It's Miami Thomas

(This article originally appeared on www.orangeandbluenews.com.)

Soon-to-be Illini signee Marcus Thomas is an ardent student of the recruiting derby in his native Chicago, and he still remembers the first moment he realized how many were following his recruitment as well.

"I was at the EdgyTim junior day for the Chicago kids, and when I got in the door, I heard someone say 'there's Miami Thomas", said Thomas, who has gone by Miami since moving to Chicago before his sophomore year of high school. "Everyone was getting interviewed in the front, but they took me to the back where all the top players were getting interviewed."

"I looked around and saw some of the best players in Illinois with me, and I thought: 'wow, this is a defining moment."

Thomas described the entire process, start to finish, as one filled with excitement, and the opportunity to meet a host of coaches and players from across the country.

"It was real cool talking to people from Hawaii, from Boston, from wherever they were offering from," Thomas said Monday. "I mean, it was real fun. How many people get to say they got an offer from Hawaii?"

Of course, Thomas would eventually commit to play for Ron Zook's Illini, becoming a member of Illinois' heralded 2007 class, which is being rated in the top-10 nationwide by some services.

According to Thomas, several of the Chicago-area recruits headed to Champaign next year have a close relationship, and his commitment to Illinois was instrumental in building an added buzz among some other members of the 2007 class.

"People were starting to talk about Illinois here, and then I committed," Thomas said. "And then a second person committed, and then when I would see the other players they'd ask me about Illinois, and I think a lot of people started to feel comfortable going to somewhere where they'd know a bunch of players already."

Thomas played high school football in Chicago's Public League, where he established a rivalry with a player Illini fans will, hopefully, get to know very well very soon.

"Martez (Wilson), man," Thomas joked, "that dude was the only guy to score on me in high school, the only guy to score on me in all of high school. That's heartbreaking right there."

Thomas has charted Illinois' efforts in the offseason closely, and spoke highly of the class of which he is a member.

"Its going to be real good. There's a whole bunch of talent, I mean, you got the top wide receiver in the country, the top defensive end, a whole bunch of athletes. And that D.C. pipeline they're opening is a real good thing."