Illinois football bolsters the secondary with elite transfer portal addition

Illinois football is fighting the transfer portal, and we landed a big punch on Sunday.

It has been a rough ride in the transfer portal thus far for the Illini. Entering the weekend, the Illini had 22 outgoing transfers and only seven players coming into the program. A handful or so of those departing players happened after the spring game as well.

But Bret Bielema isn’t going down without a fight. This past weekend bore some fruit, as Illinois was able to pull in a former three-star kicker. While this doesn’t seem like a huge deal, Ethan Moczulski will help on special teams greatly.

The big transfer portal snag of the weekend wasn’t a kicker, though. On Sunday, Terrance Brooks announced on his social media account that he had ended his transfer portal recruitment and committed to Illinois.

Coming out of Little Elm High School, Brooks was a four-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 82 player in the class of 2022. He was also the No. 10 cornerback in the country and the No. 16 player in the state of Texas.

Every big program wanted Brooks. His official visits were to Texas, Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, and Oregon. At the end of the day, he ended up picking the Longhorns as his landing spot.

As a freshman, Brooks had nine tackles and three pass deflections. He started to blossom as a sophomore, as the talented cornerback finished the 2023 season with 20 tackles, six pass deflections, and three interceptions.

Terrence Brooks is the type of transfer portal get the Illinois football team had to have

I am used to Illinois landing solid players who will help with depth. Building out the depth on the roster is important, but so is landing playmaking difference-makers. That is what Brooks is going to be for the Illini.

At 6-foot, 200 pounds, Brooks is going to immediately start for the Illini. Entering the 2024 campaign, I was pretty worried about the Illinois secondary. This was a major point of emphasis in the five areas Illinois needed to address in the transfer portal article I wrote a few days ago.

The Illini have now addressed that issue. I think Xavier Scott is likely to get a starting cornerback job alongside Brooks. These two should form a solid duo. If Illinois goes with a nickel look, I expect Kaleb Patterson, Tyler Strain, and Jaheim Clarke all to fight for snaps.

Adding Brooks was huge for the Orange and Blue. This shows that we are still fighting in the transfer portal. The Illini secondary has a chance to be pretty good in 2024.