On a night, when a couple Illinois football players were moving on to the next level, a new high profile playmaker was coming to them. On NFL Draft night (round one) Whitney Mercilus was selected by the Houston Texans and AJ Jenkins by the San Francisco 49ers. So you might have missed this story.
According to Rivals, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Wisconsin were among the schools to offer new Illini QB Aaron Bailey. He’s ranked as the No. 4 QB in the nation by Rivals, No. 6 by Scout in the “dual threat” category. Among ALL QBs in the Class of 2013, new Illini Aaron Bailey is ranked No. 9 by Rivals and No. 6 by Scout. Bailey verbally committed Thursday night.
So this is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge get for Tim Beckman. Even if Ron Zook claimed credit for landing the Bolingbrook signal caller.
“That quarterback committed to me last fall,” Zook said. “He’s a good player.” (Illini HQ)
But the Zooker needs to say something to save face. We just saw four of his players go in the top 48 in the NFL draft. Including all second round and then the third picks, that’s tied with LSU and Stanford, for second most. The only school with more was Alabama with five. ‘Bama and LSU played for the title, Stanford was in the BCS, Illinois was…..7-6. So you can understand why the finger is pointed at Zook now for the underachieving.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, MSN and Fox Sports
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