Brent is one of 21 players who committed to the Illini yesterday as part of National Letter of Intent Signing Day. Head coach Ron Zook and the Illini pulled in an unprecedented recruiting class, considered tops in the Big Ten and 10th in the country by ESPN.

The last letter came through the fax machine before noon, as everything went as planned despite a rocky recruiting season. Illinois lost a few prospects in the days preceding signing day, yet still raised eyebrows with its ability to draw some of the best high school players in the country. But Zook made one thing clear at his press conference Wednesday afternoon: Signing day is about the players who will be Illini.

“What a great day for the University of Illinois, for the Illinois family, for the Illinois football program,” Zook said. “I can’t tell you how excited we are as a coaching staff about this group of young men coming in here.”

Brent is one of five four-star recruits in the class, which also includes five-star standouts Arrelious Benn and Martez Wilson as well as almost a dozen three-star players. All but three of the high school players who signed with Illinois yesterday are ranked nationally.

But Zook stressed that rankings mean little compared to what a player does when he gets on campus, and Illinois’ history proves it. Scout.com listed former Illini fullback Jason Davis, now on injured reserve with the Philadelphia Eagles, as a one-star recruit coming into college. Linebacker J Leman led the Big Ten in tackling last season, but finished high school as a two-star recruit on Scout.com.

“I think you look at classes, judge them two, three years down the road. I don’t get into how people rank them; what’s important is how people perform,” Zook said. “Vontae (Davis) has the potential to be the best defensive back that I’ve ever been around. He has that potential, and he was only a three-star. If that’s the case, I’ll take all the three-stars like Vontae who are out there.”

With fairly even distribution across the positions, the class of 2007 fills much-needed openings at running back, brings in the wide receivers Zook was hoping for, creates competition on the offensive line and adds depth across the defense. Zook highlighted only the quarterback position as a post he would still like to fill; as it stands there are no quarterbacks in the group. Clint Brewster, the only quarterback to give a verbal commitment to Illinois, decommitted last week, choosing to play for his father and newly appointed Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster.

Across the board, the players who are coming said they chose Illinois because the coaches were honest about the challenges they would face as part of a rebuilding program. Benn, who has already enrolled at the University, said he chose Illinois after hearing coaches tell the Illini staff they couldn’t land such a top-notch player. He said he anticipates the challenge of proving naysayers wrong by helping bring Illinois to a bowl game.

“I wanted to be different,” Benn said. “I wanted to help turn the program around, be a focal point, but I wanted to do something different.”

Brent said many athletes like the idea of working hard at Illinois because they’ve never known a laid-back lifestyle. He said recruits quickly see through a coach with empty promises of four easy years – and that Illinois gained favor by admitting college football would challenge incoming players.

“Building a program from the ground up shows a lot of character. It takes someone very strong to do that,” Brent said. “Anyone can go to a program and be part of a factory that’s just producing players. But when you go somewhere where all the utilities are not already there for you, where you have to go through a little struggle and adversity to reach your goals, that shows something about you. You may be a little tougher, a little more strong-willed than some people.”

Zook was cautious not to promise immediate success.

He said it takes at least three full years of recruiting before a program can see results, and this is only the second of his full-force recruiting classes. Still, he said he likes where Illinois is headed.

“I love the attitude of our team, love the look in their eye, love how they’re accepting the challenge. We’re excited, we’re proud and happy as a staff to be here. There’s an awful lot of work ahead, but we look forward to it.”