‘We feel really, really prepared’

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois just closed on its first top-25 recruiting class in 18 years. But the Illini have plenty more roster-retooling to accomplish this offseason.

With Illinois losing a significant senior class full of stars and starters from a group that has won 18 games over the last two seasons, the Illini have some significant holes to fill on their roster. And armed with a more competitive cash flow thanks to revenue sharing and increased NIL fund-raising, Illinois is expected to be aggressive in the transfer portal.

The transfer portal doesn’t open until Jan. 2 this offseason, but that doesn’t mean the Illinois recruiting department is twiddling its thumbs until then.

Illini general manager Pat Embleton said on the Illini Inquirer Podcast that he has recently been a part of hundreds of calls a day from agents and people around the sport, gathering information on who players could enter the portal and their backgrounds before the lone portal window opens on Jan. 2 and closes on Jan. 16.

“We feel really, really prepared and really excited about where we are at,” Embleton said on the Illini Inquirer Podcast. We’ve watched a lot of football. We’ve watched a lot of colleges. We’ve watched Division II, Division III. So I think when that time does come, we’ll be able to attack it the right way.”

Embleton and the rest of the Illini personnel staff have already watched film of players from many programs who could see significant turnover, especially those who have changed head coaches, so that they are prepared to pounce when the portal opens.

“We already had our homework done on a lot of players that have played X amount of snaps, so that we’re able to then identify the ones we like versus who we don’t like, so if they do end up going to the portal, then we already know where we sit with them from an evaluation standpoint,” Embleton said. “Now, that’s only one piece. The hard part about the portal is you have minimal time to get to know who somebody is, so you really got to dig down to, again, does this guy love ball? How does he love ball? How does he learn? That’s where I think we’re more prepared is that eval eval-wise. …We know who we want when they do go in, if they go in now, we’re only focusing on a piece of the on the field and off the field, how do they think, all that.”

Illini Inquirer ranks the Illini’s top transfer portal needs this offseason.