How a football recruiting whirlwind landed this Princeville lineman at Illinois

Kellen Francis can’t wait to play football in Champaign.

The 2023 Princeville grad committed to join Illinois on Saturday, choosing the Fighting Illini over scholarship offers from Arkansas, Houston, Texas State, Ohio, Marshall and Eastern Illinois. He becomes the fourth Illinois offensive lineman to transfer in for the 2024 season.

“It happened pretty fast,” the 6-foot-6, 310-pound right tackle said, “so I don’t think it settled in it yet, but yeah, I’m really excited. I just want to get down there. … I’ve always wanted to play for Illinois.”

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Francis spent the 2023 campaign at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kan., playing offensive guard and garnered all-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference honorable mention honors. He made the position move during spring practice after growing an inch and putting on 10 pounds.

A lot of the credit, according to the 2022 all-Lincoln Trail Conference first-team o-lineman, goes to the Butler strength and conditioning coach Kyle Woodall for helping him work harder to become bigger, stronger and faster in the offseason. Plus, on winter break, Francis spent countless hours in the gym, training with his brother, Jack Arnett.

“There was a big jump from my fall season to spring practice,” Francis said of his overall improvement, “so that’s kind of what it was.”

His recruitment really took off after May 7 when he posted his spring practice highlights on social media. EIU offered him two days later, with four more schools following suit in less than a week.

Just 10 days after his initial offer, Francis, who is the grandson of the late Princeville coach Rollin Arnett, was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on an official visit with the Razorbacks.

But his dream was to be an Illini.

“The Arkansas visit was great,” Francis said, “so that was kind of in the back of my mind, but I knew pretty quick right when we got to Champaign that I was going to commit there.

Everything from the football facilities to the weightroom and training tables were all big selling points for him. He met with Tank Wright, the Director of Football Strength and Conditioning, and o-line coach Bart Miller.

Francis, who is looking to enroll next week, has no intentions of redshirting and plans to compete right away for a starting job in any of the five offensive line spots.

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“I want to get in there,” he said, “and learn the playbook and get as big and as fast and as strong as I can.”

Francis has advice to any hungry small-school players looking to leap the junior college ranks to playing major college football: “As long as you keep that end goal in mind,” he said, “… if you really want to play Division-I then it won’t be too hard to stay motivated.”

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.