Both Illinois and Northern Illinois have added verbal commitments over the past 24 hours or so.
West Aurora three-star ranked safety Drake Spears (6-foot-1, 202 pounds) made an on-campus visit Friday with his family and gave the Fighting Illini his verbal commitment.
"It was always Illinois all along," Spears said. "I waited this spring but I was ready to commit awhile ago."
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Spears, who also considered offers from Western Michigan and UConn is now the fifth known commitment in the Illinois Class of 2016 and the fourth in-state pledge. Spears joins Rockford Auburn athlete Juwaune Parchman, O'Fallon running back Kentrail Moran and Phillips linebacker Amani Jones as in-state commitments.
On Thursday Northern Illinois head coach Rod Carey offered a scholarship to McHenry senior tight end/linebacker recruit Corey Lersch (6-foot-4, 210 pounds).
"I've just always have loved NIU," Lersch said. "It's close to home, they offer a great education and they have been a winning program. I know that it's a great school plus my parents will be able to see all of my games which is also important to me."
Lersch, who started the NIU one day camp on Wednesday at tight end, was moved over to linebacker and that move caught the attention of the Huskies coaches.
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"I started off the NIU camp at tight end and was doing pretty well," Lersch said. "One of the NIU coaches said he wanted to see what I could do at linebacker so they moved me over to linebacker. The coaches all came over and watched me play linebacker and they liked what they saw from me."
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Lersch is the third known verbal commitment to the NIU Huskies and joins Mount Camel quarterback Anthony Thompson and Loyola Academy defensive tackle Ben LeRoy.