Signing Day Primer: One Decision Unknown In Illini’s 2020 Early Class
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The number of players and drama is low for the first official day of Illinois’ 2020 signing class.
Wednesday is expected to be such a low-drama day for Lovie Smith’s program that the Illini head coach isn’t holding his press conference until 3 p.m. Thursday to get one more uninterrupted on-campus bowl practice before the media announcement of his 2020 class. After the Thursday media conference, Smith will shuts down his program’s on-campus operation before the team heads to San Francisco the day after Christmas for the Redbox Bowl vs. California on Dec. 30 (3 p.m. CST, Fox).
The only unknown of the December portion of Smith’s fourth recruiting class is whether his Illini staff have effectively flipped the verbal commitment of three-star Maryland pledge Jerzhan Newton.
Newton has been associated with the Terrapins recruiting class since committing in August but took an official visit to the Illinois campus two weeks ago. The three-star defensive pass rusher, who also received scholarship offers from Florida, Florida State and UCF, is ranked by 247Sports.com as the 56th-best strong-side defensive end in the country and would provide the Illini with much-needed defensive line depth at a position crippled by injuries throughout the 2019 season.
Newton will be signing his National Letter-of-Intent at noon local time at Clearwater Central Catholic High School where the three finalists are expected to be Illinois, Maryland and Georgia Tech, which was the 6-foot-3, 255-pounder final official visit trip. Newton reportedly has a close friendship with Gregory ‘Deuce’ Spann, who is the Illini’s newest quarterback commit.
Three-star defensive end JaQuari Wiggles of Atlanta, who had been verbally committed to hometown Georgia Tech for eight months before announcing on Twitter he was reopening his recruitment creating an avenue for the Illini. Wiggles took an official visit to the Illinois campus on Dec. 6 where he was primarily recruited by Illini defensive line coach Austin Clark and running backs coach Mike Bellamy and it was the last recruiting trip he made before renouncing his Georgia Tech commitment.
| <strong>ILLINOIS 2020 EXPECTED EARLY SIGNEES</strong> |
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RB Reggie Love: 5-10, 195 - 3-star - St. Louis, Mo. |
DE Tre'von Riggins: 6-2, 265 - 3-star - St. Petersburg, Fla. |
WR James Frenchie: 5-9, 175 - 3-star - St. Louis, MO |
DE Cooper Davis: 6-5, 245 - 3-star - Melbourne, Fla. |
QB Gregory 'Deuce' Spann: 6-4, 194 - 3-star - St. Petersburg, Fla. |
DT Anthony Shipton: 6-5, 290 - 3-star - Cerritos Junior College, Norwalk, Calif. |
OT Phifer Griffin: 6-6, 290 - 3-star - Monroe, N.C. |
LB Lavar Gardner: 5-11, 210 - 3-star - Hutchinson (KS) Community College |
OT Kevin Tyler: 6-5, 295 - 3-star - St. Louis, MO |
DT Quinton McCoy: 6-2, 261 - 3-star - Valrico, Fla. |
OL Blaise Sparks: 6-7, 301 - 3-star - North Fort Myers, Fla. |
Illinois will see 11 of its 12 verbal commitments make their pledge official in the three-day early signing period with only four-star receiver Jadon Thompson delaying the process until February. Thompson, who told WCIA and 247Sports.com on Tuesday he wouldn’t be signing early, also happens to be the only in-state verbal pledge of the 2020 recruiting class.
“Most people when they’re engaged they go ahead and get married,” Smith said. “We’re hoping that’s the case. We like where we are. Recruiting has gone well.”
Illinois only had 13 scholarship players go through the Senior Day celebration prior to the regular-season finale loss to Northwestern and it is expected the Illini coaching staff doesn’t anticipate this being a large class in terms of quantity of prospects.
Currently, the class ranks 66th in the nation by Rivals.com and 68th in the nation by 247Sports.com, which would be the lowest of the Lovie Smith era. No recruiting service has the Illini’s class rated anywhere but at the bottom of a 14-team Big Ten Conference with has five programs (Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, and Iowa) among 247Sports.com’s Top 25 classes.
As Illini Maven/Sports Illustrated has detailed in the past, Illinois could be active in the graduate transfer market again this winter but no announcement or known reporting to such connections has been made.