Welcome in to the online inquire podcast. It is Jeremy Warner and Joey Wagner and

and I are about to fly out to Orlando, get ready for a week of Citrus Bull coverage.

But before we do that, we wanted to get on this podcast because we have plenty to talk about with Illinois football.

We have so much to catch up on here with six transfer additions, Joey Wagner so far for Illinois.

And boy, they've had some big ones here recently. They've

had four defensive linemen, a wide receiver, and a backup quarterback who has starting

experience at the FBS level. We're awaiting decisions on Gabe Accus and Xavier Scott,

but also J.C. Davis could have another year of eligibility, or it does if he wants it.

And Zai Crisler has another year of eligibility because of the Pavia case and he has decided to enter the transfer portal. We'll talk about that is not surprising for us. But Joey, we got a lot to catch up on before we head to Orlando, talk all about this bowl game. There's a lot of roster stuff going on right now. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

I remember actually being in Tampa two years ago, and roster stuff happened when we were in Tampa.

So I think that we're not going to be totally out of the woods on roster building conversation,

Jeremy, when we get to Orlando, but it's been a big week, I guess.

It's quiet, a couple, quiet 10 days, and things start to really pick up here over the last four or five. And I'm always retooled us defensive line. And I know we're going to get into that, Jeremy. That, to me, is the biggest story so far with the transfer portal. Yeah, speaking of Tampa, I remember where I was when Luke Altmeier committed. We were at Hattricks. We were at Hattricks. I think we're trying to get to Hattricks and it was like an hour

We're trying because we podded from the hotel. They had a nice little setup outside and it was nice enough. And in fact, I think Word started kind of picking up on our drive. We were probably somewhere in Atlanta when phone started going off and it became clear that Luke Altmeyer in Illinois were probably

going to pair up. And that's turned out pretty well, Jeremy, for Illinois. Yeah, that has. I remember that's when some of the hirings were happening. So that's the weird part is like we are preparing to go. I sent like you a list of stories last night on Christmas night. I'm just starting to think, oh, I got to cover a lot of things in a couple days. and a lot of this stuff is roster stuff.

I want to ask the staff about who in a couple days. And a lot of this stuff is roster

stuff. I want to ask the staff about who they're bringing in and what they are. Of course, we'll focus on the game, but it just feels like big picture, Joey. More of these roster editions are as important as the game we're about to cover. Yeah, and not only new faces on the roster, but you think back to that Reliacquest Bowl,

and you see Matthew Bailey have moments, and you see, I remember we talked to Kenina O'Daluga after the game, and Xavier Scott had a big role with Devin Witherspoon. So not only new faces, but guys, Aaron Henry was in his first game as a defensive play caller. So it's not only new guys you've got to ask about,

but kind of seeing maybe a jumping off point

for some of these guys. They go into spring ball and what that could look like for Illinois, especially at wide receiver, which we're going to get into here. All right, Joey, let's talk about it. You mentioned it. The big story so far is remaking this defensive front. When we talked about what the marquee additions would be, we talked

about wide receiver, and we will talk about whether Justin Bullock is that marquee edition. We talked

about offensive tackle, which it turns out the marquee edition might be your own player in J.C. Davis.

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