Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#1,901      

Deleted member 654622

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I’m obviously not a college football coach, and don’t know much about football anyway. But in my ignorance I kinda like how his recruiting works. I don’t mind having so few commitments compared to others when we have so few decommitments. I also like that it appears he’s bringing in more athletes than we’ve had, even if they’re raw and sometimes small with a lot to learn.

Xs and Os on defense I absolutely can’t speak on for football but at the least we have a college aged team this year as opposed to a prep school/juco team. It seems like it’s put up or shut up time on his philosophies vs college offenses.

Finally, it’s probably good he has people on his staff that disagree with him. Multiple viewpoints generally helps create more ideas which probably isn’t a bad thing.
I would like to see how Lovie's approach works when this program shows success. More kids are going to want to commit so the "natural" pressure will be there. I would assume we won't be waiting this long to reach double digit commits at that time.

It is time for his defense to show what it can do. It is sad his best player wont be on the field

Agreed, good to have different views
 
#1,902      
I would like to see how Lovie's approach works when this program shows success. More kids are going to want to commit so the "natural" pressure will be there. I would assume we won't be waiting this long to reach double digit commits at that time.

It is time for his defense to show what it can do. It is sad his best player wont be on the field

Agreed, good to have different views

Based on research on Lovie's style of management. That is exactly what I would expect. The patience approach will work with considerably more players.
 
#1,903      
I would like to see how Lovie's approach works when this program shows success. More kids are going to want to commit so the "natural" pressure will be there. I would assume we won't be waiting this long to reach double digit commits at that time.

It is time for his defense to show what it can do. It is sad his best player wont be on the field

Agreed, good to have different views

Good point on Roundtree. I wonder if his “relaxed” recruiting is a strength just because of how different it is compared to the rest of college football.
 
#1,905      

SampsonRelpenk

Edwardsville, IL
Just watched Blaise's Hudl highlights, and I am unsure how the 247 evaluator came up with his low 3-star ranking. I understand that some of the guys he pancakes in the video are small, but he:
-Has great flexibility for his size (e.g. stance looks very natural, he is comfortable)
-Enjoys finishing plays with some nasty
-Moves fairly quickly for a lineman that big

Some of the negatives include the typical high school OL problems such as high pad level. I am confident that McClain and coach Lou can get that fixed and improve his agility and strength significantly. His film coupled with his size seem to read more as a mid 3-star to me, similar to Griffin's ranking and perhaps even higher at a solid .86 in 247's system.
I never know what to look for when watching our OL commits' tape, thanks for the write-up. I hope that poster who used to share his own detailed evals of all our recruits is still out there somewhere watching film.
 
#1,910      

reopseed60

Naples, Florida
I was thinking the same. What scared me with his tape was how little they showed him in a pass set. Not sure if that is the offense they ran or what. Feet seem a little clunky laterally. Needs to clean his weight up which will happen. You can't coach length and nasty. I hope we take at least 1 more offensive lineman.
Sparks was judged to be in the top 15 players in Southwest Florida, so while not a finished product (who is at 17) I think we was a very good recruit who is playing in a good conference and competition.
 
#1,914      

reopseed60

Naples, Florida

It seems former Illini Marques Sullivan had a hand in this one.
Thank you Marques, I am sure you had something to do with his recruitment. Illinois has not been very visible in this part of Florida (DeGroot). Naples H.S. ,Immokolee H.S and the Ft. Myers schools have sent significant talent to SEC Ohio State and Michigan also have had starters from this area
 
#1,915      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Perhaps stating the obvious, but we're not going to be rushing freshmen into the OL (sure, there may be occasional exceptions). Sparks, Griffin and Tyler could be monsters as 20 yo redshirt sophs. 2 years of hard work under Lou and McClain will transform them from huge kids to legit P5 linemen, no squinting necessary. Our OL depth is getting a much needed boost.
 
#1,917      

Deleted member 631370

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UM too had a similar BBQ, I think while we were having ours.

Like other events (homecoming), this too will spread among other schools, if it has not already.


We're a bit o a latecomer to this trend. Most of the big programs have had this weekend event for years. It's beginning to spread to the other P5 programs.

Several schools have BBQs, specifically. Texas A&M throws a big BBQ, for instance. I believe Oregon has "Saturday Night Lights". Florida has "Friday Night Lights". Penn State has "Lasch Bash". Clemson has the "All In BBQ". Etc.

Don't know how programs like Indiana, Iowa, NW, etc. do it.
 
