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Illinois Football: Illini Make Top 5 for Bobby Roundtree
As the Illinois football team continues to look for answers on the football field, they are getting close to securing more recruits off the field.
The latest recruit to cut his list down is Bobby Roundtree.
Roundtree took to Twitter today to cut his list to just five schools in no specific order. These schools include Indiana, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, and Illinois.
There are some pretty solid schools on his top five list and for obvious reasons.
Roundtree is listed as a solid 3-star recruit who is the No. 1290 player in the class of 2017 and the No. 205 player in the state of Florida.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into the recruiting rankings for Roundtree. I have said many times that in the states of Florida and Texas players can get lost because of the size of the states.
My guess is that Lovie Smith and his staff saw the size of Roundtree and can mold him from there. He stands at 6-foot-5 and weighs 215-pounds.
Roundtree is going to be a diamond in the rough and hopefully, Illinois can snag him and continue building for the future.
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In addition to Roundtree being a solid player, the Illini will need more defensive line help in the near future.
Illinois is losing their entire starting defensive lineman after this season. That leaves a lot of holes in the line and playing time to be had.
Jamal Milan is the only defensive lineman that is seeing extending playing time on the line that will be returning next season.
But, Milan is a defensive tackle, so they don’t even play the same position.
At the defensive end position, which Roundtree will be playing, the Illini are extremely thin and have a ton of question marks.
Depending on how quick Roundtree could develop, I think he has the chance at seeing playing time year one. But, I would assume they would redshirt him and build him up more before unleashing his talents.
Roundtree has a nice skill set that could translate at the college level. He is a very smart football player that can read where the play is going to go.
I also love Roundtree’s size and strength. He can get a nice push off the defense line and get to the quarterback. That is going to be a huge asset come 2017 or 2018.
The player Roundtree really reminds me off is a little thinner version of Jihad Ward.
Ward could always bull rush off the end but was smart and could drop back for a screen pass. Roundtree will continue to grow and I would bet he gets as big as Ward when he starts playing.
Being in the top five for Roundtree is great news for Illinois. If they can get him to commit then it would help bolster the defense in the future for Lovie and the Illini.
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