We added the sixth member of the 2014 class today – seventh if you count Wes Lunt – in the person of Henry McGrew, a linebacker from Kansas. Best message board comment I saw immediately after the news came out: “sounds like a name from a Dr. Seuss book”. TOTALLY agree. In fact, I considered doing this entire post Suess-style, but got no further than “Henry McGrew ate his mulligan stew as he fretted o’er books that were long overdue” before realizing I don’t have the chops.

Some teams, like Kansas, offered McGrew as a defensive end. Others, Iike Illinois and Iowa State, offered him as a linebacker (at least I think Iowa State did – maybe they offered him as a DE too). Whenever you hear that, well, whenever I hear that, I immediately think “Leo”. As in, Tim Banks version of the Bandit.

If you noticed last year, Banks likes to drop his Leos into coverage more than Vic Koenning did with his Bandits. It’s a true stand-up defensive end position. Yes, you have to hold the corner on a running play, but you also have to split out and line up over a receiver like you’re a cornerback sometimes. And other times, when we’re blitzing, you have to fake the rush and just drop into zone coverage.

Houston Bates gets to be the Leo this fall. Hmmm… a tall linebacker that some schools were recruiting at defensive end and some schools were recruiting at LB. Sounds familiar. After two years as a Will linebacker, Bates will now be the Leo for this defense. And as you’ve read here before, I’m hoping tall Will linebacker Henry Dickinson follows in his footsteps.

And then I’m hoping Henry McGrew follows in his footsteps. Learn the defense at the Will, add bulk to your frame, and eventually move forward and play some stand-up defensive end. Leo requires a lot more pass coverage than you’d think, so learning zone coverage as a Will linebacker is the perfect training ground.

I think we’re probably done with linebacker in this class. If we really do only bring in a class of 15 kids, with Lunt being one of the 15, we’re down to eight scholarships left to give out. Off the top of my head, I’d guess the breakdown of those eight scholarships would be as follows:

QB: 0
RB: 1
WR: 3
OL: 1 (a tackle)
DL: 2
LB: 0
DB: 1

If we lose a few players here and there through normal attrition, maybe this class pushes past 15 players. But for now, I think we have about eight more scholarships left to give. The emphasis – at least what my emphasis would be – offensive skill positions and pass rushers. Receiver is the #1 goal.

As I said in my Lunt post on Monday, we actually have a pretty good offense to surround our 2014 quarterback – an experienced line, very experienced tailbacks, solid tight ends – but we’re probably lacking at receiver. So I’d like to see maybe four wide receivers in this class (or at least athletes who we can try at WR and DB).

Back to McGrew. I like these kind of recruitments during June camp season. For a school in our position – bottom of the Big Ten, trying to climb back up – it’s one of the best times of the year to sell ourselves (in my opinion). McGrew got a Kansas offer and an Iowa State offer, but when he camped at Missouri, they tried to slow-play him. Probably the old “we really like you – we just need to see how our scholarships are shaking out”. That’s where we can step in with “why wait for a school that obviously doesn’t like you as much as we do?”. Missouri wouldn’t pull the trigger, McGrew liked us more than Iowa State and Kansas, so BOOM, McGrew to Illinois.

I watched some film of him tonight – seems to have some pretty good vision. Maybe over-pursues a bit – I mean, what high school linebacker doesn’t over-pursue – but made some really good “should I or shouldn’t I?” decisions on the fly. I can see why we’d be willing to try him at Will linebacker first – tall linebackers with some speed can be a big asset on the outside. And then, once he bulks up, see if he can Leo.

Bottom line: had some BCS offers, fits a need, looks instinctual on film. Just based on offers he’s a 2.5, but film pushes him up to 3 Tom Cruises.

What I Know About Him:

We’ve recruited a lot of players from H. D. Woodson high school over the past 8 years. Eddie McGee, Evan Frierson, Tavon Wilson, Joelil Thrash. That dropped off after Mike Locksley left, but Kelly is another Washington DC kid who found his way to Champaign. And he had a decent list of offers, too: Georgia Tech, Maryland, Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, etc.

I think he’s more the pure safety type, so I don’t see him playing the Star position. My guess is he’s Earnest Thomas’ understudy the next two seasons.