#1,918      

Deleted member 631370

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I don't think(and it's just my opinion), that under any circumstances, Lovie gets canned for AT LEAST three more years and even then it would require three absolutely BRUTAL seasons....of the 2-10 variety. Since Zook(with Locksley), we have not had a pipeline to anywhere with legitimate DI talent. He's established relationships in the St. Louis area, but also Texas and Florida as well. Any termination or hint of termination would blow all that up and they'd have to start from scratch, which would start the clock on another three years of "transition" unless one of HIS GUYS is promoted within.

I know people want to win(as do I), but I'm not quite sure people truly understand the train wreck he took over, from below sub par talent to sub par facilities. This has literally been a complete overhaul and rebuild.

Another fact is, this team has improved every year under his watch. From 0 to 2 to 4 wins.

Also, he's holding his guys accountable, which is more that we can say about some of the previous regimes. The issues stay in house and are dealt with accordingly.

If you're Wittman, this is your guy. You're riding this out until it is so apparent that we have a complete dumpster fire on our hands, you absolutely have no choice but to make a change and quite frankly, Lovie comes across as a guy that would step down before that would happen.

Again, just my opinion, but he's our guy for the long haul....and he knows it. Now, his coordinators...that might be a different story.


You make many valid points.

However, he didn't go from 0 to 2 to 4.

He went from 3 to 2 to 4. So he actually regressed from season 1 to season 2 -- including going from 2 conference wins to 0 conference wins.

The "long haul" will really depend on how this season develops. A 4-5 win season, and there's going to be a very serious conversation in late November as to where we're going as a program. Looking at our schedule, I think we should probably prepare ourselves for that very strong likelihood.

The question then becomes, how did we look over the course of those 4-5 wins? Any 50+ point losses? Are we at least losing close? Any big upsets?
 
#1,919      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
Well, if we are to have lesser-rated recruits adding to our numbers, giant-framed linemen is probably the best possible type. Griffin, Tyler and Sparks are large humans, and a surplus of those is a good place to start.


This can't be said loud enough. This program will rise with the size of it's lines.
 
#1,920      
We're a bit o a latecomer to this trend. Most of the big programs have had this weekend event for years. It's beginning to spread to the other P5 programs.

Several schools have BBQs, specifically. Texas A&M throws a big BBQ, for instance. I believe Oregon has "Saturday Night Lights". Florida has "Friday Night Lights". Penn State has "Lasch Bash". Clemson has the "All In BBQ". Etc.

Don't know how programs like Indiana, Iowa, NW, etc. do it.

We had lasagna fest
 
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#1,921      

3DegreeIllini

Chicago,IL
You make many valid points.

However, he didn't go from 0 to 2 to 4.

He went from 3 to 2 to 4. So he actually regressed from season 1 to season 2 -- including going from 2 conference wins to 0 conference wins.

The "long haul" will really depend on how this season develops. A 4-5 win season, and there's going to be a very serious conversation in late November as to where we're going as a program. Looking at our schedule, I think we should probably prepare ourselves for that very strong likelihood.

The question then becomes, how did we look over the course of those 4-5 wins? Any 50+ point losses? Are we at least losing close? Any big upsets?

Agreed. Instead of winning six and making it easy, in true Illini fashion we win 4-5 leading to another off season of us arguing the merits of Lovie - close win over Akron, controversial loss to UConn, beat Michigan, get embarrassed by NW, loss to Neb (but we were banged up!), tie Purdue...
 
#1,923      
You make many valid points.

However, he didn't go from 0 to 2 to 4.

He went from 3 to 2 to 4. So he actually regressed from season 1 to season 2 -- including going from 2 conference wins to 0 conference wins.

The "long haul" will really depend on how this season develops. A 4-5 win season, and there's going to be a very serious conversation in late November as to where we're going as a program. Looking at our schedule, I think we should probably prepare ourselves for that very strong likelihood.

The question then becomes, how did we look over the course of those 4-5 wins? Any 50+ point losses? Are we at least losing close? Any big upsets?

When Lovie was signed, Whitman knew what was going to happen to the team. They had a plan to burn the program to the ground and knew it would take 5 years to field competitive program. This is apparent in the contract. He built in a pretty high buyout at this point in the contract. I think it is unlikely Lovie gets fired this year. The buyout is still very high and the buyout for the current year ends on 2/1/2020 (from what I have heard), which suggests that barring a complete flop, I think they will give Lovie at least one more year.
 
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