Green likes to run, so he rushes to Illini

Remember last February when Ron Zook said this about his recruiting class of 2008: "In my opinion this is the best class I've ever been around."

Zook repeated that opinion after many of his recruits played significant snaps during the otherwise underwhelming 2008 season.

Now that you've recalled those statements, forget them. Zook has a new leader in his clubhouse.

"Really, I was probably more excited about this class than last year," Zook said. "I'm ready to go to Rantoul right now."

After some last-minute wins and losses in the recruiting wars, Illinois wound up with 19 prep standouts Wednesday and a fifth-place Big Ten ranking from Rivals.com and Scout.com.

Though the Illini lost East St. Louis wideout Kraig Appleton to Wisconsin and Jacksonville, Fla., linebacker Sam Barrington to South Florida, they lured Louisville running back Justin Green out of his Ohio State commitment.

Considering Green's older brother Marcus played defensive line for Jim Tressel and the Bucks, how did Zook attract Kentucky's reigning sprints king?

By figuratively waving the football in front of his nose.

Ohio State recruited Green to play defensive back, but the nation's No. 82 prospect (per Rivals) rushed 155 times for 1,069 yards and 21 TDs as a senior and wanted to add to those totals in college.

"He had a lot of pressure to go to Ohio State, but in his heart this is what he wanted to do," Zook said. "Coach (Kurt) Beathard just stayed on him, kept on him, and he wanted to be a running back."

East St. Louis receiver Terry "Black Cat" Hawthorne represents Illinois' other Top 100 prospect. Hawthorne, who's No. 58 nationally per Rivals, spurned a late push from BCS title-game runner-up Oklahoma to keep the promise he made to Illinois in July.

"Terry asked if he could take a visit," Zook said. "I feel confident enough about our program and what we have to sell here and our people - we're asking them to trust us, I think we have to trust them."

Illinois attracted just four players from the Chicago area, which represents its smallest number in at least a decade.

Leo linemen Leon Hill and Lendell Buckner kicked off the class last February, then Thornton fullback Greg Fuller committed during the fall.

But Homewood-Flossmoor defensive end Michael Buchanan provided a nice finishing kick when the four-star prospect committed to Illinois over Purdue on Tuesday.

Coincidentally, Buchanan's letter of intent was the last to come over Illinois' fax machine Wednesday. His recruitment reiterated how nimble you need to be when changing coaches in the off-season.

Defensive-line coach Keith Gilmore, who switched from Cincinnati to Illinois a few weeks ago, flew straight from Cincy to Chicago to meet Buchanan without seeing Champaign first.

"Michael is obviously a guy that's very, very talented," Zook said. "He's going to be a linebacker/defensive end type of guy that can rush the passer, stand up, drop in coverage, blitz the quarterback, all those type of things."