Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

[ILL_INI]

So just some numbers for us all to pay attention to. We currently have 61 scholarships accounted for next year (51 players on scholarship + 10 commits.) Leaving us with 24 scholarships available. We are only allowed a 25 man class, but with some early enrollments (to make those kids turn into 2020 recruits) we could take a possible 28 man class. 28-(10 commits)= 18 possible more HS/juco commits. 24-18= 6 scholarships left over for transfers. We currently sit at 1 scholarship available this season, so if we use it on a multi year transfer then we would be sitting at 5 possible transfers+ attrition. So the next year has us possibly adding upwards of 33 scholarship players to the roster. It’s going to be a huge year for roster building.

After Chinedu Udeogu committed, I pointed out it put Illinois as 86 scholarships and asked who was leaving. You (and @thunderwear ) said that Ethan Tabel and Donny Navarro had to earn their scholarships again, which put the scholarship count to 84. Christian Bell since de-committed, which put the count to 83. How do you come up with 84? It seems to me it is either 83 or 85.

If there are only 23/24 scholarships available next year before the 85 player cap is reached, I'm not understanding why they would go with up to 28 or 33 scholarships unless there was some creaning planned or known that some players are leaving early on their own.

 

[Positive illini fan]

After Chinedu Udeogu committed, I pointed out it put Illinois as 86 scholarships and asked who was leaving. You (and @thunderwear ) said that Ethan Tabel and Donny Navarro had to earn their scholarships again, which put the scholarship count to 84. Christian Bell since de-committed, which put the count to 83. How do you come up with 84? It seems to me it is either 83 or 85.

If there are only 23/24 scholarships available next year before the 85 player cap is reached, I'm not understanding why they would go with up to 28 or 33 scholarships unless there was some creaning planned or known that some players are leaving early on their own.

So my understanding is that Navarro is locked into a scholarship, while table is not. If we don’t fill the last spot with grad transfer then I think Lovie will be using that for table again. And we have have a ton of scholarship seniors this year; so we need to reload closer to 85 as possible for class balance. We can take as many as 28 in a single class. We are going to need to take as close to that in order to meet our needs as far as depth. I think we have 26 scholarship seniors, so we will need to fill close to that amount. The difference between the 85-51(current scholarships accounted for)= 34 spots. If 28 of these can come from prep/juco, then we will have 6 to use on the portal in order to get a close to a max roster as possible.

 

[ILL_INI]

So my understanding is that Navarro is locked into a scholarship, while table is not. If we don’t fill the last spot with grad transfer then I think Lovie will be using that for table again. And we have have a ton of scholarship seniors this year; so we need to reload closer to 85 as possible for class balance. We can take as many as 28 in a single class. We are going to need to take as close to that in order to meet our needs as far as depth. I think we have 26 scholarship seniors, so we will need to fill close to that amount. The difference between the 85-51(current scholarships accounted for)= 34 spots. If 28 of these can come from prep/juco, then we will have 6 to use on the portal in order to get a close to a max roster as possible.

Well, that's just it. You talk about 26 scholarship seniors but then 34 spots to fill. What are these 8 additional spots? I show 23 scholarships (24 if you count Navarro's) available for next year, with ten of those filled with commits, leaving 13 (or 14) still to fill. Do you know of someone leaving with eligibility remaining?

 

[FT35]

DD Snyder just committed to Illinois:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1280210581929299970

 

[redwingillini11]

Offers from Duke, Indiana, Louisville, NC State, UCF, and Washington State. Not bad. Welcome on board!

 

[kyillinifan]

Welcome to the OandB.

 

[wewillwint]

Wow 4 Defensive backfield players from FL. Thank you Hudson. I believe two will be developed into starters by 2022.

 

[moggs3]

Wow 4 Defensive backfield players from FL. Thank you Hudson. I believe two will be developed into starters by 2022.

Edwards and Washington

 

[lonelytylenol]

DD Snyder just committed to Illinois

We're gonna take it.

 

[PtownIllini8]

Great

Offers from Duke, Indiana, Louisville, NC State, UCF, and Washington State. Not bad. Welcome on board!

That's great news, welcome indeed!

 

[Positive illini fan]

So the next couple targets to keep an eye out for would be Cameron Bonner (Wr out of Houston), Chevy brenson (TE our of StL), Hayden Reed (LB out of FL), Justin Macias (S/LB out of Texas), Zion Rucker (DT), Cole Nelson (DE) and zequi Lawton (DL).

