Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#502      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
GILL-INOIS said:
Exactly the point I made with my full statement and think validates your as well. Go look at the Wisconsin recruiting ranks when BB was head coach. Not once did he have a top 30 recruiting class and he had 6 straight winnings seasons, 6 bowl bids and 3 straight Rose Bowls. They were quite solid recruiting classes mostly in the 30's and 40's range with the last one at 65. He can recruit for his system and develop them. We have not had a coach who could do both since......
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I think we are overlapping our circles nicely but I do want us to remember that talent is relative to your competition. Being ranked in the 30's in the Big Ten West is good but would be disastrous in the SEC West. Your primary goal in the Big Ten West is to bring in more talent than your yearly opponents and then start rising in the recruiting ranks to start being competitive on the national scene. SEC West schools must possess the talent to be national competitive to be successful in their division. Here's the context using Rivals to have accurate recruiting rankings back to 2007 for Wisconsin but switched to 247 for his Arkansas tenure. I color-coded the years by being above-average in-conference recruiting per quality of recruit (green) and below-average (red).

Bret Bielema Recruiting/Conference Rankings @ Wisconsin (Rivals data)
2007 - 34th (6th in B1G - 4th in average recruit ranking) - 11 teams in B1G
2008 - 41st (5th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking)
2009 - 43rd (7th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking)
2010 - 87th (10th in B1G - 7th in average recruit ranking)
2011 - 40th (7th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking) - 12 teams in B1G
2012 - 57th (8th in B1G - 4th in average recruit ranking)

Bret Bielema Recruiting/Conference Rankings @ Arkansas (247 data)
2014 - 29th (11th in SEC - 11th in average recruit ranking) - 14 teams in SEC
2015 - 22nd (11th in SEC - 11th in average recruit ranking)
2016 - 23rd (9th in SEC - 10th in average recruit ranking)
2017 - 27th (10th in SEC - 12th in average recruit ranking)


This isn't an indictment on BB because taking rosters with predominantly 4th-5th best talent and churning out 1-loss/2-loss seasons is impressive but that task becomes multiple degrees more difficult as the talent disparity gets deeper (e.g., his Arkansas tenure). As of now Illinois has the 40th-best class (not bad!) but only the 11th best class in B1G and 14th by talent quality. Plenty of caveats to be had (recruiting could be especially inaccurate this year because of COVID, teams like Iowa/Nebraska will add more recruits and dilute their quality ranking, # of recruits in a class can inflate your team rankings) but this is why it's important to start making strides in recruiting. BB is going to need to start getting closer to achieving a level playing field talent-wise for the B1G matchups before any development strengths can start to shine.
 
#503      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
mhuml32 said:
I think we are overlapping our circles nicely but I do want us to remember that talent is relative to your competition. Being ranked in the 30's in the Big Ten West is good but would be disastrous in the SEC West. Your primary goal in the Big Ten West is to bring in more talent than your yearly opponents and then start rising in the recruiting ranks to start being competitive on the national scene. SEC West schools must possess the talent to be national competitive to be successful in their division. Here's the context using Rivals to have accurate recruiting rankings back to 2007 for Wisconsin but switched to 247 for his Arkansas tenure. I color-coded the years by being above-average in-conference recruiting per quality of recruit (green) and below-average (red).

Bret Bielema Recruiting/Conference Rankings @ Wisconsin (Rivals data)
2007 - 34th (6th in B1G - 4th in average recruit ranking) - 11 teams in B1G
2008 - 41st (5th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking)
2009 - 43rd (7th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking)
2010 - 87th (10th in B1G - 7th in average recruit ranking)
2011 - 40th (7th in B1G - 5th in average recruit ranking) - 12 teams in B1G
2012 - 57th (8th in B1G - 4th in average recruit ranking)

Bret Bielema Recruiting/Conference Rankings @ Arkansas (247 data)
2014 - 29th (11th in SEC - 11th in average recruit ranking) - 14 teams in SEC
2015 - 22nd (11th in SEC - 11th in average recruit ranking)
2016 - 23rd (9th in SEC - 10th in average recruit ranking)
2017 - 27th (10th in SEC - 12th in average recruit ranking)


