Illinois Football: Illini Get 2017 Offensive Lineman Jake Stover

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:02 p.m. ET

Fansided, Rees Woodcock/FanSided via Writing Illini

The Illinois football team isn’t done with just 25 commitments for the class of 2017.

They decided to add another player to the list today as Jake Stover announced via Twitter that he has committed to the Illini.

Stover isn’t ranked by the recruiting sites but he looks to be a pretty big and important piece to the future.

Scout has Stover as a 6-foot-2, 300-pound offensive guard out of Chicago, Illinois.

This was a nice commitment for the Illinois football program. They needed to add depth to the offensive line and bringing in a player like Stover will help.

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Back in May of 2016, Stover attended the 2016 Midwest Showcase Showdown. He did pretty well in front of the programs that were there and even was recognized.

Ryan Easterling of Scout named him the overall MVP of the camp. This is a huge honor because the camp had some talented players and he was the best.

I am thinking Illinois snagged a very underrated kid in Stover. He wasn’t highly recruited but Illinois wanted him anyway.

This Illini program now has 26 commitments for 2017 and five of those players are offensive linemen. Stover now joins Vederian Lowe, Larry Boyd, Howard Watkins, and Alex Palczewski on the front lines protecting the quarterback.

I am guessing the plan for a player like Stover is to have him sit a while until he really gets the hang of the offensive line.

Stover will likely redshirt year one and then have to sit behind a few talented offensive linemen for a year or so. He will get a fair shot at making the first string, though.

This was a nice pickup for Lovie Smith and Luke Butkus. They needed more depth on the offensive line and getting Stover will help solve that problem.