 

[mhuml32]

For those who say Illinois recruits get a reduction in ratings, DD Snyder was bumped up today on 247 from .8315 to .8418. That's a sizable jump in rankings. Moves him from 1662nd to ~1160th.

 

[FT35]

For those who say Illinois recruits get a reduction in ratings, DD Snyder was bumped up today on 247 from .8315 to .8418. That's a sizable jump in rankings. Moves him from 1662nd to ~1160th.

I believe they just added ESPN's rating to the composite score. Snyder is actually our second highest rated recruit according to ESPN:

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/356

I remember the composite rating for Kevin Tyler went up right after he committed to us for the same reason.

247's rating of 83 for Snyder remained unchanged from what it was yesterday.

 

[altenberger22]

For those who say Illinois recruits get a reduction in ratings, DD Snyder was bumped up today on 247 from .8315 to .8418. That's a sizable jump in rankings. Moves him from 1662nd to ~1160th.

Considering Robert also rates DD as our 2nd/3rd best recruit, I'm somewhat surprised how poorly he's ranked. As a Power 5 team, I would think our "fair share" of Top 1000 recruits would be at least 4-5 players each year. Come on Lovie!

(Side note - I'm a huge proponent of limiting the number of 4* and 5* recruits in each school's annual recruiting class, so that talent is more equitably distributed across the land, and so that in-game coaching can become more relevant, and more fairly ranked/evaluated. I'm growing rather tired of Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama perennially in the preseason Top 5.) Come on Lovie!

 

[Deleted member 746648]

Considering Robert also rates DD as our 2nd/3rd best recruit, I'm somewhat surprised how poorly he's ranked. As a Power 5 team, I would think our "fair share" of Top 1000 recruits would be at least 4-5 players each year. Come on Lovie!

(Side note - I'm a huge proponent of limiting the number of 4* and 5* recruits in each school's annual recruiting class, so that talent is more equitably distributed across the land, and so that in-game coaching can become more relevant, and more fairly ranked/evaluated. I'm growing rather tired of Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama perennially in the preseason Top 5.) Come on Lovie!

I've always thought the scholarship limit should be lowered to 70-75. The top teams would still horde talent but more of those high 3* and lower 4* players would trickle down. It would only help us

 

[Deleted member 746648]

I differ in this thought.
Higher scholarship numbers, more students getting their tuition paid for by schools.
Have not settled on how to go about this, but I was thinking 20 new enrollees per year with no scholarship limit. So, with redshirts could be up to 100 players on scholarship per year, but would likely range 80-100. 25/year another number, but 125 max seems high. Maybe 21, puts teams at 84 minimum, close to now. 1 more for good luck.
I think the 20/yr would lessen any creaning, no 5th yr non-renewal going on as well. Redshirts encouraged more as well (possibly). Less messy for playing with scholly numbers.
For basketball, can do 3-4/yr?

Your thinking of it from a player welfare perspective althoughI think football has too many scholarships while baseball/softball doesn't have enough (I understand it doesn't make money in the B1G). I'm thinking of it from a parity perspective, right now Ohio St is pulling in ~25 players a year that are better than our top end recruits. If teams only had 75 scholarships that is 10 less incredibly talented players on Ohio States roster and 10 more playing against Ohio St. They will still have the best players but the drop off won't be nearly as steep from the top 2-4 teams and the rest of the top 25.

As an illini fan I see the worst Ohio St recruits and I would love to have those guys. Of course this is just hypothetical nonsense that'll never happen but a person can dream.

 

[bluemountain]

Considering Robert also rates DD as our 2nd/3rd best recruit, I'm somewhat surprised how poorly he's ranked. As a Power 5 team, I would think our "fair share" of Top 1000 recruits would be at least 4-5 players each year. Come on Lovie!

(Side note - I'm a huge proponent of limiting the number of 4* and 5* recruits in each school's annual recruiting class, so that talent is more equitably distributed across the land, and so that in-game coaching can become more relevant, and more fairly ranked/evaluated. I'm growing rather tired of Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama perennially in the preseason Top 5.) Come on Lovie!

