Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#1,501      
I don't disagree with your points. I want to just ask, what are they trying to sell recruits? Currently a program that has really sucked in recent history. The fact we are in the conversation with so many top recruits, even though we have been terrible, shows me they are pretty good at recruiting. Be middle of the pack at least, and then we can see what type of recruiters we have on the field. As I have said many times, I am 100% Jimmys and Joes over Xs and Os
When I spoke with i.w. a couple weekends ago I asked him they same question pretty much.. he said the 1st thing they sold him on was Family, you are family for life.
The 2nd thing they stressed was immediate playing time,
3rd was the culture change they are developing.
4th he said they felt like he could be the start of something special.
He threw a few other things out, like they sold him on being close to home so his family could watch him play in person..
But point is you cant continue selling on just those points...
 
#1,502      
Lovie handled the press conference really well yesterday and kinda calmed down the concern a little bit.
Hopefully what he said is true and we are in a great place in recruiting right now.
 
#1,503      

Deleted member 654622

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When I spoke with i.w. a couple weekends ago I asked him they same question pretty much.. he said the 1st thing they sold him on was Family, you are family for life.
The 2nd thing they stressed was immediate playing time,
3rd was the culture change they are developing.
4th he said they felt like he could be the start of something special.
He threw a few other things out, like they sold him on being close to home so his family could watch him play in person..
But point is you cant continue selling on just those points...
100% agree. My point was that the current staff has done a good (not great) job recruiting considering what we have shown on the field. Those selling points are going to work with some special top talent. But not enough to put us in the top 5 of B1G recruiting. I would like to see what kind of a** this staff could pull if we finally look like a B!G football team. Sell becomes
1. Family
2. Evidence of something special
3. Close to home
4. #WeWin
 
#1,504      

Deleted member 654622

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Lovie handled the press conference really well yesterday and kinda calmed down the concern a little bit.
Hopefully what he said is true and we are in a great place in recruiting right now.
I really like that he isn't shying away from
1. How bad the defense was
2. Its time to win now
He isn't sugar coating anything. Which means he knows
 
#1,506      
Lovie, to his credit, has never made the sort of strained excuses some of our fans have on his behalf.

Yes. Agree completely. And, I haven’t had the sense that Lovie has been pretending like the talent is there. This is the first interview I remember where he has said, the talent is there, now we expect to win.
 
#1,507      
I really like that he isn't shying away from
1. How bad the defense was
2. Its time to win now
He isn't sugar coating anything. Which means he knows
That's what I respected the most was how he stood there and said "i feel our offense did enough to win more games, our defense however did not do enough". He blatantly said our defense last year was terrible but with flashes of the great defense it could be.
I.e. Rutgers and Minnesota..
We do have much more talent than we did 4 years ago..
We need to win...
 
#1,510      
I really like what PJ fleck and the braska coach had to say about Our football team they had a lot of encouraging things to say and said that the rest of the big 10 is not overlooking The Illinois football program I read a quote yesterday Said something along the lines of This "the Illinois football program is a sleeping giant A-day will come that is not far away where the sleeping giant will be awoken and the rest of the big 10 is already on notice "

It is said that given our geographical location it is only a matter of time before we start landing the recruits from Chicago,Saint Louis, Indiana, Ohio, They said our school is located in a somewhat prime geographical location being in the center of One of the most talented football pipelines in the United States,It is only a matter of time....
I for one as are the rest Of You am hoping that time comes soon
 
#1,511      

Deleted member 631370

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I really like what PJ fleck and the braska coach had to say about Our football team they had a lot of encouraging things to say and said that the rest of the big 10 is not overlooking The Illinois football program I read a quote yesterday Said something along the lines of This "the Illinois football program is a sleeping giant A-day will come that is not far away where the sleeping giant will be awoken and the rest of the big 10 is already on notice "

It is said that given our geographical location it is only a matter of time before we start landing the recruits from Chicago,Saint Louis, Indiana, Ohio, They said our school is located in a somewhat prime geographical location being in the center of One of the most talented football pipelines in the United States,It is only a matter of time....
I for one as are the rest Of You am hoping that time comes soon


I certainly hope it happens.

