Two Veteran Skill Players & A Senior OL Leave Illini Football Program

Illinois will not have the services of senior receiver Ricky Smalling, senior tailback Ra'Von Bonner and senior offensive lineman Jake Cerny for the 2020 season.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Whenever Illinois begins a preseason football camp, they’ll be without two veteran offensive skill players and a senior offensive lineman.

Illinois athletics spokesperson Kent Brown confirmed to Illini Now/Sports Illustrated Saturday morning wide receiver Ricky Smalling, tailback Ra'Von Bonner and offensive lineman Jake Cerny have left the Illini football program and will not be part of the roster for the upcoming season for reasons the athletics department is declining to report at this time.

The Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette, and reporter Scott Richey, was the first to report this story Friday night.

When asked if any of these three players leaving the roster were the results of voluntary opt outs due to the coronavirus pandemic, Brown would only confirm to Illini Now/SI “personal reasons” as the official cause for the departure of Bonner and Cerny but declined to detail the official reason for Smalling’s departure from the university.

Sources inside the university have confirmed Illini Now/SI Bonner would be eligible to continue his degree in social work this upcoming fall semester but will not be a member of the football team. Cerny, who already earned his degree in management, will not be returning to the football program this season.

Despite missing the last six games with a knee injury that occurred in the home loss to Michigan on Oct. 12 and required season-ending surgery, Smalling, a Chicago native from Brother Rice High School, was still third on the team in receptions for the season with 24 and ended the 2019 campaign with 225 yards and one touchdown. The 6-foot-1 target was expected to compete for a starting role as an outside receiver alongside Josh Imatorbhebhe in an offense that was set to return three senior targets and four wide receivers with starting experience.

Smalling, who was one of the first verbal commitments of the Lovie Smith era of Illini football, totaled 88 receptions for 1,141 yards and eight touchdowns during his playing career in Champaign.

In Smalling's absence, former walk-on Donny Navarro had 27 receptions for 345 yards and two touchdowns, including a 48-yard touchdown in the comeback upset win over then-No. 6 Wisconsin.

Bonner was to be the only senior member of the Illini tailback room and the former three-star prospect out of Cincinnati, Ohio ends his college football career with 822 total rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. Bonner told Illini Now/SI that he was looking forward to the 2020 season and potentially earning a starting role to prove his multi-dimensional skill set as more than a big, physical tailback.

“I don’t like to label myself as a big back or a blocker because when you stick labels on something you limit what you can prove and accomplish,” Bonner said following the first practice prior to the 2019 Redbox Bowl. “I think I can become a multi-skilled back in 2020 and prove that I’m capable of doing anything they ask out of me.”

Bonner made headlines this spring as a protestor for the Black Lives Matter movement near his hometown of Cincinnati inspiring several of his teammates to speak out against racial injustice in this country.

“I’m just proud we have people on our team like that standing up for justice and what is right,” Illinois linebacker Khalan Tolson said. “I love to see that stuff. It’s really exciting to see. Change is starting to happen now. I love when people on our football team speak up on stuff like that.”

Cerny’s career ends after the Traverse City, Mich., native earned his first and only career start at guard in the Redbox Bowl loss to California. The 6-foot-5 and 300-pounder, who saw playing time mostly on special teams blocking units, was expected to compete for a depth chart spot behind Wofford transfer Blake Jeresaty at right guard.