V’Angelo Bentley
Cornerback
5′-10″, 180 lbs.
True Freshman (on scholarship, 5 years to play 4)
Glenville HS / Cleveland, OH

ALE Ranking last year: NR

What I Know About Him:

Bentley is my guy in the 2012 class. Not the highest ranked recruit, not the grandest offer list, but my favorite film. OK, fine, I liked TaJarvis Fuller on film a little better, but Bentley was easily #2. Smooth in everything he does on film, from returning punts to taking a handoff to grabbing an interception.

And Bentley comes from a great program, too. Cleveland Glenville, Ted Ginn Sr’s program. I’m a big fan of recruiting from programs like that because they’ve *ahem* already done some recruiting themselves, finding the top athletes in all of Cleveland. Plus, they’ve been trained well in a college-like high school program and are probably more prepared for college football.

What I Expect From Him:

I’m probably jumping the gun here a bit putting Bentley at #53. We have two senior cornerbacks who will get the bulk of the minutes, and a third senior (Jack Ramsey) who will likely be the third guy, plus redshirt freshman Eaton Spence. As of right now, Bentley is the 5th guy on the depth chart.

But next year, we lose Hawthorne and Green and Ramsey, which means Eaton Spence and one of the youngins (maybe Bentley, maybe true freshman Darius Mosely) will not only play a lot, they’ll start. So I see a scenario where Bentley gets a lot of mop-up minutes this year to prepare him for starting in 2013. And after that, I think he starts for three years at corner. And, no pressure or anything, but I can see him being the next great Illini corner. LOVE his film.