Arkansas' facilities aren't out of this world. They're probably in the bottom half of the SEC. But this is how kids react when they compare them to what Illinois has.
Josh, your work is cut out for you.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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Arkansas' facilities aren't out of this world. They're probably in the bottom half of the SEC. But this is how kids react when they compare them to what Illinois has.
Josh, your work is cut out for you.
2 or 3 years for an OL is about right, it will take him his FR and RSFR year to put on the weight as good weight, so by his RSSO or RSJR years he will be ready. To be honest in a perfect world that's when all our OL should be starting to play. If we could afford to RS all our OL/DL guys it would greatly benefit them as well as us, but right now we just can't do it
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/spirit-squad/#sm.000kbqagc1bjxfs7vmg1zxjbcvuyl
Maybe this helped him make up his mind, LOL
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FT35
- Naperville
Thank you for the insight. Danville always has a pretty solid program but you don't hear about too many FBS players coming from there. I remember Justin March was a pretty good player.
I think it's fair to say that it's hard to sit here in April of 2017 and make a fair assessment of Pearl. He could be an impact player or he may never crack the two deep. It happens with OL. We just have to trust the staff with this offer but he obviously has the frame to put on the weight. They key will be putting on the right weight and he's still a good 13-14 months away from getting on campus. Hopefully he play OT this fall and starts developing some technique.
Also in 2013, the Razorbacks spent $40 million to upgrade the new 80,000 square foot Fred W. Smith Football Center. That was part of a three-pronged facilities upgrade that athletic director Jeff Long said fans supported, arkansasnews.com reported.
“People don’t follow small dreams. They follow big dreams,” Long said. “And we’ve got big dreams here, and three facilities at once is something that very few schools ever have attempted. We have big dreams and we’re going to fulfill those big dreams.”
We'll be spending triple that. Will we get something worthy of the cost?
Yeah, March was somewhat of a miss by the past staffs in my opinion as he really checked a lot of the right boxes out of high school and went on to perform very well at Akron and now in the NFL:
http://www.chiefs.com/team/roster/Justin-March-Lillard/65855ea3-9d7c-4f60-9cc8-b01b24091fa3
Also, Trent Sherfield was another Danville kid that it would have been nice to pick up a few years ago. Not a top performer, but the kind of kid you want to lock up when they are 30 minutes away and have potential.
http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/trent_sherfield_908886.html
Hoping that Pearl will be a solid contributor in a few years and I think he is the exact kind of player you take a chance on given his proximity, coaching pedigree, and potential future prospects from the school.
My biggest concern with Pearl was not his lack of strength rather his level of effort. One down it was there a second not to be seen and the third lacked focus and genuine desire so in between. Those were some of the plays he would hang around on and clean up what was laid at his feet so to speak. That improves then I think it is substantially better. As I see the work he is putting in to get better. Than lifting and reps take on a very different meaning.
Now one problem I had with his tape was all I saw was of him at de and a mildly less aggressive nature is more expected from and olineman so it would be a better fit of what I saw.
Now one problem I had with his tape was all I saw was of him at de and a mildly less aggressive nature is more expected from and olineman so it would be a better fit of what I saw.
not seen this posted
6-8 330
watched some of his Vid, another road grader kind of OL type that the staff loves
Anthony McKinney @Antwonmckinney6 16h16 hours ago
Blessed to receive a home state offer from the University of Illinois!#GoIlini
6-8 330
watched some of his Vid, another road grader kind of OL type that the staff loves
Anthony McKinney @Antwonmckinney6 16h16 hours ago
Blessed to receive a home state offer from the University of Illinois!#GoIlini
Anthony McKinney
I'm happy to see we're back at IWCC. Everyone is after him though, hopefully he'll feel the home state love
I'm happy to see we're back at IWCC. Everyone is after him though, hopefully he'll feel the home state love
This is why it is so tough to recruit! The same holds for basketball. Our facilities simply don't match. Memorial Stadium and SFC are nice but, they are only one part of "facilities". I hope the link comes through.
http://247sports.com/Gallery/Photos...d=1859204783&nan_pid=1859204783&ad_id=5146487
http://247sports.com/Gallery/Photos...d=1859204783&nan_pid=1859204783&ad_id=5146487
They still do pretty much everywhere, at least as freshmen.
