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Illinois Football: Devodrick Johnson Commits to Texas A&M

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Illinois football team has made a hard push for multiple players in the class of 2017.

Getting quality players needs to be a huge focus for Lovie Smith and his coaching staff. This is why Devodrick Johnson was a top priority.

Tonight Johnson announced that he will be committing to Texas A&M.

Johnson is a 4-star outside linebacker from Dallas, Texas. He is listed as the No. 320 player in the class of 2017 and the No. 43 player in the state of Texas.

The recruitment of Johnson hasn’t been a smooth road. He originally took an unofficial visit to Texas A&M back on July 14.

That same day, Johnson decided to make a commitment and pledged his services to the Aggies.

But, Johnson’s recruitment didn’t end there.

On August 5, Johnson decided to take an unofficial visit to Texas. Three days later he decides to back away from his commitment to the Aggies.

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Since that decommitment, Johnson has visited Texas A&M on October 8 for an unofficial. But, the only official visit he decided to take was to Illinois on October 28.

If you really break it down, Johnson’s recruitment is was clearly between three teams, Texas A&M, Texas and Illinois.

Texas A&M really received a great outside linebacker for the class of 2017. He is going to be a special player and I had really hoped we would see him in orange and blue.

But, now the Illini have to move on and attempt to snag some other big fish.

There are a decent amount of solid recruits still eyeing the Illini. I recently posted a top 10 list of recruits the Illini need to snag.

A few defensive players that I want Illinois to get are Howard Watkins and Bobby Roundtree.

Watkins is a defensive tackle that is 6-foot-5 and weighs 280-pounds. With Lovie and Nickerson teaching him more skills on the football field, I think he could turn into quite a player.

Roundtree could potentially be the next great defensive end for the Illini. He has the size at 6-foot-5 and I think he will be special if he decides to come to Champaign.

So, despite losing out on Johnson, which hurts don’t get me wrong, Illinois still has a great deal of players still available for a possible commitment.

Hopefully, Lovie and his staff can snag some more quality players and build the class of 2017 into a top 50 ranked class. I think this will happen and We Will Win.

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