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Illini keep Fitzgerald at home

Champaign (Ill.) Centennial junior quarterback recruit Jimmy Fitzgerald (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) gave Illinois and head coach Tim Beckman his verbal commitment today at the Illini Junior Day. Fitzgerald talks about his decision here.
"I just gave Coach (Tim) Beckman my verbal commitment," Fitzgerald said. "I'm just very excited to be a part of the program at Illinois. I knew that I wanted to commit today and I'm just very excited about my decision and so is my family."
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Fitzgerald talked about why he decided to commit to the Fighting Illini.
"I'm excited about the future at Illinois and I'm excited to play for Coach (Tim) Beckman and Coach (Bill) Cubit. Illinois has some great players already and now I want to help Illinois keep some of the top recruits in my recruiting class here. I want to lead the recruiting efforts and help Illinois build a great recruiting class. Illinois really has everything I was looking for in a school. They offer great academics, great facilities and also the chance to help the program I grew up watching. Staying here and playing for my hometown team was always something I considered. Once I had a chance to see where the program was heading and to get to know the coaches I was sold. I'm happy to make my decision and now I can focus on school and my remaining high school career and not worry about recruiting."
Fitzgerald also talked about why he decided to commit early.
"You see kids already making early verbal commitment in my class and I felt a bit of pressure more from myself to make an early commitment. The reality is that quarterbacks will commit early and I just felt like I found the place I wanted to go to school so why wait. I didn't want the opportunity at Illinois to pass me. I talked it over with my family and they agreed I was making a great decision in Illinois."
Fitzgerald is also ready to become a lead recruiter for the Fighting Illini Class of 2015.
"I've been able to get to know a lot of the kids in this class already. I want to make sure they know that I want them to also choose Illinois. I'm going to try hard to make this a great recruiting class. I want the best in this class to make staying in state and playing for Illinois a factor and something they will really look hard at when they make their college choice."
Jimmy Fitzgerald is verbally committed to Illinois.
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