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JUCO defensive tackle picks Illinois over other FBS offers

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Illinois’ defensive line is getting a nice addition via the 2020 recruiting class.

On Sunday, junior college defensive tackle Anthony Shipton announced that he will be committing to Illinois to continue his college football career. It’s a huge addition for Lovie Smith and the Illini, as the 2020 recruiting class has been low on numbers.

Shipton made the commitment official via a Twitter post.

“All I gotta say is I’m honored and blessed to say that I have committed to the University of Illinois,” Shipton wrote. “Thank you to all the coaching staff at Illinois. I’m a Fighting Illini!”

Shipton is a 6-foot-5, 290-pound defensive tackle from Cerritos College in California. He held four offers, selecting Illinois over Arizona, Hawai’i and UTEP. He does not currently have any rankings on 247Sports.

In the 2019 season, Shipton tallied 4o tackles for Cerritos while appearing in 11 games. He totaled four sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss and forced a fumble for the year.

With Shipton’s commitment, Illinois now has 10 members in its 2020 recruiting class, a low total for this point in the year. The Early Signing Period is on Dec. 19.

Illinois’ 2020 class ranks 13th in the B1G and 91st nationally.

 

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB