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2016 linebacker Tim Walton decommits from Illinois following visit to Syracuse

The three-star prospect made it official after a visit to Syracuse.

By Jim Vainisi

On Monday afternoon, class-of-2016 linebacker Tim Walton took to Twitter to announce his decommitment from Illinois. The Detroit, MI native originally committed to Illinois back in August, and is rated as a consensus three-star prospect by the major recruiting outlets. Walton recentely took a visit to Syracuse so he'll presumably end up playing for new head coach Dino Babers.

Walton is the third decommitment that Illinois has suffered in the past week, with four-star running back Kentrail Moran and three-star defensive lineman Joshua Black being the others. The bad news? There could be least one more on the way. Three-star defensive tackle Antonio Shelton has recently taken official visits to Rutgers and Penn State and is evidently on the verge of changing his mind. So, yea, the situation in Champaign can -- and probably will -- get worse before Signing Day.

But what does Illinois have, you ask? According to 247Sports, the Fighting Illini can proudly boast the nation's No. 65 overall recruiting class. That's worse than UAB. You know, the school that won't field a football team again until 2017.

As a community member pointed out in the comments of this post, the average Illinois recruit rating is third-lowest amongst Power Five schools (Purdue and Boston College are worse). That's, uh, not ideal. At least the university didn't give the Offensive Coordinator/Recruiting Coordinator an undeserved 400% raise, right?

Wait, they did? Damn. They'll probably regret that.