What I Expect From Him:

This is where I wonder once again why I’m ranking a safety in the 70′s. Our safety roster is Earnest Thomas, Ben Mathis, Taylor Barton, Nick North, and the newcomers, so of them will likely play. Yeah, I thought it too: BAND NAME! “Hey man, are you going to check out Nick North and the Newcomers at the jazz fest next weekend?”

I’ll go on the record with that one guy being Juco transfer Zane Petty, which means Kelly will likely redshirt. And I’m serious about that Earnest Thomas’ understudy thing. Kelly redshirts this fall, plays a little on special teams the next year, and then is fully in the mix in 2015 for one of the starting safety spots.

Wait – you don’t have to do that.  I don’t know what I’m saying.  I’m a little scattered.  I can’t type fast enough.  Here’s my new thing.  When a player commits, the post is titled “Looks Like University Of Illinois”, stolen from Tom Cruise’s line in Risky Business when he finds out he’s not Ivy League material.  And to rate each recruit, I will give them between one and five Tom Cruises.

And this one might get five.  Zach Kerker from Channel 1450 in Springfield tweeted a few minutes ago that Wes Lunt will transfer to Illinois.  He arrives this fall (it just hit me that he’ll be in Rantoul in 55 days – expect 4,580 words on Lunt’s first five throws in August).  Wait – some of you don’t know who Lunt is.

Wes Lunt was a four-star QB from Rochester, Illinois who went to Oklahoma State.  He graduated early, won the job during spring ball at Oklahoma State, and started as a true freshman last fall for Okie State.  Then he got injured, then he fought with Clint Chelf to regain the starting job, and after Chelf was named the starting coming out of spring (and, probably more importantly, after the offensive coordinator who recruited Lunt to OSU, Todd Monken, left to take the Southern Mississippi job), Lunt announced he was transferring.

In the interest of time (read: I’m at work), I’ll let what I wrote a month ago catch you up.  This was a post where I wondered aloud if Wes Lunt throwing to Aaron Bailey was the best future scenario for Illini football:

So why didn’t he pick us back then? Well, the way I remember the story, it was a combination of Zook’s job security and the offense we ran in the Texas Bowl. His family wasn’t sure of two things: will Zook be there all four years (answer: no), and will this multiple spread offense that Petrino ran for Scheelhaase work for a pocket passer (answer: no). So despite growing up going to Illini football games (and the ability to attend any Illini basketball game he wanted), Lunt looked elsewhere.

Fast forward to today. Is the job security question answered? Probably not. Tim Beckman does have a contract that would run through Lunt’s final year of eligibility, but after last year’s debacle, I don’t think it’s possible to say the phrase “job security” with a straight face. Is the “offensive style” question answered? Absolutely. Bill Cubit would only need to show him film of Alex Carder or Tim Hiller (or his own son) at Western Michigan to show him what he could do in this offense.

Which brings us to Aaron Bailey, and the thing I’ve been hesitant to talk about since Cubit got the job. Is Bailey a fit for this offense? Maybe. He has the arm. But that 44% completion percentage in high school suggests that arm is a long way from refinement. Which means maybe Bailey becomes our Marquise Gray (Minnesota). Sometimes he’s the QB. Sometimes he’s a wideout. And all the time, he’s the best athlete on his team.

So I see two scenarios: Lunt picks Illinois, and we use Bailey as an all-everything guy. Wildcat formations. Goal line QB like the Bell-dozer at Oklahoma. Slot back. Wide receiver. Or, Lunt stays with his OC and picks Southern Mississippi, and we tailor the offense for a read-option QB who can hopefully develop into a poor man’s Braxton Miller.

Best scenario for Illini football? Probably Lunt to Bailey. So here’s hoping we get him.

OK, now you’re caught up. Now it’s time to talk about it, because THAT JUST HAPPENED.

I’m always at a loss for words at times like this.  I’ll try to explain.  I spent this weekend pouring over my list of the 90 most important players on the 2013 Illinois football roster, making a few adjustments.  For a long time, when thinking over such thoughts, I’ve felt a bit like I’m on an island.  I understand the absurdity of my Illini Football obsessiveness, but I couldn’t change it if I tried, so I just paint a face on a volleyball and talk to is as I obsess over whether I’m going to select Zach Hirth or Michael Martin as our starting long snapper.  I made the decision this weekend: #TeamHirth.

