Top 10 most painful Illinois football transfer portal departures of all time

5. Gabe Megginson

In college, without an offensive line, you have nothing. Illinois was starting to build some offensive line depth, and adding Gabe Megginson was supposed to be special for the program.

Megginson was a huge get for the Illini. He was a four-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 190 player in the class of 2015. Megginson could have gone anywhere, but he picked the Illini as his landing spot.

On August 24, 2015, Megginson officially enrolled at Illinois. Four days later, then-Illinois head coach Tim Beckman was fired. This started the downfall of Megginson with the program.

Megginson took a redshirt in 2015. He then started in seven games in 2016 and played in a total of 22 games in 2016 and 2017. After the 2017 season, Megginson decided to enter the transfer portal.

The landing spot for the talented offensive lineman was not too far away. He ended up picking Illinois State as his next destination. Megginson played some good football for the Cardinals. In 2018, he started in 11 games for Illinois State.

With any new head coach, a program is going to have departures. Lovie Smith lost some good players in the first couple of years. Megginson was one of the good ones we lost. He would have been nice to have on the offensive line during the 2018 campaign. It was painful losing him just as he was developing his talent.