Football: Illinois’ Tim Beckman off to quick recruiting start

Updated: February 1, 2012 7:23PM

Illinois football coach Tim Beckman didn’t seem to waste any time on National Signing Day Wednesday. He wanted to single out one of the Illinois recruits right away.

Beckman picked on Mount Carmel defensive lineman Vontrell Williams — but the first-year Illinois coach picked on Williams in a good way.

“I’m excited about this recruiting class,” Beckman said. “There is only one [recruit] I will point out and that is Vontrell Williams. He was one of the first to commit to the previous staff [of former coach Ron Zook] and he was involved in Toledo recruiting [when Beckman was the head coach]. I’ve known him or quite some time.”

The 6-2, 275-pound Williams is a three-star recruit according to Rivals.com and was the No. 16-ranked recruit in the state.

Beckman and his new staff received letters of intent from 19 recruits: 14 skill players, four linemen and a kicker.

Beckman, who was hired in December, addressed the issue of recruiting the Chicago area. Since Mike Thomas was hired as Illinois’ athletic director in August, Thomas and the Illinois athletic department have somewhat challenged Northwestern’s marketing slogan of “Chicago’s Big Ten Team.” Beckman seems to want to recruit the Chicago area hard, and emphasizes a five-hour radius around Champaign that is going to be crucial to the Illini’s recruiting success.

“We were up there and we got in a little late,” Beckman said. “There were only a couple players not committed and we contacted everybody to see if they’d be interested. We were running behind on the clock, as they say.”

Among the other Chicago area recruits, Beckman’s class features offensive lineman Robbie Bain of Bolingbrook and J.J. Robertson of Lincoln-Way East.

Beckman was able to have enough pull in a short amount of time to get one recruit to change his mind, when Beckman picked up a defensive back in B.J. Bello of Lincoln-Way West. Bello decommitted from Western Michigan to join Beckman’s new regime at Illinois on Jan. 29. Beckman was able to keep all the Chicago area recruits that committed to Zook.

The class features six players from Ohio and five from Illinois and Florida and one each from Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. But most of the signees are two- and three-star players, according to Rivals.com. There isn’t that marquee four- or even a five-star player in the bunch.

Beckman did lose out on one recruit. Defensive tackle Vincent Valentine of Edwardsville chose Nebraska Wednesday over Illinois and Florida.

Rivals.com ranks Illinois’ recruiting class as 10th best in the Big Ten, behind Northwestern, but ahead of Indiana and Minnesota. And Scout.com has the Illini ranked last in the Big Ten.

The Illini will also have a committed walk-on in long snapper Michael Martin of Champaign Centennial.

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