Transfer cornerbacks provide much-needed experience (2024)

CHAMPAIGN — The Illinois football staff mined the transfer portal with intent this offseason. Real positions of need to address.

Like offensive and defensive line. The former was a position Illini coach Bret Bielema said he would never be caught short on again. The latter will have all three of last year’s starters, led by second-round pick Johnny Newton, in NFL training camps next month.

So it wasn’t a surprise when Bielema and Co. used the first portal window to address both position groups. Landing offensive line transfers J.C. Davis (New Mexico), Melvin Priestly (Grambling) and Kevin Wigenton II (Michigan State) might yield three starters. Dennis Briggs Jr. (Florida State), Enyce Sledge (Auburn) and Gentle Hunt (Florida A&M) helped shore up the defensive front.

Plug and play. That’s Illinois’ portal preference.

“What we’ve treated the portal world window is trying to address needs we have immediately on our football team,” Bielema said. “Guys that we felt we needed an immediate impact in the room depth-wise has been a huge emphasis.”

Illinois used the second portal window to similarly address the top remaining question mark on its roster.

Xavier Scott’s 11 starts last season are more than the rest of Illinois’ cornerbacks combined. A situation created in part by Taz Nicholson transferring to Louisville (after a brief commitment to Mississippi). Losing Zachary Tobe to Georgia Tech after he made three starts in 10 games as a true freshman in 2023 didn’t help, either.

Defensive coordinator Aaron Henry has been pleased with the progress his young cornerbacks made during the spring and through the first half of summer workouts. But adding experience at the position was a necessity.

Terrance Brooks (Texas) and Torrie Cox Jr. (Ohio), both the sons of former NFL defensive backs, solved that problem.

“When you add those two guys in the room, they have probably played more football games —those two guys alone — than our whole secondary combined,” Henry said. Cox made 23 starts in 24 games for the Bobcats, and Brooks had 16 starts in 23 games for the Longhorns.

“I can remember (North Carolina State coach) Dave Doeren once telling me experience is the best teacher,” Henry continued. “You can have guys who may not be as athletic — 4.3, right, jumping out of the gym — but if they’ve got experience, that’s something you can’t really make up for. You like guys who have just played a little more football. That’s one thing I felt Terrance and Torrie bring.

“They understand the game and they understand the pressure situations. Those are things that are really, really hard to teach unless you’re in that setting. Both of those guys played in some big-time games, and we’re really excited about them.”

Brooks and Cox hit the transfer sweet spot given their experience the past two years and the fact both have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

The 5-foot-9 Cox, a Florida native like 35 percent of Illinois’ defensive backs, had 69 tackles, six pass breakups, five tackles for loss and three interceptions in his two seasons on the field at Ohio. Brooks, a former five-star recruit ranked as high as No. 24 nationally in the Class of 2022 by On3, earned All-Big 12 honorable-mention status last fall after helping the Longhorns win a conference title and reach the College Football Playoff.

Suitors aplenty existed for Brooks. Illinois won out.

Partly because of the number of defensive backs it has sent to the NFL in the Bielema era, with Kerby Joseph, Tony Adams, Devon Witherspoon, Quan Martin and Sydney Brown all starters. And partly because of the connection Henry was able to make with Brooks’ parents.

“I didn’t have a chance to really talk to Terrance until probably about two days before he came up on his (official visit),” Henry said. “I was talking to mom and dad. The guy is super talented, but everybody is throwing numbers and this and that. Dad just wanted somebody that was genuine and real that was going to develop his son.

“When you get to the meat and potatoes of things, there are still families out there that want the real. They fell in line with how we operate, and it was a match made in heaven. I’m sure that dude had offers of all kinds of stuff NIL-wise and I’m sure he could have chosen differently, but that family wanted development. What greater sell of development than the University of Illinois.”