CHAMPAIGN – It sure looked like the Illini had their foot in the door last winter, when two big commitments shook up the national analysts.

They couldn’t believe a football program like Illinois was actually securing signatures from players like Isaiah Williams of St. Louis Trinity Catholic and Marquez Beason from Texas prep powerhouse Duncanville. For sure, it was a big deal from a program that’s not had enough big wins on the field to help create some big wins on the recruiting trail.

Unfortunately for the Illini, it didn’t go from a foot in the door to kicking down the door during the rest of the recruiting season a year ago. The Illini weren’t able to parlay those major commitments from Williams and Beason into a big class on signing day last February.

But when the Illini host roughly 25 players on a key junior day Saturday for practice at Memorial Stadium and some face time with the program and coach Lovie Smith, there’s reason to believe the Illini are regaining some of the buzz from those two recruiting victories last year. While it didn’t pan out a year ago with more top commitments, it just might have been a year removed from kicking into gear.