Prospect's Osei drops NIU in favor of Illinois

Miles Osei called an audible on his college football plans.

The Prospect senior quarterback verbally committed to Northern Illinois in mid-December. But on Saturday he changed directions with a verbal commitment to Illinois.

"The last couple of weeks I really thought about it hard," Osei said of de-committing from Northern. "I decided to really get down to it, talk to my family about it and get as much information as I could about both schools.

"I came to the conclusion U of I was the best place for me."

The 6-foot-2, 194-pound Osei was a three-year varsity starter for Prospect. He passed for 4,498 yards and 38 touchdowns and rushed for 2,426 and 39 touchdowns in all-area junior and senior seasons.

Right after he committed to Northern, Illinois hired Paul Petrino from Arkansas as offensive coordinator and former NFL quarterback Jeff Brohm as the quarterbacks coach.

Petrino immediately targeted Osei as an option to replace Juice Williams at quarterback. He will be part of the group competing for a starting spot next season along with Downers Grove South's Chandler Whitmer.

"Coach Petrino is very energetic and seems ready to turn this around and get Illinois back up again," Osei said of a program that suffered two losing seasons after going to the Rose Bowl. "He wanted me to come in and play quarterback.

"It was cool because they had all these kids around the nation they could have recruited. I was the first one they went to out of all the kids in the nation and that was a pretty big deal, too."

Osei said after committing to Northern Illinois he was willing to listen to schools that still wanted to talk. He also got post-commitment offers from Wyoming and Bowling Green.

As time went on he felt more and more comfortable when he talked to Petrino, Brohm, head coach Ron Zook and assistant Dan Disch. The rumblings about Zook's tenuous future in Champaign didn't bother Osei.

"I'm pretty sure Petrino and Brohm will be there the next couple of years and coach Zook will be there, too," Osei said.

Osei has believed all along he has the ability to play at a level such as the Big Ten Conference. Now he'll get that chance.

But the tough part was making the call with the bad news for Northern Illinois and head coach Jerry Kill.

"They gave me my first offer and have been with me the whole time," Osei said. "It was easily the hardest decision I've made in my life.

"The school and coaching staff at Northern are phenomenal and it was very hard. As soon as I made the decision I wanted to call them myself and let them know because I really appreciated what Northern has done.

"They were shocked and obviously disappointed a little bit. But they said they want me to go to the school they feel is best for me and coach Kill said if I have a change of heart to make sure to let us know and I appreciated that."