Ep. 992 - Ryan Easterling on how Illini are building special 2026 recruiting class
Illini Inquirer Podcast: An Illinois Fighting Illini athletics podcast
247Sports, Illinois, Illinois Football, Illinois Basketball, Illinois Athletics, College Football, C
4.9 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Illini Inquirer's Jeremy Werner discusses the non-compete clauses in Bret Bielema and Brad Underwood's contract extensions, Illini golf's disappointing weekend at the NCAA Championships and Terrence Shannon Jr.'s NBA impact. Then Ryan Easterling joins to discuss how Bret Bielema is building the Illini's highest-ranked recruiting class in more than a decade and a half, what he thinks of in-state commits Nasir Rankin and King Liggins and upcoming official visitors.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the Lion Inquirer podcast, Ryan Eastern, Line Inquirer joins us today. |
| 0:18.9 | Give his thoughts on Nassir Ranking, King Liggins committing, |
| 0:22.2 | and what Illinois has coming up in football recruiting. Also, just getting to Ryan's thoughts |
| 0:27.4 | about the 2025 season ahead. We talk to Ryan a lot about recruiting because that's where his |
| 0:32.3 | expertise has been, but I want to get his thoughts on the roster moving forward. So it was |
| 0:37.1 | fun to catch up with Ryan about all of that |
| 0:39.7 | But before we get into that the few things I want to hit on as we had in the news during the Memorial Day weekend and hopefully |
| 0:45.5 | You and your family's had a good Memorial Day weekend and spent at least part of it |
| 0:49.7 | Thinking about what this holiday is for the solemn occasion it, but the grateful and thankful occasion that it is. |
| 0:57.1 | So I can't thank the soldiers enough who've given the ultimate sacrifice for us. |
| 1:02.2 | So hopefully you gave a little time to that over the weekend. |
| 1:05.8 | But got the documents of Illinois football and basketball's extensions for Brad Underwood, |
| 1:12.0 | head basketball coach, and Brett Beulma, the head football coach, and the most interesting |
| 1:16.7 | parts of this. We knew the salaries. We get to know a little bit more about the bonus structure |
| 1:21.1 | and all of that. We don't have the full details of the contract, but what the Board of Trustees |
| 1:26.8 | approved is that Brad |
| 1:28.7 | Underwood has a non-compete clause with any other NCAA program during his entire contract, |
| 1:36.4 | which could be all the way through 2035, v. It's all these one-year contract extensions. |
| 1:41.7 | So he has a non-compete clause with any other college basketball program. |
| 1:46.6 | So that means he's not going anywhere else. |
| 1:48.5 | So we don't got to worry about Kansas State or Texas or all of those things. |
| 1:52.8 | And the only phrase that could change that is unless certain material changes have occurred, |
... |
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