3-Star DL Jer'Zhan Newton Flips From Maryland To Illinois On Signing Day
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The one unknown element of Illinois’ early period signing day has fallen exactly correct for Lovie Smith and his Illini coaching staff.
Jer'Zhan Newton, who had been a Maryland verbal commitment since August, announced his decision to flip from the Terrapins to Illinois at his signing day ceremony Wednesday afternoon at Clearwater Central Catholic High School in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The consensus 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 provides the Illini with much-needed defensive line depth at a position crippled by injuries throughout the 2019 season.
Newton, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds, had 104 tackles, 16 sacks, 29.5 tackles for loss, and three forced fumbles as a senior at Clearwater Central Catholic this past season. Newton, who had 244 tackles, 24 sacks, 45.0 tackles for loss, and five forced fumbles in his high school career, joins a reloaded defensive unit to Illinois’ 2020 class mostly led by the recruiting efforts of defensive line coach Austin Clark.
Newton also developed a long-standing friendship bond with three-star St. Pete, Fla., quarterback Gregory ‘Deuce’ Spann, who signed with Illinois less than an hour before Newton made his signing announcement.
The flip of Newton took Illinois’ overall class ranking out of the bottom of the overall standings among the 14 Big Ten Conference programs and raised the class to 60th overall in the nation according to 247Sports.com. 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 2020 group being a large class in terms of quantity of prospects.
Among the defensive line signees in the Illini’s 2020 class, Clark, who is a native of Tampa, Fla., was able to get to flip the commitment of three-star Florida defensive line prospect Cooper Davis from Missouri to Illinois days before the opening of the early signing period. Illinois also picked up California junior college defensive tackle Anthony Shipton away from scholarship offers of Arizona, Hawaii and UTEP.
The Illini may not be done finding defensive talent near the line-of-scrimmage. JaQuari Wiggles, a 263-pound defensive end prospect from Atlanta, was reportedly on the Illinois campus two weeks ago despite having been committed to nearby Georgia Tech for nearly eight months. Wiggles confirmed on Twitter Tuesday evening he was reopening his recruitment creating an avenue for the Illini and would not be signing during the early period. Wiggles took an official visit to the Illinois campus on Dec. 6 where he was primarily recruited by Clark and running backs coach Mike Bellamy and it was the last recruiting trip he made before renouncing his Georgia Tech commitment. Wiggles, who also has interest from Maryland, is ranked by 247Sports.com as the 43rd-best strong-side defensive end in the nation. Wiggles had posted last week on Twitter that he got an in-home visit from Illini head coach Lovie Smith, linebacker coach Miles Smith and Bellamy.