Would you believe I'm caught up? There are 23 days until the season and Jordyn Slaughter is number 23 on this list. Looking at the dates for the articles I've published, the first one I wrote last Thursday morning was Kionte Curry, and he was #40, so this is the 18th "90 Illini" article I've written in the last week. Now, from here forward, one per day until the season opener.

Probably.

23. Jordyn Slaughter

Offensive Lineman
Uniform number: 66
Year in school: Junior (without the Covid waiver, 1 year to play 1; with the Covid waiver, technically 2 years to play 2)
Height: 6'-5" -- Weight: 320 lbs.
Hometown: Belleville, Illinois
High School: Althoff Catholic HS
Five best offers: Toledo, Bowling Green, South Dakota, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois
Tom Cruise rating:

2021 statistics: Missed the season with a broken ankle.

Background

Such a long journey from when he committed (in June of 2017) until today. He commits in June and then that fall (in 2017) we end up starting four freshmen on the offensive line (Vederian Lowe, Doug Kramer, Alex Palczeweski, and Larry Boyd). So when you're freshman coming into a program, and when you're looking to play as soon as possible, it's rough looking at the team you're joining and seeing that there are four freshmen starting.

(Also - and I know this has been covered so many times but I think it bears repeating - I still think that has to be the youngest offensive line in the last 10 years of P5 football. Imagine if the starting offensive line this year was going to be Julian Pearl plus Josh Kreutz, Hunter Whitenack, Joey Okla, and Clayton Leonard. One junior, one redshirt freshman, and three true freshmen. That was 2017.)

Larry Boyd only lasted one year, but his 2017 classmate Kendrick Green flipped from DL to OL that offseason and the 2018 line was senior (Allegretti), sophomore (Lowe), sophomore (Kramer), sophomore (Palcho), and redshirt freshman (Green). So Jordyn Slaughter enrolls that fall as a true freshman and is looking up at one spot coming open on the line the next three seasons. That's a lot of waiting ahead.

To make matters worse, 2020 becomes the Covid Waiver so it's actually 2021 before a spot will open for him. And to make matters even worse, he breaks his ankle in camp last summer and misses the entire 2021 season. So he waited in 2018, and he waited in 2019, and he waited in 2020, and he missed 2021, and now it's finally 2022 and there are spots available.

2022 Outlook

I should note that he did get one start in there. There were some injuries (and Covid quarantines) at the end of 2020 so Slaughter started the Penn State game. It was hopefully the start of him pushing his way into the lineup, but, you know, broken ankle eight months later.

Now there are spots available. And as I just said when discussing Zy Crisler (that's CRISS-ler, not Chrysler), right now it feels like six guys for five spots. Palcho, Pearl, and Pihlstrom have their starting spots wrapped up. The other two spots are a battle between the two juco guys (Isaiah Adams and Crisler) and Jordyn Slaughter.

I feel like we'll see all six a lot during the non-conference season. The staff did this with Blake Jeresaty, Jack Badovinac, and Alex Pihlstrom in the first half of last season before settling on Badovinac as the starter. So I think we will see different combinations the first month before maybe settling on five starters come October.

And by the fact that I have him ahead of Crisler on my list, I guess that's me saying that I expect Jordyn Slaughter to be one of the five.