Lyons Township lineman Eddie Tuerk commits to Illinois

Almost two years ago, Eddie Tuerk picked up a surprising offer from Cincinnati.

On June 7, 2021, just after completing his freshman year of high school at Lyons, Tuerk landed his first offer from then-Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell.

Lyons coach Jon Beutjer said the Bearcats’ offer shocked Tuerk while also turbocharging his recruiting.

“I’ll never forget two years ago when we were at North Central College’s camp and there were several Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC schools there,” Beutjer said. “Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell saw Eddie work out, run and move. I’ll never forget when they offered him. He was so excited, almost like a kid in a toy store or a candy store. It seemed like yesterday. After that happened, we sat down and talked about him getting a lot more offers because he had Cincinnati.”

After a wild recruiting process that swelled to more than 20 offers from every Power Five conference, Tuerk sealed his future by committing to Illinois on Monday morning. The defensive end, who will be a senior this fall, was part of a memorable run of commitments to Illini football coach Bret Bielema. Tuerk was among six commitments to the Illini on Monday.

The 6-foot-4, 255-pound Tuerk is a major commitment for the Illini, partly because of Bielema’s philosophy of targeting in-state kids. A three-star recruit rated Illinois’ 17th-best prospect in the Class of 2024 by 247Sports, Tuerk told the Illini staff on Sunday his intentions to commit.

“One of my goals has been to play college football, especially in the Big Ten,” Tuerk wrote in his Twitter post. “I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by people who have helped me achieve that goal. I would like to thank my mom and dad for guiding me throughout the recruiting process and pushing me to be the best I can be.”

Beutjer, a former Illinois quarterback who also attended Iowa, said he never attempted to sway Tuerk to the Illini or any other school. Tuerk, a two-way lineman, finished with 34 tackles, including nine tackles for a loss in his junior season.

“Illinois has done a really great job of recruiting,” Beutjer said. “Usually, when the recruiting [window] opens and [coaches] can come to schools, Illinois comes the first day. They’ve developed relationships, not only with LT, but other schools. The [Illini] assistant coaches have also done a great job and so has coach Bielema. One of their goals is to get kids from Illinois to go to Illinois, to keep them in state.

“Eddie has a lot of ties to Illinois. We want the best for Eddie and his family.”

Beutjer said he’s not exactly sure who was the last Lions’ football player to commit to the Illini but suspects it to be 2007 Lyons graduate Eddie Viliunas. Tuerk is the second Lyons player to commit to a Big Ten program this spring. Danny Pasko committed to Nebraska in March.

“It’s really big for LT, but also think it’s big for our football program,” Beutjer said. “We’ve had a lot of schools come here because of Eddie. He played early on as a freshman on the varsity, which immediately got [our kids] exposed to a lot of different schools when they came to LT. I’m really happy for Eddie.”