Illinois Football Lands Linebacker over Oklahoma!

Illinois Football Lands Linebacker over Oklahoma!

Illinois Football has closed down recruitments after an eventful weekend of official visitors. However, Illinois Football and their staff have pulled off quite the surprise. Easton Baker is a Utah native who was originally committed to BYU. Baker opened up his recruitment and decided to commit to Illinois Football over offers from Oklahoma and Arizona State. This is quite the add for Illinois, as Baker will be coming to Champaign from Utah.

Andy Buh deserves a lot of credit for displaying a vision to Easton Baker. The Utah native racked up 83 total tackles, including 8.0 tackles for loss, five sacks and an interception. Illinois also landed a player over the likes of Oklahoma.

Excited to talk with one more DC tomorrow.🤝
Go on visits.📍
Wrestle with my big decision🤔
Announcing my new home JULY 1 pic.twitter.com/AJjJVGelXL

— EASTON BAKER 🥷 (@BakerEaston) May 22, 2023

A Hard Hitting Linebacker

Based off of his film, Baker is a physical linebacker with a strong nose for the ball. Obviously, anytime you hear about a Caucasian, physical linebacker with a nose for the ball, you think about Jake Hansen. Hansen always found the right spots to be, and Baker shows a lot of that on his film. Baker’s 6 foot 1 and 212 pounds, and is currently ranked 107 amongst linebackers in the class of 2024. Tarique Barnes has been a stalwart at linebacker for Illinois, and this will be his last year. Afterwards, players like Kenenna Odeluga, Dylan Rosiek and James Kreutz will have to carry the flag at linebacker.

Baker has the potential to be a starter from the onset of his time at Illinois.

Advanced momentum.

Illinois Football has started the week off with some outstanding news. They have secured three public commitments from great prep prospects after a busy weekend of official visitors. In-state prospect, Eddie Tuerk chose to commit to Illinois over offers from Northwestern and Miami. Tuerk is a huge in-state prospect that is a massive win for Bret Bielema and his staff, and Baker is just as big of a commitment.

Bielema and his staff now await the decision of Luke Williams. Williams will be announcing later this day between Illinois and Purdue. The sells are incredibly similar, and honestly it would hurt to lose a prospect to Ryan Walters and the Boilermakers.