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Jun. 18—URBANA — Aaron Henry didn’t hesitate to inject a little friendly trash talk into his conversation with Zakhari Franklin when the veteran wide receiver took an official visit to Illinois last month.
Henry made sure to let Franklin know the Illinois staff was close to landing Texas transfer Terrance Brooks. A lockdown cornerback that could go toe-to-toe every day in practice with Franklin should he also pick the Illini.
“I’m always talking trash to those wideouts,” Henry said Monday at the Bret Bielema Invitational, the annual fundraiser put on by the Illini Quarterback Club at Atkins Golf Club. “I was just telling him we’re bringing in guys that can cover you. I was giving him a little bit of a hard time, and he was giving it back to me.”
Why wouldn’t Franklin give as good as he got in the back-and-forth with Henry? The last time the 6-foot-1, 190-pound wide receiver was in Champaign, nobody could shut him down.
Henry wasn’t yet Illinois’ defensive coordinator in 2021, but his cornerbacks — among them future NFL starters Devon Witherspoon and Tony Adams — found Franklin difficult to contend with in that game. The Roadrunners won 37-30, and Franklin hauled in 10 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown to help fuel the upset.
So there’s a reason Illinois tried to pull Franklin out of the transfer portal last spring when he left UTSA. And why Bielema and Co., stymied by university admissions a year ago, tried again last month when Franklin hit the portal a second time after one season at Mississippi.
Adding a veteran wide receiver to a position group long on young talent but short on experience and production was a major point of emphasis for Illinois this offseason. Franklin and his 266 career receptions for 3,386 yards and 38 touchdowns — stats that make him the most productive returning wide receiver in the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/familiarity-could-help-zakhari-franklin-144800651.html
Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Publish date : 2024-06-18 14:48:00
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