Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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We have a lot of mid to lower 3*s, but few elite players in this class. If we had great developmental coaches for them, they may be ok, but we’re exceedingly weak at DL, LB, DB and OL coaching. We have about DII level coaching there.

You need elite DL(6), RB (2), QB (2), WR (3), MLB (2) and CB (3) talent to make this team work, and great OL coaching or talent to make this team successful. Those players need to be high 3* or 4* quality to contend. You don’t need 70 like tOSU or Clemson. Except for one prep and last year’s transfers, we’re just not recruiting at tha level. Without the transfer 4*s and 5*s we brought in last year, does anyone doubt that recruited prep talent was better than 2 or 3 wins?
I think it is a bit too early to vote up or down on our development coaching, we have had some positive examples, but recent turnover in coaches as well... we started off as an awful team last year, ended up a pretty good team...break it down in halves and we were 2-4 against a relatively soft schedule & then 4-2 against a relatively hard schedule...the coaches did something right during the year.

I don't see it as a negative that we went out and recruited a bunch of transfers (using their HS ranking is also bit deceiving as well). We had some inherited gaps from the mess that we were and were slow to get recruiting rolling in some key areas like QB where we started in a hole. We brought in some high level talent last year & with the whole Lovie hot seat debate for the first half of the season I expected this to be a difficult year to recruit. With the relatively small class this year, as much as we can't afford to give up on any class, I just don't see this as a game breaker, maybe a missed opportunity to land some higher percentage game changers of upper end talent... but long term developing what is already on the roster for 2021 & the larger 2021 recruiting class matters much more.
 
#2,077      

Deleted member 656517

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I think we’ll be just fine at rb next yr. Brown and Epstein will replace Dre production, and I could see Cumby and Norwood taking up some of those big plays Reggie gave us with their speed. As much as I loved Reggie’s time here, this season he was definitely trying to do too much bouncing runs outside taking losses and putting us behind the chains. Simms I think will be one of those transfers, but we’d obviously be upgraded there with Love
 
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I'm still reading...
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#2,079      
Jadon not signing till Feb. So what is the word on the proverbial streets? Maybe he wants to do with his teammates all at one time in Feb. Could be he needs to take care of academics. We don't know. Has anything been verified that he is looking around? Just have to wait and see until Feb. I noticed that Rutgers is ahead of us in recruiting. Is it because we have a small class and their class is bigger? I like the guys we got committed to UI. Each one brings a special skill set to the team. Stars and bars are not the be all to end all. So how many actual scholarship will we have to give out if no one transfers and everything remains the same, which I know it won't. Every team goes through a transition.

similar to coran
 
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#2,080      
I think we’ll be just fine at rb next yr. Brown and Epstein will replace Dre production, and I could see Cumby and Norwood taking up some of those big plays Reggie gave us with their speed. As much as I loved Reggie’s time here, this season he was definitely trying to do too much bouncing runs outside taking losses and putting us behind the chains. Simms I think will be one of those transfers, but we’d obviously be upgraded there with Love
I'm kind of worried about the RB position. Nobody has proven themselves as a B1G RB. Epstein has been injury prone. Bonner is a slower power back. Norwood doesn't have the moves as Corbin nor the physique. We saw a little of Brown last year but, not enough to make a judgement. Fedanzo is an unknown. Cumby looked great in HS. Simms will be a RS Soph. and still ????
 
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One of those RB’s will be gone. I’m just not worried because running backs don’t matter a ton in rod’s offense. If you want to worry about a skill position look at slot. That’s way more vital to the offense. Espically with a good offensive line coming back, RB is the least of my worries
 
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Numbers certainly plays a part, if it makes you feel better we have a higher average rating than Rutgers. On the other hand, we are roughly 1.2 pts better on average ranking than Rutgers, while we trail OSU by over 6 and only move to 11th place by average ranking in a small class....
We have a lot of mid to lower 3*s, but few elite players in this class. If we had great developmental coaches for them, they may be ok, but we’re exceedingly weak at DL, LB, DB and OL coaching. We have about DII level coaching there.

You need elite DL(6), RB (2), QB (2), WR (3), MLB (2) and CB (3) talent to make this team work, and great OL coaching or talent to make this team successful. Those players need to be high 3* or 4* quality to contend. You don’t need 70 like tOSU or Clemson. Except for one prep and last year’s transfers, we’re just not recruiting at tha level. Without the transfer 4*s and 5*s we brought in last year, does anyone doubt that recruited prep talent was better than 2 or 3 wins?
How can you possibly judge coaching to the D2 level. That’s ridiculous. You’ve also had a negative opinion of Austin Clark and all that guy has done is recruit.
ridiculous? Look at their resumes and player development and scheming, sneaky. Clark has brought in some mid 3* prep DL, but we have yet to see quality results from his recruits to show they’re underrated. It’s fair to give him the benefit of the doubt to see how good Randolph and Okpala are, though. This year, it seems like Riggins, the Missouri flip and the other Florida DT are a couple years of “body by Lou” from being able to regularly contribute at b1g level.
 
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Love (.8837) was higher ranked than Dre Brown (.8744) or Corbin (.8244), Epstein, Bonner, Feranzo, Cumby all fall in between Brown & Corbin. We are losing our 1 & 2 back so there will always be some uncertainty, the staff also picked up Chase Brown to address the need. I think as easy as it is to say we have question marks with all our backs, I don't think it is that far fetched to believe that a few of those options will work out, add another year to most of our OL, get some receivers back to balance our offense and I don't see this as anywhere near our biggest depth hole.
Loves rating was before the serious injury. He wouldn’t be rated that high now. No doubt Corbin and Epstein were underrated, as was Brown. That doesn’t mean Love is better. I agree about the value of top receivers with a passer like peters. The problem is that three of the top four had season ending injuries and may or may not be able to perform at a high level next year.

Besides safety, I’m most concerned with our current OL numbers next year in addition to coaching. You usually want 16-18 who project to be two deep worthy talent. We’re only returning 14, and three or four of those were heavy reaches.

IMHO, we desperately need two or three 4* quality transfers in this class at OL, a ot, og (immediate start) and two year oc. We have nothing behind Kramer since stover resigned from fb.
 
#2,090      

Illinivek23

Gurnee
Why isn't Fedanzo more highly anticipated? Had a great HS career. One cut back with speed
 
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