So at times like this, I round a corner on the island and find a village of people.  And they all want to talk about Illini football and what this latest news means.  And while that makes me crazy excited, it’s also, I don’t know, intimidating.  I feel much more comfortable talking to a volleyball.  I need to collect myself and my thoughts, because everything feels overwhelming.

This is a big day.  Possibly a huge day.  Sure, Lunt could flame out and not even win the job over Aaron Bailey – Lunt did, after all, come out of last spring as the starting QB at OSU and come out of this spring as the second string QB – but the most likely scenario is that we just signed the QB that could bring us all the way back.  Bowl back.  Maybe even January bowl back.  One great QB does not a team make, but it’s the one piece you need in place to make everything go.  And in his first 18 months on the job, Tim Beckman has brought in two – a dual threat athletic QB and a laser-armed pocket QB.  Both 4-star recruits.  Both potential superstars.

With Bailey in place last spring, we went on a bit of a recruiting roll.  Darius Mosely and Jarrod Clements and Caleb Day (and others like Reon Dawson, who ended up decommitting and going to Michigan).  As recruiting coordinator Alex Golesh said on signing day, “Aaron Bailey made it cool to come play at Illinois again”.  Lunt can do the same for this class.  We can now go to wide receivers – man, do we need some wide receivers in this class – and tell them that we have a QB with an NFL arm.

Here.  I’ll just describe it like this.  Let’s say for the moment that Lunt wins the starting job and Bailey become a slash (and he’d be the perfect slash).  Here’s our 2014 offense when Lunt steps on the field against Youngstown State:

Lunt is at QB.  The strongest arm we’ve had since Juice and the best downfield accuracy since Kittner.  Might take him a bit to get used to the system, but he has all the tools to do it.

But that’s maybe the only place where inexperience is an issue.  Bailey had a full year as a slash, and he gets to do everything.  Line up at QB in the Wildcat.  Line up in the slot as a receiver.  He’s an insane athlete, and we need to get him the ball.

Tailback?  We’ll still have Young and Ferguson and Ayoola – senior, junior, junior.  That’s more than enough backfield talent to make that offense go.  Tight end?  Still have Jon Davis and Matt LaCosse, both seniors.  Davis, if he can stay healthy, could be a star.  Line?  Really experienced by then.  Cvijanovic and Heitz would both have 4 full years of experience.  Alex Hill, too.  Teddy Karras would be in his third year starting.  The only player we would need to replace would be Corey Lewis at right tackle, and by then, Pat Flavin and Scott McDowell (or maybe even Juco transfer Dallas Hinkhouse) should be ready.

The only real question for that 2014 offense is wide receiver (and, if it really is Lunt to Bailey, half of that equation is solved).  Martize Barr looked solid this spring, and he’d be a senior by then, but we still need more.  Like, even if Marchie Murdock is as sleeper-y as I claim he is and even if Dionte Taylor is a surprise, we’d still need two more solid receivers.  Juco would be best.

What’s that? Defense?  SHUT UP.  We’re dreaming offense right now.

The point: Last year we were the 119th best offense in the country.  This year should be an improvement if we can stay healthy, but we still have a long way to go.  In 2014, we’ll lose Nathan Scheelhaase and Corey Lewis, plus Ryan Lankford and Spencer Harris.  Lunt replaces Scheelhaase, we have three tackles that can replace Lewis, and we’ll have to recruit some receivers.  But if we can do that… yes, we have the pieces in place to make a leap.

And that leap is the reason I was fretting the long snapper decision this weekend.  We’ve made a leap before and we can make it again.  And when we land guys like Wes Lunt, well, HOPE reverberates.

Wes Lunt to Illinois. 4 and a half Tom Cruises.

What I Know About Him:

Just a quick note – my son was watching Jack Reacher in the other room. And he left the room during the credits, and the DVD finished and went back to the main menu, so right now I’m being serenaded with this 45 second loop of intense Tom Cruise action flick movie soundtrack. I think it’s going to make this 90i post 64% more intense.

I’ve already given Kendrick Foster a nickname – he’s Kendrick Foster “The People”. I’ll work in a Pumped Up Kicks joke at some point, I promise. But overall, I like it. “Lunt with a swing pass to The People coming out of the backfield…” Great Who’s On First potential.

