Wednesday, 29 high school and junior college recruits pledged allegiance to Ron Zook and his coaching staff, turning their verbal commitments into binding contracts. But for eight of the signees, their academic and athletic careers at Illinois began at the advent of spring semester.

Seven of these players opted to graduate high school a semester early. They are now enrolled in spring classes at the University and have begun conditioning.

“We only want to take guys that are going to be successfully here academically,” said Reggie Mitchell, assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator at Illinois. “You talk to their coaches and you can kind of get a feel for them by talking to them. If they’re a pretty good students then you know they’re used to doing their work and they can study and can handle the academic stress that comes with it.”

Last spring, the highly touted Illini receiver Arrelious Benn left Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. a semester early. His decision paid early dividends, as he won Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors, despite battling a shoulder injury.

“We factor in (early enrolls when recruiting),” Mitchell said. “We have a midyear board and then we have guys that want to come in August. And for us to be able to get Graham and those guys midyear was a huge plus.”

The 2008 Rose Bowl Offensive Most Valuable Player took this one step further. USC’s John David Booty left after three years at his high school, only to wait behind the strong Trojan lineage of quarterbacks before finally emerging the last two seasons to be one of the nation’s premiere passers. And before him, Brock Berlin left high school early to enroll at Florida before transferring to Miami.

“I think the players would benefit from going to their prom and enjoying their last semester of high school and working their way in,” recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said. “A good number just don’t play a lot as freshmen. The two big guys last year (Michigan’s/Arkansas’ Ryan Mallet and Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen) played, but they didn’t distinguish themselves. Mainly it’s quarterbacks that do it because they think can get a leg up and play right away.”

But four-star offensive lineman Graham Pocic and three-star defensive end Reggie Ellis insist they’ve made the right decision.

“Everyone is done with high school after their first semester (senior year),” Pocic said.

The 6-foot-7, 317 pound Illinois native committed to the Illini before his senior season at Lemont High School and then helped his team reach the IHSA 6A championship game. Pocic wrote his high school administration requesting permission to graduate early and then took required classes during last summer to ensure graduation before the start of Illinois’ spring semester.

“It wasn’t too hard,” he said. “It was pretty easy actually.”

Ellis followed current Illini teammate and fellow Dunbar alumnus Benn in enrolling early at Illinois.

“I’ve more seen the advantages than talk about it (with Benn),” Ellis said. “He informed me and talked with me about the advantage of coming.

“I wanted to leave early and the coaches recommended coming early because they said it would be real helpful for me,” he added.

Mitchell said as far as football goes the difference in intensity will be the greatest adjustment these seven players will face.

“You talk about a guy going from, lets just say he’s playing high school basketball,” Mitchell said. “Take Mikel LeShoure for example. If you were playing high school basketball and now he’s lifting probably four days a week more intense then he’s ever done. Then you’re going into winter conditioning, which is even more intense. And then you have spring ball. From that standpoint of adjustment, it’s a lot more intense than things in the past.”

And now in the fourth week of the semester with early morning conditioning and spring ball still looming ahead, Pocic and Ellis say they’re taking the semester in stride.

“Honestly, it’s not that big of a difference,” Ellis said. “I’m a responsible guy, I get up and do my things on my own time. It wasn’t a big adjustment.”