Nebraska football: 5-star target commits to Illinois

The Nebraska football lost yet another recruiting battle to the Illinois Fighting Illini. This time it was Isaiah Willaims who committed to the B1G foe.

Should Nebraska football fans be worried about Illinois? The Illini have largely been the funny little brother that managed to punch us in the mouth once but usually resides at the bottom of the conference that we can point and laugh at.

So far this spring, the Illini have landed a 4-star prospect the Huskers wanted and as of this morning, landed a 5-star prospect the Cornhuskers were in on. Nebraska meanwhile has commits from three in-state kids.

Those kids are good players sure, but they aren’t blowing the doors off the recruiting class the way Marquez Beason and Isaiah Williams are doing for Illinois. Williams announced through a Twitter video this morning that he had decided to give his commitment to Lovie Smith.

That comes one day after Marquez Beason announced he wasn’t taking any official visits outside of his April visit to Champagne. There’s very little doubt that Illinois is having itself a heck of a spring on the recruiting front.

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Williams is the number three athlete in the 2019 class, according to 247Sports. He’s also the top player in the state of Missouri. Williams is also the 28th ranked player in the entire class.

It’s hard to say just how much of a chance the Cornhuskers had when it comes to Williams. Playing quarterback in high school, he garnered 46 offers. 247Sports had him as heavy Illinois lean before his announcement, followed by Oklahoma and then Michigan.

Next: Nebraska football loses big recruiting battle to conference foe

In that regard, the Nebraska football team probably didn’t really suffer a loss. Still, if Illinois continues to recruit like they have so far this year, one (or two) recruiting battle losses might not be the story. The story might be how there’s another rising power in the Big Ten the Huskers have to deal with.