But I dunno about "sleeping giant". If we're talking basketball, then that's one thing. Football? We've won 8+ games in a season 7 times since JFK was president. Only 3 times since the George HW Bush administration.

I might be setting the bar low, but I'd be very happy if we won 7ish games consistently (just as long as we get the hoops program rolling again).

The talent in Illinois is tremendous in basketball, and we have the proximity and tradition to take advantage of it. Not really so for football.

But I'm all about optimism. :)
 
#1,512      

SequoiaIllini

California
Nice guy/words but his teams are consistently blown out. We could hire a girls soccer coach to get trucked every week. Teams don't need 5* talent to have solid fundamentals, discipline, and development. I hope Lovie Smith can bring in some good Assistants, otherwise, I expect more of the same.
 
#1,513      
I certainly hope it happens.

But I dunno about "sleeping giant". If we're talking basketball, then that's one thing. Football? We've won 8+ games in a season 7 times since JFK was president. Only 3 times since the George HW Bush administration.

I might be setting the bar low, but I'd be very happy if we won 7ish games consistently (just as long as we get the hoops program rolling again).

The talent in Illinois is tremendous in basketball, and we have the proximity and tradition to take advantage of it. Not really so for football.

But I'm all about optimism. :)
I 10000000 percent agree... but it was very interesting and almost motivating to hear the other B1G coaches say some of the stuff they did.. basically no body in the conference is looking at us and saying oh that's an automatic win.. we are now the team that people dont want to play for senior nights or homecomings.. we are becoming that team coaches tell there teams "Do not take this game lightly, this team will not roll over and die" and Hopefully soon we will be completely relevant in the B1G... Lovie puts together a bowl campaign this year and another one next year wheewww.. i.w. will be a junior and we will be able to get a few of those big time recruits... THUS WAKING THE SLEEPING GIANT..
By the way I feel like basketball is going to do some big things in the next few years..
 
#1,515      
I really like what PJ fleck and the braska coach had to say about Our football team they had a lot of encouraging things to say and said that the rest of the big 10 is not overlooking The Illinois football program I read a quote yesterday Said something along the lines of This "the Illinois football program is a sleeping giant A-day will come that is not far away where the sleeping giant will be awoken and the rest of the big 10 is already on notice "

It is said that given our geographical location it is only a matter of time before we start landing the recruits from Chicago,Saint Louis, Indiana, Ohio, They said our school is located in a somewhat prime geographical location being in the center of One of the most talented football pipelines in the United States,It is only a matter of time....
I for one as are the rest Of You am hoping that time comes soon

And they missed Texas and Florida? We are equidistant from them too.
 
#1,516      

Deleted member 656517

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I really like what PJ fleck and the braska coach had to say about Our football team they had a lot of encouraging things to say and said that the rest of the big 10 is not overlooking The Illinois football program I read a quote yesterday Said something along the lines of This "the Illinois football program is a sleeping giant A-day will come that is not far away where the sleeping giant will be awoken and the rest of the big 10 is already on notice "

It is said that given our geographical location it is only a matter of time before we start landing the recruits from Chicago,Saint Louis, Indiana, Ohio, They said our school is located in a somewhat prime geographical location being in the center of One of the most talented football pipelines in the United States,It is only a matter of time....
I for one as are the rest Of You am hoping that time comes soon
Sit back and watch this team surprise people. The ideal players to fit the system are in place. I didn't see the vision until Lovie hired Rod. Offense's set with mature players(Lovie) on defense now. Recruits will take notice!
 
#1,517      
It is said that given our geographical location it is only a matter of time before we start landing the recruits...
Yeah & Werner interviewed the Fox announcer on Friday show, looks like he has some of it up on 247. He basically said he wasn’t buying it, too many other good schools also fishing the same area...but I’m with Verified, love the optimism.
 
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