He was one of the first players to join this recruiting class, and possibly also the most enthusiastic. I like enthusiasm for Illini football. Like, when he drove from Peoria to Chicago just to watch the scrimmage at Gately Stadium this spring (while he was still in high school) – I DIG that kind of dedication.

What I Expect From Him:

If I had to guess right now, I’d say The People will redshirt. We have a solid threesome of Donovonn Young (JR), Josh Ferguson (SO), and Dami Ayoola (SO). Plus we’ll have LaKeith Walls coming off a redshirt year. So with one junior, two sophomores, and one freshman at tailback, I’m guessing we’ll redshirt Foster. That balances everything the following year with a senior, two juniors, a sophomore, and a freshman.

So I’ll say 2015 as the target date for The People to begin to make an impact on the field. I really think Young is the perfect fit for Bill Cubit’s offense (and this music has me picturing Donovonn Young running people over), so the RB rotation is pretty much set for two full years. Why not give Foster a redshirt, let him learn the offense, and then give him a chance to break out as a redshirt sophomore in 2015.

What I Know About Him:

It’s a really rough thing being the holder. Nobody knows who you are, but make one mistake, and everyone knows your name. That’s somewhat how it was for Tim Russell in 2011. Remember that awful no good very bad game at Penn State? The one where we led the whole game but Penn State drove the length of the field on the final drive to win? The one where we scored a touchdown but had it called back because Jay Prosch was leaning forward, and that made us kick a field goal, but we didn’t make the field goal because Tim Russell bobbled the snap and threw an interception? Remember that? That sucked.

So, unfortunately, that’s how most everyone knows Tim Russell’s name. And last year, you didn’t hear his name at all because Miles Osei was the holder. Well, this spring, Tim Russell was the holder again, so Tim Russell finds himself in the 90i.

What I Expect From Him:

How many teams have a 6′-6″ tight end as the holder? WE DO. Coming next from Illinois Football: world’s first 300 lb. safety, Teddy Karras. Seriously – Teddy Karras would be so awesome at safety. Sure, he’d get beat deep. But Mongo want tackle wideout.

I really shouldn’t write these late at night. Someone links this to Mrs. Russell on Facebook, and she’s all excited to read something about her son, and here I’m all “Mongo want tackle wideout”.

Anyway, I expect to see Tim Russell do a lot of holding. And maybe even taking a bad snap and rambling for a two point conversion (he did that once, right? Am I remembering that correctly? I’ve always had this “yeah, there was the fumbled snap at Penn State, but he also took a bad snap and scored once” in my head). Somebody who remembers that let me know. Wait – nobody has read this far. Nobody even reads these. I’m counting down the 90 most important players for a football program that thus far has sold 13,000 season tickets. Nobody has read this far. Except maybe for Mrs. Russell.

Tim Russell will be the holder. He’s a hard worker and I’m glad he got the holding job back. I heart walkons, and having one who is a senior as the holder puts me at ease. I expect great catching-the-snap things that make his mother proud.

What I Know About Him:

Well, he’s the son of former Illini player Bruce Douglas. If you’re too young to know who Bruce Douglas is, let me tell you about the Elite Eight game at Kentucky in 1984. Actually, no, I won’t tell you about the Elite Eight game at Kentucky in 1984. It was the first time I cried after watching an Illini sporting event. This guy named Dicky Beal TOTALLY TRAVELED but we didn’t get the call. 11 year-old me couldn’t deal with the injustice of it all. The tears flowed.

So now Bruce Douglas has a son. And he’s going to play for the Illini as well. Except his son will be a defensive tackle, not a point guard. By the way, could there be any more opposite student athlete positions than guard on the basketball team and defensive tackle on the football team? This would be like David Diehl having a son and that kid coming to Illinois on a gymnastics scholarship. Actually that’s a horrible comparison. Moving on.

What I Expect From Him:

There’s a slight opportunity for playing time at DT, but I still think he redshirts. The redshirt juniors will start (Austin Teitsma and Jake Howe), and they’ll be backed up by four guys: Sophomore Teko Powell, redshirt freshman Vontrell Williams, Juco-transfer Abe Cajuste, and converted OL Robbie Bain. I doubt that Douglas can crack that rotation as a true freshman.

