And on Tuesday, he pushed himself one step closer of making it closer to the pros.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound rising senior receiver announced his commitment to play football at the University of Illinois on X, picking the Fighting Illini over fellow Big Ten schools such as Iowa, Iowa State and Northwestern, to continue his football career.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up as an Illinois kid, there\u2019s no better school to go to than the Illinois school,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cAll of their coaches are excited to have me and they\u2019re all great coaches. I really didn\u2019t think there\u2019s a better fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konkey becomes the 10th commitment and the first wideout of the Class of 2027 to join Bret Bielema\u2019s program in Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n
Konkey said that one of the biggest factors in his decision came with the relationship he built with offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. and wide receivers coach Justin Stepp.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the recent success that they\u2019ve had with Lunney and Stepp being there was really intriguing,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cThey were showing me graphics on how they changed the program and how they\u2019ve contributed to receivers and how all the offensive stats have skyrocketed since they\u2019ve come in, and I just really wanted to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konkey will also enter with a connection within the wide receiver room, joining former DeKalb standout Davon Grant, who he was teammates with at Midwest Boom, a 7-on-7 team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Grant a little bit and we were talking about his life at Illinois,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cHe told me he wouldn\u2019t rather go anywhere else and that Illinois is like the place for him. He loves all the coaches and the offensive scheme and the way they run practice, and he said just everything about Illinois is very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Geneva's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2RFTIY3WW5CVJLUIXHH4KIGTLE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Geneva’s Bennett Konkey runs a touchdown against Batavia. (Karen Naess for Shaw Local News Network\/Karen Naess )<\/p>\n
Konkey\u2019s commitment brings an end to what has been a wild recruitment journey. The four-star recruit entered 2026 with zero Division I offers, and was mainly getting invites to spring practices from FCS and Mid-American Conference schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have definitely been some highs and lows throughout the entire recruiting process,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cBut this is definitely the highest it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-star receiver is coming off a junior season where he wrangled in 49 receptions for 739 yards and nine touchdowns for Geneva, who just missed the playoffs with a 4-5 record.<\/p>\n
While the numbers were there for Konkey, he said that a hamstring injury that he suffered during his sophomore track season put a hamper on what he could do while on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hurting last season, so I couldn\u2019t really show everything that I wanted to on film,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cSo a lot of coaches who were interested before started to question my speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Geneva's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/G66AH7EFH5HWZA55QFXQOHYNE4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Geneva’s Bennett Konkey reacts to a drill during a summer practice. (Karen Naess for Shaw Local News Network)<\/p>\n
Things didn\u2019t start to shift until his outdoor track and field season-opener, where he ran a 10.25 in the 100-meter dash, as well as a 21.15 in the 200, which he would later get down to 21.00 by the end of the season. By the end of the season, he had state titles in both events, and was up to 16 total Division I offers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeed translates from track to the football field and vice-versa,\u201d Vikings coach Boone Thorgesen said. \u201cWe were waiting for something like this to happen, and we knew it was going to eventually. But the way his recruiting stock exploded so quickly was really cool to be a part of and for him to get the recognition he deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Konkey becomes the second Vikings wideout in as many years to commit to a Power Four program, with former standout Talyn Taylor heading to Georgia after the 2024 season. <\/p>\n
And after being a sophomore behind such high-profile talent, Konkey is ready to officially take on the role with a his commitment added to the name.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait for this upcoming season,\u201d Konkey said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of key returners on the offense and some really high expectations this year. So I\u2019m going to go out there, have as much fun as I can in my senior year, hopefully score a lot of touchdowns and take the DuKane Conference by storm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bennett Konkey has always had the dream of becoming an NFL football player. It\u2019s something that the Geneva…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,29214,42198],"class_list":["post-85611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-preps","tag-high-school-football"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116762007837929133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}