The 91-degree heat that baked Champaign on Friday didn’t faze Florida native Corey Liuget as he and several other top Illini football prospects hit the Memorial Stadium turf for an afternoon workout.

“This is a little chilly, a little better than Florida,” Liuget said after the two-hour workout. “It’s a lovely day to practice.”

Some of the best high school football players in the country were in Champaign this weekend for unofficial visits with the Illini. Liuget, a defensive end from the Miami area, was one of three four-star recruits on campus. Washington Dunbar defensive tackle Reggie Ellis, Ohio running back Brandon Beachum and Liuget were all at Memorial Stadium to work out, meet current players and check out the progress on stadium construction.

The powerhouse appearances were capped off by a surprise visit from New Orleans Saints punter Steve Weatherford, a former Illini who was in the area to see family this weekend, and a scheduled drop-in by rookie Bears quarterback Chris Leak, who won last season’s national championship with a team primarily recruited but Ron Zook.

Weatherford stopped to chat with coaches and former teammates on Friday while Leak worked with quarterbacks Saturday evening.

But Friday afternoon was all about the high schoolers, not the visiting NFL players. On site as well was the annual contingent from Ohio coach Ted Ginn Sr., who packs a bus with Ohio’s top recruits and takes them on a tour of top colleges. Chicago Catholic League power Mount Carmel also had two big names in Champaign: linebacker Steve Filer, a four-star recruit according to Rivals.com, and defensive end Glen Foster, considered one of the top prospects in Illinois with more than a dozen scholarship offers.

Filer said Friday that he knows Illinois doesn’t have the proven winning records of many of the schools he is talking to, but that it knows how to win a recruit’s notice.

“You see them getting these top-notch players, these blue-chip players, and it draws attention to them. It kind of makes you do a double-take,” Filer said. “There’s something different around here. You can see the family environment.”

For Foster, the list of former Mount Carmel players who have seen success as Illini makes the school seem like a solid choice. He points out Frank Lenti Jr., son of the team’s coach, who won a scholarship last season after coming to Illinois as a walk-on, and he calls Simeon Rice, an NFL star who had success at Mount Carmel and Illinois, an inspiration.

Foster said he’s likely to verbally commit to a school late this month or early in July, and he hopes to end the recruiting process early enough to spend the fall semester focusing on school work and his senior season.

“Illinois is likely to be on a tear on defense, and they’ve got some good receivers, good guys on offense,” Foster says. “By 2008 they’ll be on a roll.”