The 90 Illini #37: Ashton Hollins

The preview comes out next Monday. And I keep trying to remember to save some things for that preview. Between all of these 90 Illini articles and practice notes on Slack and everything else, I feel like I never remember to save things for the preview.

But I did just remember that I remembered to save something for the preview in 2022. It was about Ashton Hollins. Let me go find it and cut/paste.

Here we go. From this week in 2022:

The last few years I’ve been trying to save some hype for the preview. For this one, I don’t think I’ve said anything publicly, only privately to IlliniBoard people. I’ve saved it for this spot.

I’m at practice one day for a 15-minute window where the media is allowed to attend. The wide receivers and quarterbacks are doing an actual drill, not just stretching, so I get to see some receivers run routes at full speed. Those are the key words there — “full speed.”

I notice one receiver. “Wow, super fast,” I note. Then he runs a second route. “OK, he’s a future All-American,” I say to myself.

Yes, it was just two routes at one practice where his legs appeared to be going at the speed of Road Runner in the old cartoons where his legs go in a circular motion like the propeller on an airplane. Iowa had better hire Wile E. Coyote and invest in ACME dynamite because they’re going to struggle to stop Ashton Hollins.

I’m probably doing some projecting here. My favorite recruit in the 2020 class, a high school quarterback named Deuce Spann who was super tall, super skinny, and super fast, was moved to receiver and, in my view, was the future star of this offense. Unfortunately, he transferred back to his home state (to Florida State) this past offseason. So now the staff has added a former high school quarterback who is super tall, super skinny, and super fast. They’ve moved him to receiver. And he’s wearing No. 6, the same number as Deuce Spann last year. My brain will always connect those synapses and tell me, “Ashton Hollins is the future star of this offense.”

Hollins is no longer wearing #6. He's now #2 (Malik Elzy moved from #2 to #8). Hollins redshirted in 2022 and then last year...

I'm doing it again. This is the section that goes below. Let's get to that.