By Steve Sturm - IlliniGuys Football Analyst

May 30, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

St. Laurence High School hasn't produced a lot of prominent football players since the days of Tim Grunhard and Stan Smagala, but when they do, those guys have gone to Illinois. Former walk-on Aaron Ball was a St. Laurence Viking, and Sean Rice recently committed to Illinois. So, that's 2 Division 1 players from St. Laurence, and two that went to Illinois. Rice is a 6'2 210 pounder who had offers from the middle of the Big Ten and early interest from Indiana.

What does he bring to the Orange and Blue?
Rice put together a junior season for the Vikings that doesn't seem possible: 123 tackles, 9 TFL, 4 interceptions, 3 fumble recoveries, 2 PBU and 1 FF. That's an absurd amount of production in only 13 games for a successful team that probably had him on the bench for the end of most games. Not only that, but he's playing a pseudo OLB/ MLB position that didn't always put him in the best position to make plays. I did especially enjoy seeing him in this role because you can see Rice play middle linebacker and having to control gaps against the run while you can also see him playing on the edge in more of a coverage and edge control role. I will say that, though this is a good highlight film, Rice made so many plays that it's missing a lot of good plays that you can see if you care to watch his game-by-game films. Regardless, enjoy this 4:28 of Sean Rice:

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/19722299/68ead9dc7251f64946cf1aee

I like Rice best as a middle linebacker with a little range. Obviously he's not going to be able to play that position at 210 pounds, but in another year of high school and a redshirt year, I'm confident that he'll get to 230 or 235 pounds it will take to get the strength it will take to handle the middle of the field in the Big Ten. I say that not only because Rice is already good at diagnosing and filling holes as they open, but also because he's much better as a straight line player than a quick-cutting athlete. Of course, at this point we all have to employ a little bit of guesswork to determine what Hauck will require from his linebackers but based on my tape review of Montana's defenses, they are usually near the line of scrimmage and primarily responsible for run defense or blitzing with just a bit of pass defense responsibilities.

How does he fit in?

Rice is the first linebacker recruit in the Class of '27, and of course we haven't seen even a down of the new Illini 3-3-5 defense. And, since Rice is a versatile type its hard to even determine whether he's an MLB or an OLB in the new defense. The Illini staff isn't giving us any hints about role either, since they've removed the "OLB" position from the official roster so that all linebackers are only listed as "LB". However, the smart money is on Cam Thomas and Grant Beerman being two of the three linebackers in a couple years when Rice is a redshirt freshman. Jack Paris was an ILB type previously and so is true freshman Tony Williams, while Jaylan Stewart, Jacob Alexander, Kayden Bennett and Erik Gayle were slated to be OLB's previously. So, based on those numbers it would be easier for Rice to fit in as an MLB type.

However, I can't emphasize enough that we don't know how this new defense is going to look. There's always an OLB on the line, but that varies, and there's always a "big" safety who can play close to the line in a traditional linebacker role as well. So, I doubt even the staff knows how all of this is going to fit together, much less how Rice will fit in once he adds 20 pounds. I do know this though: I love production and I especially love production that comes against good competition. Rice has that. He's also multi-talented enough to fit into multiple roles. And though he's not the type of "wow" athlete that gets big time offers, I think he's plenty good enough to be productive in the Big Ten. So, give this addition a 7 on the 10 point excitement scale and grab some extra paper to keep track of this young man's stats.