Update: July 24

Lovie Smith said he had no official status update on sophomore tackle Larry Boyd.

"As much as anything, we don't comment a lot on what's going on inside the team," Smith said. "He's working out with this football team right now and getting better like the rest of those young guys."

Smith added that sophomore tight end Lou Dorsey and sophomore defensive end Isaiah Gay "are back on our football team" after serving suspensions during the spring.

"They'll start training camp like the rest of our team will," Smith said. "Both players did some good things last year. Those things that they need to clean up within our team, they've done. They're excited on re-joining."

Original story

CHAMPAIGN — Sophomore offensive tackle Larry Boyd, who started nine games last season, is suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, multiple sources told Illini Inquirer.

Boyd is still on the team and going through team workouts. He could face a long suspension and remain on the team, though the length of the suspension is uncertain.

An Illinois spokesman said the team "won't be confirming or commenting on any of these reports."

Last season, Boyd was named BTN.com All-Freshman Team honorable mention. But the 6-foot-6, 310-pound lineman was benched for two of the last three games. During spring practice, Boyd repped mostly with the second string as redshirt sophomore Jake Cerny played with the first string.

Illinois assistant Cory Patterson, who coached Boyd at Trinity Catholic, said of Boyd last month on The Jeremy Werner Show on WSJK-FM in Champaign: “I think with Larry and a lot of those guys it would’ve been good to have a redshirt year, an opportunity to actually get acclimated to college football and get acclimated to being away from home and getting prepared for tests. He really needed that. He’s in the process now where he’s got to kinda catch up with that. There’s nothing wrong with that. Larry’s really young also. He’s only 18 years old. He needs a little bit of time, and I wish he would’ve gotten that last year. He’ll get there though.”

Boyd was Lovie Smith’s first big recruiting win out of St. Louis, choosing Illinois over Missouri, Oklahoma State, Arkansas and others.

“I just feel like they’re more genuine,” Boyd told Illini Inquirer in the spring. “Most schools try to give you the statistics and the stats and stuff. But I just want you to be real with me. I want you to tell me how I can help your program. I don’t want you to tell me lies. I don’t want you to feed me something that I just want to hear. Coach Lovie, Coach Thad (Ward), I just felt a bond with them the first day I met them. Then I was coming up here almost every other weekend for unofficial visits. It was just family. I just felt like it was home when I came up here.”

The Illini’s pursuit of Boyd, including holding a satellite camp at Trinity Catholic during the summer of 2016, was the genesis of the Illini’s relationship with the Trinity program. Illinois has since hired Boyd’s high school coach, Cory Patterson, as an assistant and received commitments from two Class of 2019 Trinity prospects: top-100 quarterback Isaiah Williams and 3-star wide receiver Bryce Childress. The Illini also are recruiting 2019 4-star linebacker Shammond Cooper, 2019 3-star offensive lineman Ira Henry and a handful of power-five 2020 prospects from Trinity.

Boyd told Illini Inquirer during the spring that he was trying to bring more of his teammates to Illinois.

“I’m just trying to help push it,” Boyd said. “I just want to bring in a different group of guys. I want everybody to come in and bring their all and just buy into the system. We’re not really worrying what the haters have to say on Twitter or none of that. We’re not worried about that 2-10 season. That’s behind us. We’re working. We’re trying to get better, and I feel like we’re going to have a good season this year.”