Watkins is a huge get. I remember McGee saying that Illinois want to create a triangle of recruiting in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Other than Steve Hull, has Illinois gotten any other recruits from the Cincy area in the past? I'm intrigued about this pipeline and what the future holds. Watkins and Bonner seem like very quality players
Average player rating on Scout is now tied with Zook's 2007 class at 3.14.
Was that Zook's best class or was it 2006?
According to 247, 2007 was Zook's best class:
http://illinois.247sports.com/Season/2006-Football/Commits
http://illinois.247sports.com/Season/2007-Football/Commits
Watkins is a huge get. I remember McGee saying that Illinois want to create a triangle of recruiting in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Other than Steve Hull, has Illinois gotten any other recruits from the Cincy area in the past? I'm intrigued about this pipeline and what the future holds. Watkins and Bonner seem like very quality players
Seems like I recall a running back from the Cincy area. Maybe Ty Douthard?
2008 was just a tick better but both suffered through non- qualifiers and guys who washed outhttp://illinois.247sports.com/Season/2008-Football/Commits
Was Chris Norwell from the Cincinnati area?Douthard yes. Bud Golden too
Good catch. Wasn't even thinking about 2008.
There's a lot of guys who ended up playing in the NFL on these lists. I think Robert said there were 25 guys on the 2009 roster who ended up playing in the NFL (maybe that includes practice squads?). That team won three games!
The number of highly rated players isn't the only thing that's impressive about these classes. There are a number of guys who weren't highly rated coming out of high school who ended up in the NFL (Allen, Mercilus, Tavon Wilson, Asamoah, etc.).
Was Chris Norwell from the Cincinnati area?
Was Chris Norwell from the Cincinnati area?
From illinois.247sports.com: "Cincinnati (Ohio) Colerain offensive lineman Howard Watkins announced his verbal to Illinois on Monday evening. The Illini beat out the likes of Cincinnati, Illinois and Louisville for one of their top targets in the trenches."
We're so good at recruiting, we're beating ourselves! That's hard to do!
http://illinois.247sports.com/Article/Howard-Watkins-commits-to-Illinois-Illini-49920563
Was that Zook's best class or was it 2006?
I believe 2006 ranked slightly higher, but 2007 had the highest average player rating. 2006 average player rating was ~2.9.
Our 3 OL recruits are already college-sized!
- 6'5" / 310
- 6'5" / 280
- 6'5" / 336
We are definitely recruiting Road Graders. Opposite of Beckman who recruited Tight End types with room to grow. These guys are massive