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Linebacker T.J. Neal to transfer from Illinois

The junior had 109 tackles last season.

Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports

The hits just keep coming for Fighting Illini Football. Just a day after six players announced their departure, linebacker T.J. Neal told the News-Gazette's Bob Asmussen that he plans to do the same. Neal, a two-year starter, was second on the team in tackles last season (109) and he'll be eligible to play immediately for another program.

Based on the tone of Bill Cubit's quotes in the above article you can tell that he's, well, not exactly pleased with this latest development. But that's understandable because is a huge loss for Illinois. Huge. Neal's departure means the Illini will be without six of their top seven returning tacklers, and the team doesn't exactly have linebacker depth to deal with this, either.

UPDATE (11:15 am)

According to Bill Cubit, T.J. Neal will be blocked from transferring to any school on Illinois' 2016 schedule.

UPDATE (12:50 pm)

Here's a statement that T.J. Neal issued from his Twitter account. It's the exact same as what B.J. Bello shared when he announced his transfer yesterday.