Redbird Football Signs 12, Adds FBS Transfer On Early Signing Day

NORMAL, Ill. - ISU head coach Brock Spack and his staff announced the 2020 Illinois State football early signing class Wednesday, as 12 student-athletes signed National Letters of Intent on National Signing Day and an FBS transfer were added to the roster. 

The group includes seven offensive players, five defensive standouts and one kicker. Four signees hail from the state of Illinois, with two from Texas and Wisconsin and one each from Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio. 

"We are always going to try to take care of recruits in our home state, and I think we got some really quality players from Illinois in this early class," ISU head coach Brock Spack said. "We spread to some of normal recruiting areas in Texas and Wisconsin to find some quality talent, and branched out to some new spots in Iowa, Ohio and Georgia. Overall, we think this class has a lot of potential and we will continue to work hard to add to this class over the next month or so until the February signing period."

With three linebackers lost to graduation, Spack and staff worked hard to improve the depth at that position with the signing of two prep star linebackers in Darrell Talley III and Darius Walker and the addition of FBS transfer Shanon Reid. The rest of the defensive additions included defensive end D'Marco Cross out of Jefferson, Indiana, and safety LaVoise-Deontae McCoy, the brother of former ISU football captain Dontae McCoy.

"We paid a lot of attention to the defensive side of the football, making sure we added some depth there," Spack stated. "Our defense has a lot of starters returning next season and we like a lot of our young players already in the program, but we needed to fill some key holes and I think we did that. We also took three linemen (one defensive, two offensive) in this class, which is always important to make sure you are strong up front on both sides of the ball."

Offensive linemen Justin Bromagen and Ben May add to the big offensive front for the Redbirds and pair of talented tight ends in Javon Charles and Brett Spaulding will bring depth to the running and passing game. Running back Rashad Lampkin adds to a deep running back room for the Redbirds that will be looking to fill the void left by All-American James Robinson, and wide receiver TreShawn Watson adds a big target for quarterback Jackson Waring to throw to in the future. Kicker Adam Saul rounds out the group and will compete for the starting spot vacated senior Sam Fenlason in 2020.

"With each class, we like to find some guys that can come right in and contribute for us if we can," Spack said. "Those guys have to fit our culture of character and responsibility here and we want players who strive to achieve, both on the field and in the classroom. In recent classes, we've been able to do that well as many of our recent recruits were key to the success of our program in 2019. We hope this class continues that trend and I'm sure that you will know some of these names very soon."