4-star OLB Antonio Doyle Passes on Illinois In Favor of Texas A&M

Antonio Doyle has passed on becoming the next potential linebacker talent to lead a Lovie Smith defense.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Lovie Smith and his coaching staff were hoping Antonio Doyle would be the next great talent to take on the responsibility of being a linebacker leader of an Illinois defense.

That will not happen. 

Doyle, a four-star prospect from St. Louis, selected Texas A&M over scholarship offers from Illinois and other historically highly successful Power 5 Conference programs such as Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Missouri, Florida State, and Alabama. The 230-pound linebacker could be projected as either a big outside linebacker or solid middle linebacker in Smith’s Cover-2 system as 247Sports.com has the nation’s No. 8 outside linebacker and No. 99 overall prospect in the country. Doyle told 247Sports.com that his long relationship and admiration for Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher going back to his days as a head coach at Florida State where he won a national championship in 2014.

Doyle will be among some of the nation’s best players in the 2020 recruiting class in the All-American Bowl on Jan. 4 in San Antonio on Jan. 4. He led a Lutheran North squad to its first undefeated season in school history after a 49-0 win in the Class 2 championship game over Ava in which he had 7.5 tackles and a sack on Faurot Field on the campus of the University of Missouri.

Doyle committed to Missouri after a campus visit in June but reopened his recruiting process long before the Tigers terminated head coach Barry Odom in favor of eventually hiring Appalachian State first-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. Doyle, who was primarily recruited by Illinois tight ends coach Corey Patterson, was on the Illini campus on Oct. 18 for Illinois’ 24-23 upset win over then-No. 6 Wisconsin. Doyle had previously put A&M, Illinois and Missouri among his final three selections on social media before making his verbal pledge official just two days before he’ll be eligible to sign during the early period.

With Doyle turning down Illinois, the Illini 2020 recruiting class doesn’t have a true linebacker prospect committed but three-star junior college Lavar Gardner could be a linebacker or a safety when he arrives on campus. If Doyle had selected Illinois, he would’ve been the second-straight four-star linebacker from the St. Louis area to sign with the Illini after Shammond Cooper followed his Trinity Catholic teammate Isaiah Williams to join Lovie Smith’s program.