Nov. 7—ST. JOSEPH — Traveling the country is part of the deal when high-major college football programs offer promising high school prospects a scholarship.
Like Cameron Wagner. The 6-foot-6, 300-pound sophomore offensive lineman at St. Joseph-Ogden understands that part of recruiting.
“I like to travel,” he said. “My family has always been really big travelers. We camp, and we go to Florida a lot.”
This fall, Wagner and his family have seen various parts of the country on the weekend. Usually hours after Wagner played in a Friday night football game for the undefeated Spartans. But Wagner doesn’t plan on making any Saturday visits to a college campus anytime soon because he plans on suiting up in playoff games for the Spartans (10-0) on Saturdays the rest of November.
The SJ-O right tackle, who has Division I offers from Illinois, Louisville and Miami (Ohio), and his teammates will make the short trip to Tolono this Saturday for a 2 p.m. kickoff at Hicks Field against rival Unity (7-3) in a Class 3A second-round playoff game.
This season, Wagner has visited two Illinois games at Memorial Stadium, checking out the Illini in their Aug. 29 season opener against Eastern Illinois and their Oct. 19 game against Michigan. He has also stopped by Wisconsin for its Sept. 7 game against South Dakota, Oklahoma on Sept. 14 for its game against Tulane, Louisville for its Sept. 21 game against Georgia Tech and Indiana for its Sept. 28 game against Maryland.
The trip to Norman, Okla., to check out the Sooners in mid-September featured an early-morning wakeup call after the Spartans won 49-20 at Prairie Central.
“We stayed the night in an Airbnb near Prairie Central, slept a few hours, woke up at 2 a.m., drove up to Chicago to catch a flight and flew down to Oklahoma,” Wagner said. “The biggest thing with the travel is just the cost. My parents said Oklahoma was part of my Christmas.”
Wagner received a scholarship offer from Illinois coach Bret Bielema in mid-June after he impressed at an offensive lineman camp at Memorial Stadium and said the communication with the Illini staff is a positive. He attended the Michigan game two weeks ago, one that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the dedication of Memorial Stadium and saw the Illini wear special throwback uniforms during their 21-7 win against the Wolverines, along with other in-state targets like Mt. Zion junior tight end JC Anderson and Carmel sophomore quarterback Trae Taylor.
The 6-6, 230-pound Anderson is a four-star recruit in the Class of 2026 who has Illinois in his Top 10 list along with Auburn, Florida State, LSU, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State and Texas. The 6-2, 175-pound Taylor has a reported 29 offers, with Big Ten schools Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State and Purdue in pursuit.
“There were a lot of high-valued recruits at the Michigan game, like my guys JC Anderson and Trae Taylor,” Wagner said. “I knew it was a huge game for Illinois, and I knew it was going to be a good game. It was pretty sweet. We got to see the uniforms before the game. We saw the team walk-through. It was just nostalgic. I had a lot of fun.”
What does Wagner like so far about the Illini?
“Just how much they care about me and how much love they show,” he said. “You can tell that I’m their No. 1 guy. That’s what it feels like in their 2027 class. They want me and Trae to link up to see each other as much as possible.”
Wagner is still going through the early paces of the recruiting process, but along with the three offers, Wagner said Alabama, Nebraska, Purdue and Tennessee are other programs showing him interest. Interest that SJ-O coach Shawn Skinner expects to increase even more.
“The thing that Cam has going for him, and I’ve said this multiple times, is he has a genuine desire to be great,” Skinner said. “Cam also has genuine football IQ. His football IQ is high level. Of course, he’s got great genes. Cam is still developing physically. When you’re 15 years old, you’re not done being who you’re going to be. Right now, the biggest thing is he’s not satisfied.
“I think he’s done a great job handling everything. He’s been gone on a lot of visits on the weekends, but he’ll text me when he’s at games, ‘Hey, this team just did this.’ He just wants to be good, and he wants us to be good. We have a great relationship from that standpoint. I think that’s the biggest key for him is he knows he’s got so much room to grow. He’s going to remain humble and remain committed to being better.”