And that’s the case for two seasons. We don’t have any seniors at defensive tackle, so next year is more of the same. It will be Douglas’ redshirt-sophomore season where things start to break. Powell and Williams? I really liked Robbie Bain there this spring – maybe Bain and Douglas?

Of course, there’s not Corey Liuget or Akeem Spence talent at defensive tackle right now. Which means that it really is wide open this fall – I don’t think anyone has a spot completely locked down. So maybe Douglas does play.

Naaah. Redshirt, get stronger, start as a redshirt sophomore.

LLUOI: Austin Roberts

I’ve decided to add a new feature. And any time I decide to add a new feature, I always talk about it long before I do it. So this is me talking about it. And some time soon, I’ll start doing it. I promise.

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do a post for every recruit that verbals. And I’m going to title the posts “LLUOI”, which stands for “Looks Like University Of Illinois”, which comes from Tom Cruise’s line in Risky Business (if you’re unfamiliar with that reference, click here – f-bomb warning in that video clip, so Bryce, you don’t get to click on that.)

My plan is to discuss each recruit – basketball and football – and then rate them. And I’m going to rate them on a scale of 1-5 Tom Cruises. So at the bottom of each LLUOI post, I include between one and five thumbnail photos of the famous “Looks Like University Of Illinois!” pic.

Five Tom Cruises is reserved for when Cliff Alexander verbals. One Tom Cruise would be that guy back in 2001 who picked Illinois over Elon College. This is going to be my new thing. Of course, today I don’t have much time, so I can’t format the post yet, so today is just “here’s what I’m planning for future verbals”.

Oh yeah – Austin Roberts. He’s a linebacker with mostly small school offers (Army, Wyoming, Central Michigan, Air Force). He was set to camp with schools like Indiana and Purdue, but we locked up the verbal yesterday. My guess: we played the “Minnesota didn’t offer” card (he camped at Minnesota a few days ago but didn’t receive an offer). When you’re the only BCS conference program to offer so far, and the other BCS schools want to see you at camp to see if you’re worth an offer, the card usually played is something like “all of these schools want to see you dance first, but we already invited you to prom”.

Linebacker isn’t a huge position of need – we only lose Jonathan Brown after this year and return Monhiem, Svetina, Dickinson, Neal, Grimes, and Cooper. But we didn’t bring in any linebackers last year, making TJ Neal the only (redshirt) freshman. We probably needed one in this small class, and it looks like Roberts is the guy.

And this will be a small class. Maybe 14-16 recruits. So we already might be down to single digit scholarships remaining. We have an inside linebacker now – time to concentrate on wideouts and defensive ends.

How good is he? Dunno – haven’t watched film yet. But he doesn’t have a neck, so that’s good.  The key to recruiting solid linebackers: no neck.

Still, no other BCS offers.  So I can only give this kid two Tom Cruises.

Jaquan Lyle… looks like… not… the University of Illinois

This one stings. Evansville Bosse guard Jaquan Lyle – a 5-star in the 2014 class and the perfect lead guard for the system Groce is trying to run – trimmed his list to four yesterday, and Illinois wasn’t on it.  Louisville, Indiana, Florida, and Tennessee.  From his list of seven he eliminated Ohio State, UCLA, and Illinois.

While I still think he ends up at Louisville – if you follow his Twitter you probably feel the same way – I still wanted to get him on campus for an official visit.  John Groce has shown he can do work when he gets a kid on campus.

In fact, that’s kind of been my goal for this summer.  We (were) listed with four blue chip recruits: Lyle, Cliff Alexander, Jahlil Okafor, and Leron Black.  My goal is (was) to hang with all four through the July AAU season, get two to agree to official visits this fall, and land one.

All we need is one.  That team is perfectly set up for a freshman superstar to come in and have an immediate impact.  Abrams, Cosby, Nunn, Hill, Rice, Paul, Egwu – add a superstar frosh to that mix and we’re cooking with gas.  And that doesn’t mention other freshmen who could make a jump, like Morgan or Colbert or Tate.  But a lineup like Abrams, Cosby, Nunn, Alexander, and Egwu with Hill, Rice, and Paul rotating in heavily could do some serious damage.

