Illinois Football Recruiting: Three-star offensive lineman Jake Cerny commits to Illini

The Fighting Illini received a verbal commitment from 2016 offensive lineman Jake Cerny on Sunday; the Michigan native is rated as a three-star recruit by both Scout and 247Sports. Cerny selected Illinois over Cincinnati, Western Michigan, Toledo, Buffalo, and other offers. The news was first reported by Doug Bucshon of Rivals.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="http://t.co/L0gVmF5uk4">pic.twitter.com/L0gVmF5uk4</a></p>&mdash; Cernation  (@cernyjacob) <a href="https://twitter.com/cernyjacob/status/630505348026236928">August 9, 2015</a></blockquote>

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On May 3rd at Nike's 'The Opening' in Chicago, Cerny was measured at 6'5, 288 pounds. You can view the results of his physical tests here, but his overall SPARQ rating was 62.52.

Highlights

Evaluation (via Scout player profile)

Fundamentally sound lineman with great intangibles. Smart, but also a solid athlete with good feet. Plays with good balance and bend, does a good job in the run game and should be even better going forward as he has continued to get bigger and stronger. Good technique in pass protection, but can still get faster and more explosive to deal with high-end speed rushers. We see him as a swing guy who can play tackle or guard in college.

Illinois' 2016 recruiting class now has a total of 13 members--that's pretty good considering the question marks surrounding the coaching staff this offseason. The program will still be looking to add another five, maybe six players on or before signing day, but with a solid group of players already in the fold they'll be able to roll the dice on some of their higher-profile targets. Here's what the Illini already have lined up:

*****

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