Belleville (Ill.) Althoff senior offensive tackle recruit Jordyn Slaughter (6-foot-5, 295 pounds) decided to end his recruiting process today and gave the University of Illinois his verbal commitment. Slaughter talks about his decision here.
"Once Illinois offered me last weekend it was pretty much over," Slaughter said. "I just feel very at home at Illinois. Staying closer to home and then also getting to play for a great school like Illinois in the Big Ten is something that just doesn't happen too often, so I committed."
Slaughter went into details on why he ended his recruiting process today.
"I just really love everything that Illinois has to offer. I really like the coaches at Illinois and they also offer a great education. My family can come to all my games and that was also an important factor to me. I also really enjoyed just working with Coach (Luke) Butkus at the Illinois camp and I just feel like I'll be a great fit at Illinois. We really haven't talked any specifics when it comes to position in college, but it really doesn't matter to me at all. I can play anywhere on the offensive line they want me to play."
Slaughter, who was able to landed multiple scholarship offers this spring and summer talked about what he feels was an important transformation in his game from a year ago.
"Last year I just wasn't aggressive enough and that really showed on my junior tape. I decided to really work hard this winter and I really focused hard on just getting better and improving my entire game and my entire approach. I went to several camps and I also worked with some great coaches who really helped me along the way. I just feel I'm so much better of a play than I showed last year, and I'm just happy schools took notice."
Slaughter is also thrilled to have his college choice wrapped up this summer.
"I'm all done and I'm fully committed to Illinois. I just want to work hard and now focus on getting my team a state title this season."
Slaughter is now the fourth known verbal commitment in the Fighting Illini's Class of 2018, a class that so far is all in-state pledges. Slaughter joins Danville OT Julian Pearl, Peoria QB Coran Taylor and Oswego East DB Antwain Walker in it's Class of 2018.
Jordyn Slaughter is verbally committed to Illinois.
