Made it through a huge recruiting weekend with 0 commits. At this point last year, we had Isaiah Williams throwing 65 yard bombs to Beason during Friday Night Lights. I honestly don't even know who we are front runners for at this point. We need to start closing on some of these guys. Schools who are in similar positions to us have closed on 2-3x as many recruits. We are, without question, behind the ball, and have a big class to fill out.
Thoughts on our "pipelines" and recruiting:
1. STL: We seem to be able to land some Trinity guys, but no other STL school has highly ranked guys who feel like Illinois is the place to be. Wonder what the dialogue is there. We have a hot pipeline to Trinity, and have a few STL coaches who are friends with Patterson. That hasn't translated to recruits. We are spending a LOT of effort and publicity trying to land a few key guys from STL. I think its safe to say that strategy isn't working. Until we land someone from Cardinal Ritter, Lutheran, or ESL, let's not pretend we have a hot pipeline to STL.
2. FL: What happened to the Florida pipeline? Von Hill and McCoy seem to be the only two down there we are hot on right now. Two years ago, 1/3 of the recruiting class was Florida guys. Donnie Abraham and Thad spent a lot of time there. Keynodo and Clark seem to be the two now.
3. GA: Seems like we have spent a lot of effort making inroads in GA this year, but have little/nothing to show for it. Seems like we should have been focusing heavier on TX/FL rather than try to break into GA where we have no discernible links.
4. TX: Seems like a down year for us recruiting down in TX. AHS spent a lot of time in a few schools making in roads, which is great, but will not pay off this year as the recruits there aren't interested. Maybe next year.
4. Where is Byrd on the recruiting trail? Is he even participating? I haven't seen him directly linked to a recruit in a long time, if ever. I don't know if he has ever led or assisted on a recruit we've landed. Even CBs/Safeties haven't mentioned him in their recruiting which is so strange to me.
5. Miles, Keynodo, and McClain need to make some noise. McClain at least seemingly has taken the lead on most of his OL recruits (granted, we've yet to close on any).
6. Having that last staff spot filled may not be necessary for coaching the team, but it would surely be nice for recruiting. Hire some random HS coach from TX/STL/Chicago and suddenly you have inroads down there you didn't before. Tell me that wouldn't be beneficial this year.