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Another few days pass, another football player joins the 2015 class of Fighting Illini.
This one is a JUCO offensive lineman from California named Zach Heath. Heath joins fellow offensive line commits Gabe Megginson, Adam Solomon, and Zeke Martin. Heath primarily played center at American River Community College, but he's actually a pretty big boy.
Heath comes in at six-foot-four and 285 pounds, which is on the large side for a center. Zach's film mostly consisted of him running over people, which is always good but is partially the product of some weaker competition. I would not be surprised if he moved to a guard spot with the Illini, but I would be surprised if he ends up at tackle. Perhaps the best bet is his current position, because prior experience at center is quite valuable.
Now for the rankings round-up. Heath is a rather confusing case, mostly because it seems that recruiting services saw him as a bit of an afterthought in this class. Zach actually committed to Western Kentucky last year, but didn't go through with it for an apparent family reason.
Regardless, Heath is listed as a two-star at both 247Sports and Rivals, and the only offer listed comes from Illinois (ED: @illinination14 tells me that his Twitter account shows offers from Cincinnati, New Mexico, Utah State, and San Jose State). He took an unofficial visit to Illinois last weekend. The primary recruiters were Superstar Recruiting Extraordinaire Alex Golesh and A.J Ricker.
After a long journey Of chasing my dream of playing D1 football I'm committing to university of Illinois!! @CoachGolesh @CoachrickerUI
— Zach Heath (@zheata) July 2, 2014
That's about it for the facts this commitment. Overall, it's an interesting one. Heath will have a good chance to contribute at Illinois, given that he will have three years to get onto the depth chart. He fits in well with the rest of the OL class, given that he projects as a center and the other three are set up to be either guards or tackles.
At the very least, this is a nice fit and Heath should provide depth in the coming years. Let's try to handle this commitment a bit better than last time, Illini nation. Hopefully, Miles Boykin commits to the Illini tomorrow (highly unlikely, but fun to dream) and this staff can keep their momentum going!
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