Feb. 05--Illinois' lone experienced running back is Josh Ferguson so the Illini know the key position needs immediate attention, and they provided it Wednesday when they signed a recruiting class that includes four of them.
Ke'Shawn Vaughn, a 5-foot-10, 205-pound four-star back out of Nashville., Tenn., made a splash with his signing as he also was considering West Virginia, Louisville and Purdue.
Vaughn joined three-star recruits Dre Brown from DeKalb, Reggie Corbin from Washington and Henry Enyenihi from Sacramento City College.
"It's a good mix of guys," said Alex Golesh, the Illini running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. "We went from a position with no depth to where we have quite a bit. We told them, 'If you come in and compete, you're going to get every opportunity to be the guy carrying the ball. It's hard to walk into a situation with three other guys, but they're competitive."
Vaughn is the class of the group, which helped Illinois finish with a top-50 recruiting class nationally.
Golesh said he averaged about 270 rushing yards per game at Pearl Cohn High School.
"He's an ultra-, ultra-, ultra-productive back in a good football league in a good football state," Golesh said. "He's a big, physical, strong back. He does a good job catching out of the backfield. He happened to have all those traits."
