Recruiting sites are very far apart on new 2025 Illinois football commit

While many were eating hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and shooting off fireworks, the Illinois football team was adding to its class of 2025.

Coming into the holiday weekend, the Illini sat with 12 commitments and a national recruiting ranking of No. 46 in the country. This is a great start, as we are about halfway through our commitment allotment.

Illinois continued to add to this great group of players on Thursday, as Jershaun Newton took to social media to announce that he was committing to the Orange and Blue.

Newton is a 6-foot, 205-pound athlete from Clearwater Central Catholica in Florida. He is rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 41 player in the state of Florida. He is also the No. 8 athlete in the country.

This was not an easy recruit for the Illini to win. We had to compete with some big boys of the college football world, as teams like Florida State and Miami (FL) were coming after Newton. Illinois ended up winning out, though.

The recruiting sites are very far apart when it comes to evaluating 2025 Illinois football commit Jershaun Newton

It looks like Illinois got a good one in Newton. He is the brother of former Illini great, Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton, so there is football talent in the blood.

Newton can play many different positions as well. He is a talented defensive player, playing linebacker and safety for his high school program. But it looks like, according to Jonah Puls of Rivals.com, Newton will also get a chance at the quarterback position at Illinois.

While what position Newton plays at Illinois still gets hammered out, the one thing we do know is that recruiting sites have massive differences in opinion when it comes to evaluating Newton on the field.

Rivals sees Newton as a top recruit. As mentioned earlier, they have him as a four-star recruit and the No. 8 athlete in the class of 2025. He is also the No. 40 player coming out of Florida.

On the complete other end of the spectrum is 247Sports. They have Newton as a three-star recruit and the No. 112 athlete in the class of 2025. They also have him as the No. 160 player in the state of Florida.

I’ve seen a lot of differences of opinion over the years, but this gap is baffling. My guess is that Rivals has probably evaluated Newton much more recently than 247Sports, therefore, Newton’s ranking is up to date with Rivals.

There are too many big-time programs that were going after Newton for 247Sports to have him that low in the recruiting rankings. In addition to the aforementioned Florida State and Miami (FL), Newton also had scholarship offers from teams like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and West Virginia, to name a few.

I am excited to see what Newton can do in an Illinois uniform. This kid is a great athlete who has a chance to be a big-time player on either side of the ball.