Riggins planning an Illinois visit

Illinois became the first school to extend an offer to Hamilton (Ohio) 2016 cornerback A'shon Riggins, who is planning to make his first trip to Champaign this winter.

"I am going to be going out there sometime this month on a junior day," Riggins said. "I want to say one is the 18th of this month, but I don't know if I'll be able to make that one because we have basketball practice on Sundays."

Illinois assistant coach Alex Golesh is Riggins' primary recruiter for the Illini and they continue to keep in frequent contact. Riggins will be looking to get more of the team and campus feel when he visits later this month.

"Basically I just want to know how family-oriented they are," Riggins said. "When I go somewhere, I want to know how they treat each other, how does the school treat the student-athletes and how the facilities are helping the student-athletes."

Riggins got a feel for Indiana's team atmosphere when he visited Bloomington last month. He does not have an offer from the Hoosiers, but is interested in the program.

"I visited Indiana before winter break and it was really nice," Riggins said. "They invited only a few of us to go out there and had our jerseys hung up. I got to talk to the secondary coach and he seems really cool. Their coaching staff is just really good and I have a former teammate who goes to Indiana, Marcus Oliver."

Northwestern is another school showing strong interest according to Riggins. His second offer, though, came recently from a Mid-American Conference program.

"Miami (Ohio) came through with an offer last week Thursday. That was offer No. 2. It was really exciting because they are close to home, which makes the recruiting process with them really easy because I can go up there as often as I want."

The 6-foot, 162-pound Riggins had been torn between pursuing football or basketball at the college level, but is focused on one sport now.

"I am pretty set on football, but I have some schools looking at me in basketball," Riggins said.

Riggins plays point guard on a 5-6 Hamilton High basketball team this winter. On the gridiron this past fall Riggins played both quarterback and cornerback, registering three interceptions on the season.