Your post loses some steam when you suggest that there is personal dislike for the coach, and that no one should find any concern in his recruiting. Yes, it's early days, but , when you've been down for so long, you can't blame anyone for being somewhat impatient. I think everybody on this board wants BU to succeed, and still has hope given he is new to the program.
Aside from that, I find this one comment in your post is an interesting, and perhaps, valid point. It is hard to get players to play together and be focused when they feel they are not long for the team, and that may have been associated with results. We've all heard about locker room discontent, and perhaps this was part of the schism...those who bought in, and those who felt they were ready to move on.
Fair enough points. The same ones who weren't happy with the hire in the first place are mostly the ones griping about things now. The few that said they didn't like the hire but will wait before casting judgement are judging a little prematurely in my opinion.
People put way more emphasis on the measurables like playing time or distance from home.
Players need to want to play for the coach. It's a personal thing and pretty hard to quantify. And if there's a problem it's hard to identify. And hard to improve on although for some coaches a longer-term relationship may help.
I completely agree with this. That is why he needs time to get his roots in the soil. The kids transferring out he had no previous relationships with before he was the Illini coach. Combine that with a complete 180 in culture and the way things are done and you get what we had last year. Once he starts getting kids here he has recruited longer than 6months to a year will most likely know a lot more about his expectations and coaching style. I think in time we end up with a scrappy !!! in your face team for 40 straight minutes. That beats Groce ball all day long!!! I'm happy with the style coach brings. Now we just need some blue collar, take no !!!! recruits to make this happen. EJ was a perfect fit for that but we missed. We will get them in time. The fact that Underwood is at Illinois and not Ok St. could hurt us with recruits like Timme this year. If he can find guys like him as freshmen and sophomores and not leave the school he starts landing these recruits. We need stability here to start landing more top end talent. We haven't had that in a while. Groce was on the hot seat his last 2 years and I'm sure last years record and turnover is being used against us at nauseam by other coaches "and our own fan base". Let him prove some people wrong and the recruiting will pick up. Its gonna be brutal but I've got faith.