IU locked up four three-star 2018 football commitments, three from the state of Illinois, within the past two weeks. Matt Bjorson, Nick Marozas, Gavin McCabe and Aaron Casey have all verbally committed to play for IU.
Matt Bjorson was the first of the four to commit to Tom Allen’s team on June 14. The three-star tight end from Hinsdale Central chose IU over offers from Kentucky, Colorado State, Western Michigan and others.
His commitment came just four days after IU offered him a scholarship.
Bjorson is currently rated the No. 67 tight end in the country and No. 42 player in Illinois by 247Sports. At 6-foot-3 and 225 lbs, Bjorson had a successful season for the Red Devils, collecting 24 catches for 325 yards and 3 touchdowns. His most productive game was against conference rival Glenbard West on October 1, where he hauled in seven catches for 124 yards and a touchdown.
Nick Marozas was the next recruit to commit to IU, an offensive tackle out of Brother Rice High School in Chicago. The Crusaders finished 9-3 and narrowly missed out on a shot to play for the Prep Bowl Championship. They fell to Chicago Mount Caramel, the eventual state champion, in the semifinals.
Marozas said that he was considering four main offers from IU, Virginia, Minnesota and Cincinnati. He had only visited IU and Minnesota when he had already made his decision.
“The only one I visited was Minnesota,” Marozas said. “Once I was on IU’s campus, I didn’t need to visit anymore.”
Marozas looks to transition his successful career from Brother Rice to IU and is mainly looking forward to being part of the Hoosier culture.
“It does not matter what you are or what you have. If you work to your max in everything you do, you will be successful,” Marozas said. “I’m looking forward to becoming part of a great culture and family with the rest of the Hoosiers.
The third Illinois commit to the Hoosiers is Gavin McCabe. The defensive end from Marist High School chose IU over power-five offers from Arkansas, Illinois, Purdue, Washington State and West Virginia.
Marist rolled into the IHSA playoffs as the 11-seed, riding an 8-game win streak and finishing the regular season at 8-1. The RedHawks ultimately came up a touchdown short against New Trier in the first round.
McCabe is currently rated the No. 14 recruit in the state of Illinois, one of a number of highly-ranked recruits to play for Marist High School. Defensive tackle Elijah Teague is ranked the No. 5 recruit in Illinois and held offers from IU, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Penn State and Tennessee before committing to Minnesota. Another of McCabe’s teammates, tight end TJ Ivy, is ranked the No.24 recruit in Illinois and has committed to play at West Virginia.
Aaron Casey is the most recent IU commit, having played at safety and outside linebacker over his high school career. Casey comes from the recruiting hotbed of Georgia, also home to the No. 1 overall 2018 recruit quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has committed to Clemson.
Casey was part of a successful program at Alexander High School where they went 9-1 this season. The Cougars seemed set for a playoff run after defeating Alpharetta, the former team of current IU quarterback Austin King, but faltered in the second round to end their season.
During his junior year, Casey racked up 84 total tackles and 3 interceptions, along with one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
All four players have only verbally committed to play at IU, meaning that they can still choose to decommit and re-open their recruiting until signing a National Letter of Intent. Four-star running back Kristian Pechac decommited from IU on June 12.
Despite these four commitments, IU ranks among the worst Big Ten teams in 2018 recruiting with only seven total commitments.
