The Nation’s Most Important Football Recruit Visited Illinois This Morning

The Illinois Fighting Illini have made some waves in recruiting over the past year, grabbing nationally-coveted players in Isaiah Williams, Marquez Beason and Shammond Cooper for 2019 and securing the commitments of two four-star players for 2020. Recruiting has been uncharacteristically competitive already, but Illinois is trying to elevate it to national championship levels.

To that end, they hosted the nation’s most important recruit for the 2020 class this morning: Kai Kroeger, the top-ranked punter in America. This is the kind of talent that not only wins titles, it forges dynasties. The Lake Forest (IL) native has been courted by programs across the nation, or at least programs that know what championship football is all about. The Leg That Launched A Thousand Ships has visited Syracuse, Penn State and Minnesota and has interest from Indiana, Washington State, LSU and South Carolina.

He’ll surely get more interest, but I would list Illinois as the clear favorite because of the potential to spend a year as part of the most dangerous punt battery unit in all of football with long snapper Ethan Tabel, who will be a senior that season. Tabel won the Nolan’s Long Snapping Long Snapper of the Year award last year, and he’s only a sophomore. Nobody knows where the limits are, but it’s hard to imagine any team in the country having an answer for Tabel-to-Kroeger.

Watch your asses.