Illinois will be moving Jordan Anderson, who started at running back, from tight end/H-back back to his original position with the Illini in the 2026 season.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — After being recruited as a tailback and accumulating 1,251 rushing yards over three seasons, Kaden Feagin will be moving to tight end for his final season at Illinois.

Feagin, a former four-star prospect from nearby Arthur, texted Illinois head coach Bret Bielema in early December that he wanted a 1-on-1 meeting in the Smith Center. The Illini fifth-year head coach already had the worst case scenarios in his head that the 255-pound athlete was heading into the transfer portal.

“I'm like, 'Oh, boy,'" Bielema said. “I hadn't had all my meetings yet [with players]. I thought something might be up.”

Feagin was quick to inform Bielema what was on his mind.

"He sat down and said, 'I want to move to tight end.’” Bielema said. “I said ‘all right, I guess you’ve made up your mind.”

Feagin totaled 1,251 yards and 12 touchdowns over the last three seasons as a large-bodied tailback in Bielema’s offensive system, along with 30 receptions for 341 yards and three touchdowns. Feagin had 507 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns (12th in the Big Ten Conference) in the 2025 season along with 16 receptions for 188 yards and two touchdowns. However, as Bielema has stressed before with previous positional changes with impactful players, the decision was fully made by the player himself.

“He just physically is a very dominant player both the physicality and the ability to run,” Bielema said.

Bielema had hopes that a 255-pound tailback in the offensive scheme of Barry Lunney Jr., could be very effective similar to what he had in Wisconsin. However, in a media conference on Feb. 12 inside the Smith Center to introduce new defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck and new tight ends coach Jared Elliott, Bielema did admit Feagin has looked like his best athletic self when catching the ball in space as opposed to taking handoffs— though he has been an effective option near the goal line. Bielema referenced the 64-yard reception leading to a touchdown in the walkoff win over Southern California this past season as evidence to why Feagin wants this positional change.

“When we ran that swing route against USC and he eclipsed 21 miles an hour, I was like, 'Holy (expletive), that kid can run,'" Bielema said. “He just physically is a very dominant player both the physicality and the ability to run.”

The priority for Feagin now with very little time to learn the tight end position is to improve his run blocking as Pro Football Focus had Feagin as one of the least effective run blocking analytical grades throughout the course of the 2025 season of Illini players that played at least 50 snaps.

"It all starts with want-to in the run game,” Illinois newly-hired tight ends coach Jared Elliot said Thursday in his first media session in Champaign. “He's got the build. He's got the frame. He's got the athleticism. He's got all the physical traits, and the skill set is there. It's getting to work with just the base technique and the fundamentals of the position. It's going to take time. It doesn't happen overnight. That's why spring ball, as a coach, is one of the greatest windows and phases of the year because you get 15 practices, man, to just really hone in on technique, on fundamentals. Kaden is going to need that, and I'm excited to get to work in that area with him.”

In what could logically be classified as a in-house positional trade, Feagin will move to the tight end/H-back room and Jordan Anderson, who started his Illini playing career as a running back but was moved to tight end before the start of the 2025 season, will move back to running back to give that positional group a physical, 240-pound option.

Anderson played in all 13 games of the 2025 season at tight end but was still used as a short-yardage tailback with nine carries for 41 yards and one rushing touchdown on the season. He had three receptions for 12 yards. Anderson had a critical first-down rush in the final game-winning drive of the 30-28 win over Tennessee in the Music City Bowl.

“He’s just such an unselfish, intellectual and willing (teammate) and he’s talented too,” Lunney Jr. said of Anderson in September. “We gave him the football last season in crunch time and there’s a reason for that. It’s because we trust in who and what he is and we believe in him. We’re just trying to find a way to maximize that even more now.”

In the 45-19 victory at Duke last Saturday, Anderson played a total of nine snaps of offense but four of them was as a base tight end, three of them was as an H-back in the backfield when Illinois had the football in the red zone and two of them was in the almost extinct position of fullback.

“I personally think it’s pretty cool that I have the skills, the intelligence and the opportunity to do so many different things for the team on the football field. I don’t get labeled as this or that and not everybody can handle that but I can,” Anderson said. “The key is I understand my role is very important so as long as I don’t take it for granted, I’m learning everyday something new.”

Anderson arrived in Champaign-Urbana as consensus three-star running back prospect from in-state Joliet Catholic High School as a part of Bielema’s first full recruiting class at Illinois. Anderson had 306 rushing yards in the 2021 IHSA Class 4A championship game, setting the 4A state record while he ran for four touchdowns and caught another touchdown in the victory. He had 1,544 rushing yards and 31 touchdowns as a senior on his way to being named to the 2021 Spring Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Class 5A All-State first team.