Illinois Football news: Linebacker Easton Baker Enters the Transfer Portal

According to 247Sports national recruiting analyst Brandon Huffman, the Illinois Football program suffered its second transfer-portal loss of the day, as freshman linebacker Easton Baker has entered his name into the portal now that the 14-day window is officially open (12/2 – 12/16).

Baker — a former three-star recruit out of Stansbury Park, Utah — saw little action for the Illini in 2025, having earned a few reps in the Illini’s dominant season-opening victory vs Western Illinois, and will enter the portal with 4 years of eligibility remaining after readshirtig in 2025. A two-time all-state performer in Utah, Baker was a solid addition to Archie McDaniel’s linebacker room. However, the writing may have been on the wall for a longer-term plan at Illinois.

With Grant Beerman, James Kreutz, JoJo Hayden, Malachi Hood, and others seemingly set to return in 2026, Illinois does have seasoned developmental depth at the position. For Baker, however, the portal presents an opportunity to get on the field quicker elsewhere with a larger need at the position to showcase his talents, and potentially benefit from other NIL opportunities. As the Illini head into the unofficial offseason, the question now becomes how heavily this Illinois Football staff supplements their linebacker room with experienced contributors to build around its returning developmental talent at the position.

Illinois linebacker Eastern Baker plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. The 2024 signee out of Tooele (Utah) Stansbury was a 3-star in that class and chose the Illini over schools like Oklahoma, Arkansas and BYU. Will have three years of eligibility remaining.… pic.twitter.com/w4O5njgCcL

— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) December 2, 2025

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