No. 48: Austin Roberts, LB
Why he’s important: The Illini are so important to this Wisconsin native he had a cake with an orange block I on a cutout of what the state of Illinois looks like on a map ready to consume on the day he signed with Illinois back in February 2014. Since then, Roberts has yet to corral a tackle at Illinois, but he did redshirt the 2014 season. He could find himself playing a bit more this fall as Illinois lost two starters in Mason Monheim and T.J. Neal. Roberts was hampered early on at Illinois by a torn ACL he suffered in the third game of his senior season at Rice Lake High School, where he put up prolific tackling numbers in 2012 (152) and was on pace for a breakout senior season before he got hurt.