
Recruiting Spotlight on Leon Lowery
By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst
December 19, 2024
(Cover photo courtesy Wisconsin Athletics)
Illinois made its first portal addition of the offseason Tuesday when Wisconsin outside linebacker Leon Lowery committed to the Illini. Lowery started his career with Syracuse and had a fairly strong career there before he transferred to the Badgers last year. However, Lowery had a mediocre year with Wisconsin in 2024 so it made sense for both he and the Badgers for him to seek a change of scenery in 2025. Lowery will have a sixth year of eligibility in 2025, one of the last guys you'll see that his able to take advantage of a COVID year since he started at Syracuse in 2020 and played so little in 2020 and 2021 that he was able to redshirt. Lowery is a very good athlete who has shown spurts of star-quality play in college but hasn't put it all together. In other words, he's exactly the kind of player Illinois should be after because he could make a huge difference, yet Illinois won't need to rely on him if he doesn't take that next step.
What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?