Illinois Year in Review: Male athlete of the year Devon Witherspoon

Jul. 23—Aaron Henry sat down with Devon Witherspoon last summer.

The message from the then Illinois defensive backs coach was simple. Witherspoon was "sitting on a lottery ticket."

"His feel? Unbelievable," Henry said. "Down the field strength with the ball in the air? Incredible. Ball skills? Elite. Trash talking? Elite. He checked every box."

Except for one. The same box that made Witherspoon a zero-star recruit. The 6-foot cornerback needed to get closer to 180 pounds than the 170 he was playing after missing games in 2020 and 2021 because of late-season injuries — the result of taking hits in cold weather and wearing down.

"He took it personally and took it as a challenge, and six months changed his life," Henry said.

That was Witherspoon's approach his entire Illinois career. Everything was a challenge. Embracing that helped turn him into the best cornerback in the Big Ten, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft to the Seattle Seahawks and now as The News-Gazette's Illinois Male Athlete of the Year for the 2022-23 school year.

"What a lot of people miss on is the size of the young man's heart and his burning desire to be elite," Henry said in relation to the negatives other programs found in Witherspoon's size coming out of high school. "Devon has something innately in him. He doesn't want to be good. We're in the meeting room, and he wants to get 100 on the DB test we take every Friday. He wants to be the best basketball player. He wants to be the best bowler. Any time there's a competition, he wants to win."

Not that he was actually the best bowler. Henry said Witherspoon might be taxed trying to bowl a 100 game at the Smith Center lanes. But you wouldn't know that before facing him given the level of confidence and trash talk.

"You compound that burning desire and competitive nature to be really, really eite on top of his athletic ability and his innate ability to run and flip his hips and play really violent and physical on top of him having a chip on his shoulder," Henry said. "That's how you get a first round, top-five pick."

Henry knew that was in Witherspoon's future after Illinois beat Nebraska in late October. There were flashes in training camp. Then several more early in the season. Witherspoon locking up the Cornhuskers' Trey Palmer was different. Palmer entered that game having caught 19 passes for 458 yards in his previous three games.Witherspoon limited him to one catch for one yard.

"I'm teasing him like, 'Don't let this dude go off on us for 200 against you bro,'" Henry said. "He took it very, very personal. ... It wasn't until the Nebraska game, for me, that in my mind I knew this kid wasn't coming back. He was going to be a first-round draft pick."

Scott Richey

Honor Roll: The News-Gazette's Illinois Male Athletes of the Year

Year Athlete Sport

2023 Devon Witherspoon Football

2022 Kofi Cockburn Basketball

2021 Ayo Dosunmu Basketball

2020 Ayo Dosunmu Basketball

2019 Devin Quinn Track and field

2018 Bren Spillane Baseball

2017 Malcolm Hill Basketball

2016 Isaiah Martinez Wrestling

2015 Isaiah Martinez Wrestling

2014 Jesse Delgado Wrestling

2013 Justin Parr Baseball

2012 Andrew Riley Track and field

2011 Mikel Leshoure Football

2010 Scott Langley Golf

2009 Paul Ruggeri Gymnastics

2008 Rashard Mendenhall Football

2007 Kevin Anderson Tennis

2006 Justin Spring Gymnastics

2005 Luther Head Basketball

2004 Brian Wilson Tennis

2003 Matt Lackey Wrestling