Xavier Scott Announces He Will Return to Illinois in 2026

If there was one player more than any other who embodied the morose spirit of missed opportunity that hung over Illinois football for much of the 2025 season, it was defensive back Xavier Scott.

Maybe it was, at least in part, that unfinished business that ultimately led Scott to put off the NFL for one more year and decide to return to the Illini in 2026, which he announced with a simple social media post Thursday:

Xavier Scott's background

Scott has played extensively and produced effectively since his freshman year at Illinois in 2022, but he blew up as a junior in 2024, landing on the All-Big Ten first team and Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist list (top 15 defensive backs in college football). He was the fulcrum around which the Illini secondary was built in 2025, but he was injured in Week 3, underwent season-ending surgery for a lower-body injury on Sept. 24 and was forced to watch the last 10 games from the sideline as the defense (and especially the defensive backfield) routinely came up short in a season that held unprecedented promise back in August.

In three-plus seasons at Illinois (including last year's partial campaign), Scott has played in 39 games (28 starts) and logged 127 tackles, 26 pass defenses, three forced fumbles and six interceptions. He has been projected by Pro Football Focus as a fourth- or fifth-round NFL draft pick, but he should have a chance in 2026 to not only improve his draft stock and show pro personnel folks that he is healthy again but also potentially get back a measure of justice for his lost 2025 season.

What Xavier Scott's return means to Illinois

Part of what made 2025 such an inflection point for the Illini was the experience, leadership and productivity they returned at so many key positions and units. That they failed to cash in and still finished 9-4, toppling Tennessee in the Music City Bowl, is a testament to how far coach Bret Bielema has elevated the program – and the expectations around it – in his five seasons in Champaign. Concerns that Illinois would be all but starting over in 2026 after the departures of quarterback Luke Altmyer and linebacker Gabe Jacas are now tempered considerably with a landmark recruiting class trickling into campus this month and, of course, Scott returning to help stabilize the defense.

Scott had been one of the rare playmakers on the Illini defense, and after his injury left Illinois' secondary shorthanded, defensive coordinator Aaron Henry all but retreated into a shell – both literally and figuratively. Scott's ability to move around the field, play multiple positions and force opposing quarterbacks to account for his presence (and guess what he was up to) was an important X-factor that the Illini desperately missed over the final three-quarters of last season.

Scott's return, along with those of safety Matthew Bailey (who also decided in the offseason that the NFL could wait) and cornerback Jaheim Clarke, instantly turn a weakness into a strength – and give Henry a foundation to (hopefully) rebuild a Teddy Bear defense into something with real teeth and claws.