Justin Scott is only four games into his varsity football career, but four games is all the Illinois coaches needed to see before extending Scott his first offer. Following Wednesday's practice, Scott gave his reaction to the offer, and shared how meaningful it was for his home state team to recognize his talents first.

“It means a lot," he said. "Knowing that my home state team was the first to give me a chance, just really means a lot to me.”

Not only was the offer meaningful, it came as a complete surprise to Scott. When Saint Ignatius head football coach Matt Miller shared that Illinois wanted to get him on the phone to offer a scholarship, Justin was in disbelief.

“When coach told me the news, I didn’t know how to react,” Scott said. “My heart kind of just dropped. I didn’t believe it was happening.”

There is little doubt that Scott will end up being a top 2024 target in the state of Illinois, and this is only the beginning of his recruiting process. How will Illinois being the first offer impact his feelings toward the team as his recruiting process heats up?

“It will definitely make them stick out,” Scott said. “Just for them to be the first to give me an opportunity, and to believe in my ability to go down there and play. It really sticks out for me.”

Scott has not been to a college football game since he was in grade school, but that will soon change. He’s planning a visit to Champaign for the game against Wisconsin. When talking about what he is looking forward to most on his game day visit, it was the atmosphere, stadium, fans and facilities among the things he mentioned.

Prior to Wednesday evening, Illinois was the only team that Justin had been in contact with. His coach however, had been in contact with Rutgers, and they had a call planned later that night. A call that led to coach Greg Schiano awarding Scott his second Big Ten offer of the week.

As far as his reaction to the Rutgers offer, Scott was pleasantly surprised.

“It totally caught me by surprise that a school in New Jersey is looking at me.”

He added that the Rutgers coaches told him they don’t hand out offers easily.

“That made me even more grateful,” he said.

With offers from Illinois and Rutgers in the fold, are there any teams that he would like to hear from in particular?

“I would have to say Georgia," Scott said. "I have a lot of family down there in the Atlanta area.”