Just because we have offered someone doesn't mean it's committable or that recruit isn't aware that we are prioritizing someone more. We are assuming these Illinois kids were top targets of Lovie and we are losing battles. I'm not sure that is accurate, and last year's class shows we have a very strong presence in Florida. I'm more than willing to give Lovie the benefit of the doubt after what we saw with his first class.
I have a hard time believing we're offering non-committable offers at this point. The staff has been very careful about who they offer. Look at when they offered Kendrick Green.
Do you honestly believe we didn't want Woodard?
Not all of the guys in the consensus top 10 in state were targets (Bryant, Blake, Sanborn).
Do you honestly believe we did not want Patterson, O'Rourke, Ford, O'Rourke, Jones, Teague and Newsome? All of these guys are big recruiting losses at positions of need.
The St. Louis area is loaded this year and that's where we can pick up some of the recruiting slack. Thankfully there are a handful of guys there who are ranked higher than anyone in Illinois and they seem to be giving us serious looks. Still, the hope of establishing instate connections that will help this program long after Lovie is gone is always the ultimate goal.
I don't necessarily blame Lovie and the staff. From the outside looking in they are putting in the work and doing everything they can to keep these kids instate. For whatever reason it is not working. There are just so many kids that are ABI and it's going to be tough to turn around this program if we don't have a reliable talent pool we can pick from each year.