Recruiting Wrap

Daniel Easterly a 'headhunter'

Posted by: Jeremy Werner

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 9:07 AM

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Daniel Easterly likes to play rough.

"To me, I'm likehead hunter," the Illinois commit said. "Me personally, I love hitting. It's my favorite part of the game. If it was a profession, I'd be a professional hitter. I love to make contact. I'll hit lineman, the running backs, whoever. Whoever wants to hit with me, I'll hit them. It's that simple."

No, really. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound defender is emphatic about causing the opposition pain.

"Every hit I make, I just try to make them flatline, give them a real big hit when I hit 'em," Easterly said. "That's my goal, to knock people's heads off and hurt everybody that I hit."

Those certainly are words the Illinois coaches love to hear. Easterly, a senior at Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech, committed to the Illini in June following a trip to Champaign-Urbana for the June 6 Nike Football Training Camp. Easterly reported that he had 15 tackles and two sacks in his first game of the season last Friday.

"I'm playing linebacker and safety," Easterly said. "They mix me around every week or every other series at safety and linebacker so I can make a lot of tackles. I'm the major defensive force on my time, so I make a lot of defensive plays."

Easterly said Illinois recruited him as a defensive back but that he could bulk up and play linebacker if asked to.

"It's a possibility (to play linebacker) but it doesn't matter to me," Easterly said. "I just like making plays and playing football."

Easterly has kept in touch with the Illinois coaches, hearing from them about once every week or two weeks. He also talks with Downers Grove (Ill.) South quarterback Chandler Whitmer, who is also committed to the Illini. He said he may join the future Illini signal caller as an early enrollee at Illinois in the spring but that his plans are not finalized yet.

"(Whitmer is) talking about leaving in the middle of January, and I'm trying to do the same thing," Easterly said. "We're trying to get down there as early as possible so we can play. We try to make a difference at Illinois as soon as we get there, help our team to a championship."

To help that cause, Easterly has kept in touch with other Illinois recruits on Facebook. He's also trying to persuade teammate Dior Mathis, rated the No. 11 cornerback by Rivals.com.

"We talk about Illinois all the time," Easterly said. "Illinois, Oregon and Michigan are his top schools, I think, as of right now. I think that's what he said. I talk to him all the time about to get him to come to Illinois. I've been trying to get in his ear ever since I committed to get him to come to Illinois with me. We'd have a heck of a team if we went down there because I heard Corey Cooper committed to Illinois too. If me, Corey Cooper and Dior came to Illinois, that'd be a heck of a team."

 

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