It is very simple. If you, as a fan, want the top end recruits to come to your university, you have to do your part and generate that environment on the same level as the schools you want to be like. Everybody can say, "well they need to win and we will come out". Well you are not going to win without talent. Big talent coming in this weekend. One guy is already committed to Mississippi State, a team that plays in the SEC, a conference that averages 75k fans per game. Everybody wants to blame this coaching staff for not getting a good recruiting class. They have gotten them on campus to find a stadium 1/3 full! The fans are not doing their part. They cry and wine and sit back in their recliners. Nebraska was 0-6 and still had a packed stadium. You think Lovie is going to win any recruiting battles against that? This fanbase is putting the coaching staff at a disadvantage and then want to throw mud when they are not pulling in top talent.
Lets compare
Can get you to the NFL?
SEC: Yes ILL: Yes
Top of the line facilities?
SEC: Yes ILL: Yes (next year, thank you JW)
Top Educational Programs?
SEC: Yes ILL: Yes
Great Game Day Environment?
SEC: Yes ILL: NOT EVEN CLOSE
All these comments looking outward at what the coaching staff is not doing, and ignoring the ONLY thing we can actually do is making me feel this program will NEVER reach the likes of Michigan or Ohio State. To many fair weather fans. I guess this really is only a golf school.
Forgive me, cause theres a lot to unpack in this comment. The SEC is a different animal. Football in the south is a religion. Now, you can compare UI to UM or OSU or NU. Well those schools have something we will (probably) never have and that tradition that spans more than the early 1900s. We've never strung together even 3 years of top flight football since maybe the late 80s if you even want to call John Mackovic's run that. You're expecting fans to blinding follow a team (and therefore the leadership) most probably don't believe in. It's human nature to oppose things that are wrong, or else have apathy towards them. Either case, you aren't coming out to the games.
I live in the burbs and I would expect >75% of this board (and the rest of the fan base) lives rough as close or farther than I do from Champaign. Why would I travel 2.5+ hrs, sit in crappy weather, and watch bad football, in hopes that some 18 year old kid picks this team? You can call me fair weather, but its beyond ridiculous to think lack of fan support is the main reason we don't get 4 and 5 star kids committing left and right. And I don't think the win first rhetoric is that crazy. Lovie drew plenty of fan support when he started, 3 years is enough time for most sports fans to quit on a guy, logic be darned.
It's the job of the staff to sell what they have and what could be to recruits. Sure, it would help them if the stadium is packed, but very, very few sports teams have the luxury of unwavering fan support, and without putting too much thought into there, the Cubs and Red Sox are the only traditionally crap teams that got support through the leanest of years, and even still suffered plenty of attrition from their stadiums.
I'll continue to watch the Illini on TV because I am a fan. If I lived in Champaign, I would probably go to the game, but I'd rather only waste 3 hrs instead of 8+ on Saturdays for Illini football. If that makes me fair weather, then I'm fine with that label.