Glory Days
- Palmetto, FL
Unfortunately, Memorial Stadium doesn't qualify as nice. Badly needs a major facelift, starting with that horrible horseshoe. I trust that Josh Whitman will make it nice, though.
There is an NCAA rule that does not allow athletes to live in a dorms by themselves. There must be non-athlete students living in the same building. Now, a way around this is having the hand selecting those who live in the dorms with the athletes i.e. children of big donors
FT35
- Naperville
Unfortunately there's no other choice but to try and keep up with the arms race and give the athletes in revenue generating sports special treatment. If Illinois doesn't do it then other schools will.
I have nieces who were college athletes and they thought the football players were treated like princesses, which they were in a lot of cases. The problem is that they generate so much revenue for the athletic departments. You can see that we had an operating loss last year of 6 million dollars. How do we close that gap without eliminating non-revenue generating sports?
The only answer is to increase the revenue collected from football and men's basketball. For that to happen you have to get the best athletes who will give us the best chance to win. The only way we can attract these athletes is by improving our facilities and coaching personnel which is what we are trying to do.
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SFC is nice. Memorial Stadium is a wrech... well 66%-75% of it is anyway. I don't mind spending $100+ million if they do it right. The last "renovation" was terrible. Over promised and under delivered. It didn't bring the upper decks as close to the field as was initially promised. The student section is terrible (wait - you moved them from the 50 yard line, elevated them away from the field, and they freeze in the wind? I wonder why student attendance dropped). The horseshoe has always been what it's been. The east side is spartan by military standards. The west is nice.
The training facilities were probably okay when brand new but we did the minimum to keep to the middle of the pack.
I trust in Josh to make some progress on this, but the amount of work that's really required to fix this mess... decades of neglect and mistakes. Like updating half of stadium, moving alum's with decades of season tickets on the west side to crap seats in the east. Work is cut out for them.
They did a nice job with State Farm Center. I really hope they fix Memorial Stadium and do it properly.
I really dislike the "new" press boxes. Think they make the once spacious looking balconies appear closed in, and they take away too many great seats.
But the bottom line it all, even the horseshoe, will look better when full.
You have to remember where these kids are coming from though (Side Note: I have no idea where you are from etc.)... most of these kids have grown up with NOTHING. To be exposed to luxury like that... don't blame them one bit
Can't turn down the chance to play in the SEC. I've lived in Fayetteville and it's a great city and their facilities are great.
Fleck is crushing it at Minny.
12 Top 1000 recruits committed (roughly equivalent to top 100 recruits in basketball) and several more listed at "Warm" on their targets list: http://minnesota.247sports.com/Season/2018-Football/Targets
I'm going to assume Lovie will close strong like he did last year, but I'm concerned he's going to have a really rough time closing recruits late if the team can't win at least 5-6 games and look much better doing it (which will be tough given the QB situation and defensive losses).
12 Top 1000 recruits committed (roughly equivalent to top 100 recruits in basketball) and several more listed at "Warm" on their targets list: http://minnesota.247sports.com/Season/2018-Football/Targets
I'm going to assume Lovie will close strong like he did last year, but I'm concerned he's going to have a really rough time closing recruits late if the team can't win at least 5-6 games and look much better doing it (which will be tough given the QB situation and defensive losses).
Exactly. I think we're a three or four win team this year. It's not going to help momentum, and that's where our staff's ability to actually coach two and three stars into better players in a solid system. You can recruit with playing time for one or two years and then we have to start winning some bowl games. I think if we can build some solid lines on both sides of the ball, we'll see wins next year.
The only thing I can say about Fleck is that I hope he doesn't stay long at Minnie. Come on SEC - you know you want him!
Maybe the Bears...It's been clear for years that Fleck was going to cause grave injury to Illinois Football, whether as the coach here, or the coach somewhere else.
Fleck is a great motivator & can really recruit/relate to HS kids! I'm just amazed he didn't get a better offer than MN.
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