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Bret Bielema came away from his Saturday visit to central Illinois very impressed.
The Illinois head football coach addressed the media Sunday, heaping on some high praise for the talented of the junior class in Illinois. Dunlap’s Mack Sutter and JC Anderson of Mt. Zion are both four-star junior tight ends and list Illinois among their finalists.
“The (class of) 2026 in the state of Illinois is loaded, but also downstate,” Bielema said. “I was at a basketball game last night that I watched a young man play, because what I know and what I’ve seen, this kid will not only be a player in college. He’ll play in the NFL.”
Related: Illinois football coach visits Dunlap to watch Mack Sutter play basketball
Coincidentally, Bielema watched Sutter suit up in a game against Pekin on Saturday where he scored 23 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound guard/forward helped the Eagles erase a double-digit deficit to pull out a 62-55 victory.
Sutter shared the Bielema video, adding an emoji of a hand pointing down to the post. The video was originally shared by Carson Gourdie, who is a sports anchor for WICS-TV 20 in Champaign.
Bielema is the third Big Ten Conference coach to visit Dunlap High School in the last 10 days, joining James Franklin (Penn State) and Kirk Ferentz (Iowa).
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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Illinois football recruiting: Bret Bielema on Class of 2026 recruits Mack Sutter, JC Anderson
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/hell-play-nfl-illinois-coach-023240672.html
Author : Journal Star
Publish date : 2025-01-28 02:32:00
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