Illini Pick Up Preferred Walk-On Running Back

It's not the kind of commitment we're used to reporting, but the Illini picked up a running back from Glenbrook North.

Grant Rushing will come to Champaign as a preferred walk-on next season. Rushing, besides having a good name for a running back, rushed for over 3,351 yards and 48 touchdowns during his high school career and checks in at 6'1 and 205 pounds. Whether or not he'll be playing running back with the Illini remains to be seen.

"It's awesome," Rushing told CSLInsider of finding a home at Illinois. "My goal of recruiting was to play in the Big Ten and that's all I wanted. It was kind of heartbreaking knowing that my football career was ending, then this came up and I couldn't have asked for anything better.

"I knew going in (to my senior year) it would be a hard process, but I never expected it to be this difficult. It was very frustrating at times because nothing really clicked for me when I took visits, and not that I expected everything to fall in place, but I never found something that fit me. It was very frustrating to go through that for so long. I'm honored and humbled to have this experience in front of me now."

According to CSLInsider, Rushing was named Central Suburban League North offensive player of the year in both his sophomore and senior seasons. He missed half his junior year with a shoulder injury. Still, with those accolades and his production in high school, it's possible the Illini found themselves a gem this late in the game.

Aside from Illinois, Rushing was receiving interest, but no offers, from Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Illinois State. Where Western Illinois was in all of this, I don't know.

Anyway, bodies are bodies at this point, and if Rushing turns out to be a contributor, great. If not, oh well. He's not going to be using up a scholarship, and if he ever gets one it'll be because he earned it.

Rushing is the second late addition to the 2013 class, following junior college tight end Trevor Kanteman two weeks ago.

Here's some tape of Rushing from 2011.

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