Fighting Illini Snag Highly-Rated Recruiting Class

Following a season that ended in a bowl berth for the first time in a couple of years, the Fighting Illini have given fans additional reasons for optimism about the future.

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This year's recruiting class is ranked No. 45 nationally and No. 7 in the Big Ten by 247Sports.com. A big reason for the high praise is the addition of two top-level athletes at the last minute:

Defensive tackle Jamal Milan, a three-star recruit from Raby High School, picked Illinois over offers from Minnesota, Indiana and Iowa State.

Ke'Shawn Vaughn, a four-star running back from Nashville, Tenn., picked Illinois over West Virginia, Louisville and Purdue.

A website that closely follows Fighting Illini sports, The Champaign Room, makes the case the Class of 2015 is the finest recruiting class in quite some time:

This is trending upwards. This is looking at the middle class of the conference and declaring that what was theirs is yours now and they can back off or be bloodied.

You can look at that commitment list and see who will be taking over for Josh Ferguson (Ke'Shawn Vaughn), Wes Lunt (Jimmy Fitzgerald), V'Angelo Bentley (Cameron Watkins), Geronimo Allison (Sam Mays), and Matt LaCosse (Andrew Davis). You can see the new anchors on both sides of the line (Gabe Megginson and Jamal Milan). There is a battalion of new offensive linemen and running backs they'll protect. There's a linebacking corps and the secondary that will support them.

What's the reason for the sudden improvement? In a word, winning. Coming off a decent season with three straight years of increased win totals, Coach Tim Beckman apparently has sold recruits that the entire program is on the upswing.