Illinois football still showing love to top 100 Ohio State commit

While the Illinois football class of 2025 might seem like it is at a standstill, the program isn’t nearly finished.

I’ll be the first to admit, the Illini haven’t had a ton of luck when it comes to the 2025 class in the past couple of months. We have 13 commits and a national recruiting rank of No. 66.

Bret Bielema and the Illinois coaching staff are nowhere near finished, though. We are still months out from the early National Signing Day, and the transfer portal is always a good option to get microwave players.

Illinois seems to be still pursuing a big-time recruit as well. On Sunday, Tarvos “TJ” Alford II posted on his social media account a video of Illinois’ coaching staff wishing and then singing happy birthday to his mom.

The thing with Alford is that he has been committed to Ohio State since early March. But there are plenty of signs that Illinois still thinks we can reel this massive recruit into Champaign.

While Alford is currently committed to the Buckeyes, he was open to taking official visits after his commitment. He visited Columbus first in May. He then took a trip to Illinois and UCF in June. Alford is slated to make a stop at Florida State in mid-September as well.

So, Illinois has pursued Alford for a while. He took an official visit to Champaign a couple of months ago. And now the coaching staff took the time to put a video together to send to Alford to wish his mom a happy birthday. The fact they know his mom’s birthday is impressive, let alone the fact they put together a video. That shows, to me, that Illinois thinks there is a legitimate shot we can pull this kid in.

Flipping Tarvos “TJ” Alford II from Ohio State would be huge for the Illinois football program

The fact Illinois still believes we are in the running for Alford is a big deal. This kid is one of the elite players coming out of high school. He is a four-star recruit who is ranked as the No. 72 player in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 8 linebacker in the country and the No. 11 player coming out of Florida.

The Vero Beach High School product would see immediate playing time with the Illini as well. Illinois has focused on bolstering the defensive line and outside linebackers, but we don’t have a ton of depth at middle linebacker.

Dylan Rosiek and Kenenna Odeluga are both juniors, and they are our starters for 2024. Both will depart after the 2025 season so that leaves Alford to start in 2026.

As for right now, there isn’t a backup middle linebacker that has blown me away. That could change during the 2024 campaign, but I believe Alford would come in and be the primary backup from day one behind one of the two starters. He would then take the starting job as a sophomore.

This kid is extremely impressive, and I hope Illinois continues to make a push. Alford needs to be wearing Orange and Blue in 2025.