An average P5 team probably pulls 15+ top 1000 players/year, so that s/b our aspiration. We did that routinely not that long ago

 

[pvaughn8]

An average P5 team probably pulls 15+ top 1000 players/year, so that s/b our aspiration. We did that routinely not that long ago

I guess the top 1,000 players we can access are too slow, therefore we are going after speed outside of the top 1,000. You would think the two aren't mutually exclusive for a power five program, but I guess it is for us.

 

[WeWillWhen]

With the changes in transfer rules, isn’t Illinois now effectively getting more of those 4 and 5 star high schoolers, just after they’ve spent a couple years in a P5 weight training program?

 

[IllinoisssssssVarsity]

With the changes in transfer rules, isn’t Illinois now effectively getting more of those 4 and 5 star high schoolers, just after they’ve spent a couple years in a P5 weight training program?

In theory yes, but guys who perform at a 4/5 star level get playing time at the first school and pretty much only transfer in special situations.

So we might be getting “4/5 star high school recruits” but we’re getting 2 star college producers(at the time of the transfer, not saying they can’t be better: see BheBhe).

 

[suburbanILLINI]

Just picked up a commitment from a ATH/WR out of VA
https://247sports.com/college/illin...Kalen-Villanueva-commits-to-Illini-148941065/

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1280915319192801280

 

[TwoElevenEastDaniel]

Apparently, there may be a new commit. Looks to be from the DC area.

https://247sports.com/college/illin...Kalen-Villanueva-commits-to-Illini-148941065/

https://247sports.com/Player/Kalen-Villanueva-46084567/

 

[moggs3]

Interesting. Have not heard a thing on him in a very long time. Did not know they were pushing for him.

 

[Illini_matt]

Imagine being Shammond Cooper right now.

You are being recruited by basically every P5 program. You have a final four of Texas, Oklahoma, Mizzou, and Illinois. Oklahoma publicly showers you in love. Shockingly, you pick Illinois on January 3rd. You sign on Feb 6th.

On February 6th, the same day, Lovie announces that Miles Smith will be switching to coach LBs. He has no professional experience coaching linebackers. (I recognize that Lovie does the majority of the coaching of this group, but that just makes this point even more ridiculous in my opinion.)

You develop on the bench for your freshman year (probably was the plan all along, but hard to believe given all his "early playing time" quotes").

Miles hits the road to recruit. He recruits only linebackers. Who does he bring in?
2020 - Lavar Gardner (Only other P5 offer that we know of is from Nebraska)
2019 - Tarique Barnes (Had 0 other P5 offers on the table at the time he committed)
2021 - Dylan Rosiek (Illini only P5 offer)
2021 - Trevor Moffitt (Illini only P5 offer)
2021 - Kalen Villanueva (Illini only P5 offer)

To recap, thats 5 recruits with 6 P5 offers. Cooper had 30+ alone.

How excited do you think Shammond Cooper is going to be to line up next to these other recruits? Does Cooper think that Miles Smith is going to develop them?

Do you stay with a company who only hires people who likely can't do their job at a high level? Or do you start to look around?

 

[IlliniShelt]

Imagine being Shammond Cooper right now.

You are being recruited by basically every P5 program. You have a final four of Texas, Oklahoma, Mizzou, and Illinois. Oklahoma publicly showers you in love. Shockingly, you pick Illinois on January 3rd. You sign on Feb 6th.

On February 6th, the same day, Lovie announces that Miles Smith will be switching to coach LBs. He has no professional experience coaching linebackers. (I recognize that Lovie does the majority of the coaching of this group, but that just makes this point even more ridiculous in my opinion.)

You develop on the bench for your freshman year (probably was the plan all along, but hard to believe given all his "early playing time" quotes").

Miles hits the road to recruit. He recruits only linebackers. Who does he bring in?
2020 - Lavar Gardner (Only other P5 offer that we know of is from Nebraska)
2019 - Tarique Barnes (Had 0 other P5 offers on the table at the time he committed)
2021 - Dylan Rosiek (Illini only P5 offer)
2021 - Trevor Moffitt (Illini only P5 offer)
2021 - Kalen Villanueva (Illini only P5 offer)

To recap, thats 5 recruits with 6 P5 offers. Cooper had 30+ alone.

How excited do you think Shammond Cooper is going to be to line up next to these other recruits? Does Cooper think that Miles Smith is going to develop them?

Do you stay with a company who only hires people who likely can't do their job at a high level? Or do you start to look around?

Thanks Debbie Downer