Without that instant impact player, I still feel like that team is missing something.  It needs one more piece, especially in the front court, mostly because I don’t think Morgan or Colbert will really be ready until they are upperclassmen.  It cold also use one more lead guard – someone with handles to take the pressure off of Tracy.

And I was really hoping that guard would be Lyle.  But now it won’t be.  And that stings.  I was hoping for really big things in John Groce’s second recruiting year – Thad Matta’s second year at Ohio State big – and now KBD to Ohio State and Lyle to (probably Louisville). Here’s hoping we can close on at least one of our top targets (or pull someone like Brandone Francis out of a hat).

Freshman Jersey Number Day – Basketball Edition

As you know, each June I go crazy for Freshman Jersey Number Day.  For football.  We’ll have a class of 20 some kids, and in one day we get to find out all of their jersey numbers.  I get a little too excited.

Well, this year, with NINE newcomers on the basketball team – seriously, nine new guys – I get a second freshman jersey number day frenzy.  Right to ‘em:

Jaylon Tate #1 – Did you hear that Beckman isn’t going to give out the #1 to anyone this year?  Something about the team needing to prove it or something.  Anyway, Groce is obviously giving out the #1.  DJ’s old number goes to a point guard.  That makes sense.  Point guards look right wearing #1.

Ahmad Starks #3 – Kind of strange to see DJ and Brandon’s numbers given out so quickly, right?  From the 1-2-3 of DJ, Joe, and Brandon to the 1-2-3 of Jaylon, Joe, and Ahmad.  Just doesn’t seem the same.

Aaron Cosby #11 (eligible in 2014) – WHOA alert.  We knew it would happen some time, but I believe this is the first time one of the sacred 2005 numbers has been used (well, besides Luther Head’s brother wearing his number for a year).  We still haven’t had another #5, or a #11, or a #40 or a #43.  Now, Cosby gets the #11.  Good luck, kid.  Gigantic shoes to fill.

Malcolm Hill #21 – Just OK.  I can’t like them all, right?  For some reason I wanted to see Hill in a single digit.  Of course, I want to see all players in single digits, and he couldn’t do that without taking Luther or Deron’s number.  Hmmmm…. Malcolm Hill taking Luther’s number – I would have been OK with it.

Maverick Morgan #22 – OK, it’s pretty much set that I’m calling him F22 for the next four years.  His name is MAVERICK.  He was named after the character in the movie Top Gun (I mean, just think of how much fun I could have had with the Tom Cruise pic if LLUOI was in place last summer).  And our current air superiority in the world is best exemplified by the F-22 Raptor.  Call the ball, Mav. Maverick has the ball.

Kendrick Nunn #25 – BOOM.  I don’t need to say anything.  I don’t even want to disgrace the “Simeon players wearing #25 at Illinois” thing by talking about it.  It’s perfect.

Austin Colbert #31 – Probably the most surprising choice (to me).  For some reason, I like my bigs in the 40′s and 50′s (or the double-zero, but that’s another story).  So when our frontcourt is Egwu and Colbert next year, that’s #31 and #32.  That’s kind of weird to me, for some reason.

Jon Ekey #33 – Speaking of airplanes, Flight 33 now goes to… Jon Ekey.  Good luck, kid.  We’ll be expecting high-flying dunks.

Darius Paul #35 (eligible in 2014) – Our highest number is #35?  Still seems weird.  On this one, I tried to read some meaning into it.  “His brother wore #3, so he kept the three and added a five because he’s 6′-8″ and can sometimes play the five for us.”  Yeah, a stretch.

What I Know About Him:

This is the fifth time I’ve done this list. And in those five years, Kanteman is easily the player I know the least about. Easily.

Here’s all I know: He played quarterback and tight end in high school. Halfway through his senior year, he tore his ACL. He only landed small school offers, so he decided to go to Juco and rehab the knee. But he didn’t play his first year as a Juco – he sat out with the knee injury.

Our coaches were at Pierce looking at another player just a month ago, saw him working out, offered him, and now he’s supposed to be on the roster this fall as a freshman (he never played at the Juco, so he transfers as a freshman with four years of eligibility). In fact, he might even be on campus right now. I remember reading something somewhere where he said that he might move in now (early June), but if the transfer paperwork isn’t complete, he won’t be here until August.

