 189 player coming out of the state of Florida.

Florida A&M ended up being his landing spot. Thanks to COVID, Hunt’s career started in 2021. In the past three seasons, he has played in 32 games for the Rattlers. His best season came in 2023 when Hunt finished with 32.0 tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, and 1.0 forced fumbles. He made the All-SWAC second-team defense in 2023 as well.

The addition of Gentle Hunt from the transfer portal continues to stabilize the Illinois football defensive line

I was worried about the Illinois defensive line entering the 2024 season. That was before Johnson transferred out. Without Johnson, the Illini defensive line was tremendously shallow.

The front three entering Wednesday was projected to be Dennis Briggs Jr. and Alex Bray on the ends of the defensive line. I would then have TeRah Edwards anchoring the nose tackle position.

Behind these three is Sledge who should be the second-string nose tackle. After that, Illinois literally has five freshmen who will see snaps this season.

I think Hunt can play any of the three positions on the defensive line. While he is undersized at 5-foot-11, 290 pounds, I think he has great speed. This kid is a wrecking ball and will cause chaos in the opposing backfield.

My guess is that Edwards and Sledge will continue to man the nose tackle role. Briggs is a solid starter. Bray and Hunt rotate equally throughout the game, which creates fresh legs. That is what I see happening in 2024.