The Pipeline · Illinois

Illinois Football Players at FCS Programs

311 Illinois kids are on FCS football rosters right now. The high schools feeding them, the programs recruiting them, and the seven-step playbook to put your kid on next year's list.

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311

Illinois Athletes On FCS Rosters

63

FCS Programs Recruiting Illinois

244

Illinois High Schools Feeding FCS

How many Illinois high school football players actually land on FCS college rosters? Real numbers, not guesses. Right now, 311 Illinois kids play FCS football across 63 programs, coming out of 244 Illinois high schools. Kyle Monangai went from Don Bosco Prep, overlooked by Power-4 programs, to Rutgers Big Ten captain to the 2025 Chicago Bears. His older brother Kevin walked the same kind of road first, Villanova to the Eagles and Vikings as a player, then the Giants as a coach. Kevin coached his own brother through that road; that is why we built RawRecruit. These counts come from current 2025 FCS football rosters. Below: the Illinois high schools sending the most kids, the FCS programs recruiting hardest here, the methodology, and the questions parents ask us most.

“The overlooked majority of HS athletes. The kids and parents nobody is calling first, who still want their kid on a roster like the ones above.

Kevin Monangai, Founder, RawRecruit

Former NFL running back (Eagles, Vikings)

Former NFL coach (Giants)

01

The Feeders

Top Illinois High Schools Feeding FCS Football

  1. 01Loyola Academy
    9Players
  2. 02Maine South
    8Players
  3. 03Edwardsville
    4Players
  4. 04Fenwick
    4Players
  5. 05Lyons Township
    4Players

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02

The Destinations

Top FCS Programs Recruiting Illinois Football

01

Valparaiso

27

Illinois Players

AW

Andy Waddle

Head Coach

Verified

02

Illinois State

25

Illinois Players

BS

Brock Spack

Head Coach

Verified

03

Southern Illinois

22

Illinois Players

MS

Meade Smith

Head Strength Coach

Verified

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03

Real Outcome

One Brother, The Same Road

The 311 number above is not theoretical. Kevin's younger brother Kyle ran the same road out of Illinois, walked into Rutgers, captained a Big Ten roster, and got drafted in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

  1. 01

    Don Bosco Prep

    Overlooked by Power-4

  2. 02

    Rutgers

    Big Ten captain

  3. 03

    2025 NFL Draft

    Round 7, Pick #233

  4. 04

    Chicago Bears

    Active roster

04

The Methodology

How We Count

Numbers come from publicly available 2025 FCS football rosters. We count any current player whose listed home state is Illinois, school by school, season by season. The decision a family makes here is too big to plan around guesses, so we put the rosters in front of you.

05

The Conversation

Parents Ask Us

Q.01
How many Illinois high school football players are currently on FCS rosters?
Right now, 311 Illinois kids play FCS football, spread across 63 programs and sourced from 244 Illinois high schools. Counts come from current 2025 rosters.
Q.02
Which FCS programs recruit the most from Illinois?
Valparaiso leads with 27 Illinois players on the current roster, followed by Illinois State (25) and Southern Illinois (22). The top three are listed above with the head coach for each program when verified. A free account opens the rest of the top ten.
Q.03
Which Illinois high schools send the most players to FCS football?
Loyola Academy sits at the top with 9 current FCS football players, followed by Maine South (8), Edwardsville (4), Fenwick (4), Lyons Township (4). The full top 25 is on the page above.
Q.04
Is FCS football a realistic path for a Illinois high school player?
Yes. With 311 Illinois kids currently on FCS rosters across 63 programs, the path is busy and well worn. Scholarships at FCS are partial in football, so families plan around stacking academic aid on top of athletic aid.
Q.05
How does RawRecruit count Illinois to FCS pipeline numbers?
We pull current 2025 FCS football rosters from public school athletics sites and count any player whose listed home state is Illinois. Coach names show up only when verified inside our 35-day freshness window.
Q.06
What does my kid actually do with this list of high schools and programs?
The list is the input. The seven-step playbook is the action. Profile your kid's real numbers, build a target list off the programs above, send the email coaches actually read, and run the visit on full information. The full playbook lives at /guides/football/diy-recruiting and was written by Kevin from the same road he walked his brother Kyle through.
Q.07
We are not in Illinois. Does the same playbook still apply for our state?
Yes. The seven-step playbook is sport-specific, not state-specific. The cohort and program list above are the Illinois cut; the work a kid and parent do to reach FCS coaches is the same in every state. State pipeline pages for the rest of the country roll out next.
Q.08
What happens when a coach leaves a FCS program mid-cycle?
Coach names on this page only show up when our pipeline has verified them inside the last 35 days. When a head coach leaves, the slot reads as a transition note instead of a stale name; the program count and player numbers stay intact because those come from the roster, not the staff page. The list refreshes monthly.
Q.09
Why is RawRecruit giving away the rosters and coach contacts for free?
Because the data is the easy part. The hard part is keeping a school list current, filtering programs by your kid's real fit, and tracking coach records as staffs turn over every cycle. The free profile saves the work; the paid tiers exist for families who want deeper fit analytics. The free profile is enough for most.

For The Athlete Reading This

311 kids from your state already locked in a FCS spot. Names. Schools. Real rosters. You think you can't be one of them?

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06

What The Free Profile Adds

The List On Autopilot

The data above is free to read. The free profile keeps the work organized so you do not start from scratch every Tuesday.

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