What I Expect From Him:

I haven’t seen an ounce of film on him, but if I had to guess, I’d say that we can use him as an h-back or a fullback. Maybe a mix between Eddie Viliunas and Jay Prosch. I think Bill Cubit will use a fullback in several of his formations, and we don’t currently have one on the roster (at least not a scholarship fullback). So my guess is that we’re bringing Kanteman in to hopefully play that blocking back/tight end role.

Can he play right away? No idea. Does he maybe bring anything else to the table besides blocking? Couldn’t tell you. Do I even know if he can block or not? No, I don’t. Shouldn’t I verify that before I go around tossing out “cross between Eddie Viliunas and Jay Prosh”? Absolutely.

What I Know About Him:

I don’t have to say it – you know I love walkons. And Clayton Fejedelem has serious Favorite Walkon Of The Year potential. Hmmmm… I should give out that award to walkons that catch my eye each year. 2010 was Wisdom Onyegbule. 2011 Ben Mathis. 2012 Peter Bonahoom. And 2013 might be Clayton Fejedelem.

What do I know about him? Not much. He just walked on this spring after transferring in from St. Xavier University. So I did a little research and actually found this article from football recruiting guru Tom Lemming from back in 2010:

I recently attended a Lemont football game to see my nephew, Jake Lemming, a 5-8, 130-pound sophomore cornerback. He had five tackles and broke up four passes against Thornton Fractional South. He’s a good high school player. But enough about him.

The best prospect on the field was Ethan Pocic, Lemont’s 6-6, 265-pound sophomore tackle whose older brother Graham is a starter at Illinois. In two years, he will be one of the heavily recruited players in Illinois. But enough about him.

The best player on the field was Clayton Fejedelem, a 6-1, 180-pound senior safety who hardly anyone knows about. He has 4.5 speed and Division I skills. He has the potential to play in the Big 10 but he definitely can play in the Mid-America Conference. He hits like a ton of bricks, has great cover skills, great football instincts, isn’t afraid of contact and makes plays.

I guess Fejedelem never got those MAC or Big Ten offers, because he ended up at St. Xavier in Chicago (an NAIA program). He played two years there and then showed up in Champaign this spring as a walkon.

What I Expect From Him:

Not much at all until the spring game. And then he kinda sorta looked like one of the best players on our defense. No, really. Check out his stats: 8 tackles, 3 passes broken up (yes, three), and one interception. And it was a pretty fantastic interception – read the route, broke on it, made the pick, got a foot down before going out of bounds.

He had everyone in the press box scrambling to figure out who #20 was. And hopefully he does the same this fall. I doubt he’ll start or anything – I’m still ranking him in the 80′s here – but with no upperclassmen on the entire roster at cornerback, maybe he can find his way into the rotation. I’d love to see it. He is a walkon after all.

I found out Tuesday that all of the freshmen are now enrolled. They move in each year in early June, take a summer class, get acclimated to college life, and then start football camp in the beginning of August. This is true at most every Division I school.

And at every Division I school, the second week of June is worry week. Which freshmen will make it and which ones are headed to Juco? Nearly every school, especially the SEC schools, oversign in February by three players (the maximum number allowed by the NCAA after the rules changes several years ago). You can have 88 scholarship players for next season on the first Wednesday in February – you just have to be down to 85 by the time they all enroll.

Which means that most fans, especially SEC fans, spend March through June speculating on which players won’t make it. Either players on your roster leave, or freshmen don’t qualify. And, if you have the room and are bringing in the maximum class of 25 players but signed 28, you know that it’s three freshmen who won’t be enrolling. Look over that class of 28 – it will only be 25 by June.

For us, I believe we oversigned by one this year. I remember Tim Beckman answering a question at his signing day press conference where he said we were at 86 players. Because we had so many early enrollees (they can count against last year’s class if you want them to), we didn’t have to worry about the max 25 restriction. But we had to be at 85 by June. And that worked itself out – several players left, including Darrius Caldwell and Darius Millines, and we’re back under 85. And we also knew quite quickly after signing day that defensive tackle Merrick Jackson was headed to Juco – he showed up on the LOI list for Iowa Western Community College.

