New Illinois football recruiting target could help build pipeline to Ohio

Illinois football is doing some big-time recruiting in the state of Ohio.

There is still plenty of work to be done to button up the class of 2025. The Illini currently sit with 13 commitments and a national ranking of No. 65 for the 2025 class. That is not good enough to compete with the big boys, so the transfer portal might be the fallback option for this recruiting period.

While Bret Bielema and the Illinois coaching staff try to pull in 2025 recruits, the class of 2026 is on their minds. The Illini have yet to land a commitment for 2026, but a wide net is being cast.

This past Wednesday, Jaeden Ricketts took to social media to announce that he had received a scholarship offer from Illinois.

Ricketts is a 6-foot, 187-pound wide receiver from Watkins Memorial High School in Ohio. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 71 wide receiver in the country. He is also the No. 18 player coming out of Ohio.

Illinois becomes the second power-four scholarship offer to the talented wide receiver. He has roughly nine scholarship offers right now, and the other power-four offer is from in-state power, Ohio State. The Buckeyes also have a Crystal Ball Prediction, as they are favored to land Ricketts.

The Illinois football team might be trying to open a new recruiting pipeline in the state of Ohio

2024 will be the first season we haven’t had Isaiah Williams at wide receiver in the Bielema era. It is going to be a big adjustment. Williams was a burner who could catch the ball in space and get past defenders. That is the style that Ricketts plays with as well.

Ricketts seems to have good hands, but his best trait is that he is a burner. He can get behind a secondary and get open. This kid has a knack for finding space in a defense.

Landing a player like Ricketts would be great for the Illini as well. We haven’t had a ton of success with recruiting the state of Ohio since Bielema took over.

In the four recruiting classes for Bielema thus far – the class of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 – Illinois has only had four commitments from the state of Ohio. Even though the state is just a hop, skip, and jump away, Illinois has been held out of this fertile recruiting ground.

This might be the start of something for the Illini, though. Landing a recruit out of Ohio could be the beginning of a new pipeline for the program. Hopefully, we can make up some ground and pluck Ricketts away from Ohio State.