Illinois looks to have another year of dominant play from its defense with junior defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton set to be a key leader. Newton will be the face and the enforcer in the middle of the Fighting Illini defensive line.

Newton will be featured on CBS’s and Paramount Plus’ “CBS Sports Confidential: B1G Football 2023” on Sept. 2 where he was asked about his ‘Welcome to CFB’ moment. Newton talked about his first moment for Illinois at practice, where defensive tackles got engaged in an unfortunate play.

“My welcome to College Football moment, I got double-teamed the first play ever by Kendrick Green, who is a center for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Alex Palczewski, who is an offensive tackle for the Denver Broncos. I got double-teamed from them. That was when I realized that like that is serious, way more physical, stronger, quicker and it just opened my eyes right then and there and I knew I had to double down.”

https://twitter.com/CBSSportsCFB/status/1695826641405047268

Last season, Newton was named a first-team All-B1G selection where he accounted for 33 total tackles, 29 solo tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, three pass deflections and two fumble recoveries.

Illinois had the top-ranked scoring defense last season allowing only an average of 12.8 points per game.