So when I found out Tuesday that all of our freshmen were now on campus and enrolled, I was kind of overjoyed. And I also thought I had a pretty big scoop. I’ve spent the last few weeks completely worried that a Paul James III or a Jarrod Clements or someone else wouldn’t make it to school. Guys like James and Clements and Caleb Day might need to play as true freshmen, so it was even more important that they all qualify and make it to Champaign. When Dondi Kirby and Clint Tucker didn’t make it in 2011, it was a pretty big blow. They were maybe the top two players in that class, and then *poof*, gone. So when I found out everyone was in, I took to Twitter to declare my scoop.

Aaaand no response. I think one guy favorited the second tweet about how Merrick Jackson wasn’t here, but we already knew that. I’m not saying every tweet I toss out there should get a big reaction, but I was really surprised that this one didn’t. And I was especially surprised to see that no member of the media followed up and wrote about it. Other BCS schools are obsessed with this right now (as are their media types because they know the fans are clamoring to see who made it). Missouri friends have been wringing their hands for weeks over Josh Augusta, but here we find out that everyone is present and accounted for and… nothing.

So I took to an Illini message board that I frequent. They’ll care. I posted that every player made it, including Paul James III who was rumored to maybe have some academic issues possibly. Aaaand no one responds. These are the same internet friends I argued with back in February claiming that the rumors about James only picking Illinois because Alabama and Texas A&M and Miami (FL) backed off their offers due to academic concerns were false. Imagine that – I took the position of “no, we really did beat Alabama and Florida State for a blue chip defensive end”. Now he’s in school and will likely play as a true freshmen and that helps out defense and…. nothing. No responses.  Sent a text to a friend saying that James and all of the others were enrolled.  No response.

And then I realize it again. I’m weird. I’m Mel from Flight of the Conchords. It’s not weird to be an obsessive fan of something. But it’s pretty weird to be the only obsessive fan of something. To be the person who goes too far. It’s not that others are ignoring – it’s that I cross the line and follow too closely.

OK, this is the part I was worried about. I’m not saying that I’m the only Illini football fan that cares this deeply. I’ve met people who care more than me, go to more games, know more history, remember more players. Every time I attend a caravan event I think “God bless these people for caring about this school so much.” I’m envious of their dedication.

I’m saying that I always have these moments where I realize there are only 17 people at the concert of my favorite band, and when I turn around to high five someone after an awesome song, nobody is around. The room is mostly empty. I always think that everyone else follows Illini football like I do, so I assume that everyone else has been waiting on pins and needles to see if all of the freshmen made it to school, so when I tweet the scoop or post it on a message board, I expect that hundreds of people will be overjoyed (seriously, I do, every time). They’ll breathe easy for the first time in months, and I have been the one to deliver the outstanding news.

But it’s not that way at all. The band I follow isn’t very good. Nobody buys their albums. Nobody thinks their music is very good, so nobody goes to their concerts. And I’m the guy in their t-shirt and their hat saying “no, they’ll catch on – this latest album is just fantastic.”

It hits me hard every time: if nobody else has been on pins and needles waiting to hear about the freshmen enrolling, maybe I need to realize it’s just me. Nobody is following it this closely because it doesn’t really matter – this team has dozens of issues, and one or two freshmen not qualifying doesn’t really make or break anything. We’re still probably going to lose 10 games. Why would anyone, seriously, ANYONE, invest the time to care that much? This is not a badge of honor, it’s a letter of shame.

And then I usually come full circle. I don’t care if I’m weird. I put on my bee costume and run through the gate. It’s hard to explain, but something about caring this much about a historically awful team makes it feel, I don’t know, pure.  There will be more lows than highs, but I’m almost OK with that.  This is just my thing.  It chose me.

I think I’ve discovered that my disappointment that nobody seems to care about the things I care about is also a comfort.  It’s not an arrogance thing – I’m not going to get a World’s #1 Illini Football Fan coffee mug.  It’s really not even about fandom.  It’s more of a purity thing.  If the thought of Camp Rantoul still excites me this year – seriously, we’ve lost 14 straight Big Ten games and we have the 6th most inexperienced team in all of college football – then it never won’t.  And that’s encouraging to me.  So much of life can be disappointing at times, and it’s nice to know there’s one thing that will always provide joy.  Yes, I’m talking about Illinois Football.

So yes!  We apparently didn’t have any academic casualties.  The freshmen are all in!

And so am I, apparently.