This isn't an indictment on BB because taking rosters with predominantly 4th-5th best talent and churning out 1-loss/2-loss seasons is impressive but that task becomes multiple degrees more difficult as the talent disparity gets deeper (e.g., his Arkansas tenure). As of now Illinois has the 40th-best class (not bad!) but only the 11th best class in B1G and 14th by talent quality. Plenty of caveats to be had (recruiting could be especially inaccurate this year because of COVID, teams like Iowa/Nebraska will add more recruits and dilute their quality ranking, # of recruits in a class can inflate your team rankings) but this is why it's important to start making strides in recruiting. BB is going to need to start getting closer to achieving a level playing field talent-wise for the B1G matchups before any development strengths can start to shine.
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Yeah I think we are pretty much agreeing on majority of things. I will say I think he is way ahead of schedule this year. Rankings in the last year and coming year might be skewed a bit as a lot of teams either didn't play a season or a small fraction of a season. Ton more guys going in for random workouts and getting scholarship offers all around compared to past years.
 
#507      

moggs3

M
moggs3
Simeon Rice said:
If you believe the offer lists, Kenwood's Jalil Martin belongs on this list as well. Also, Kenwood has a lot of good talent (in fball and bball) so wouldn't hurt making some inroads there
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I like the meat of this class, but we need some top tier guys. I like Selah Brown and Elijah Mc-Cantos. Shawn Miller and Patrick Kutas would fit the bill too. I want Martin at S, but would not put him in that category.
 
#508      

IllinoisOKC

IllinoisOKC
IllinoisOKC
moggs3 said:
I like the meat of this class, but we need some top tier guys. I like Selah Brown and Elijah Mc-Cantos. Shawn Miller and Patrick Kutas would fit the bill too. I want Martin at S, but would not put him in that category.
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Is that where martin would play, at saftey?
 
#509      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
moggs3 said:
I like the meat of this class, but we need some top tier guys. I like Selah Brown and Elijah Mc-Cantos. Shawn Miller and Patrick Kutas would fit the bill too. I want Martin at S, but would not put him in that category.
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I have heard a few inquiries about Safety on here lately. Am curious, did we not feel some of that need in the 2021 Class? I know guys will switch positions but we brought in three 3 star recruits listed at safety that all are from FL and 2 transfer recruits listed as Safeties that came from Alabama and Georgia.
 
#510      

IllinoisOKC

IllinoisOKC
IllinoisOKC
GILL-INOIS said:
I have heard a few inquiries about Safety on here lately. Am curious, did we not feel some of that need in the 2021 Class? I know guys will switch positions but we brought in three 3 star recruits listed at safety that all are from FL and 2 transfer recruits listed as Safeties that came from Alabama and Georgia.
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The alabama transfer could play db or s, nobody really knows from what I’ve read. The Georgia transfer will be backup/rotation which is nice. Tony Adam’s has moved to saftey (twice I believe) due to lack of depth but is back at db. The freshman Washington will be a nice option at saftey in the future 🤞🏻, but of the true freshman im not sure who’s playing where with the new staff. In a nutshell weatherspoon and adams at db but then its a question mark after them unless eddie smith plays db, at saftey you have brown, martin, hudson and smith which isn’t bad but those guys are older so to me it’d be nice to get another guy at saftey for the future and with db being such a question mark a few more options there wouldn’t hurt. Thats my view on it, probably wrong but just my .02.
 
#512      

moggs3

M
moggs3
GILL-INOIS said:
I have heard a few inquiries about Safety on here lately. Am curious, did we not feel some of that need in the 2021 Class? I know guys will switch positions but we brought in three 3 star recruits listed at safety that all are from FL and 2 transfer recruits listed as Safeties that came from Alabama and Georgia.
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We are just very upperclassman heavy. We also have not landed that "stud safety". Tried for Antonio Johnson last year and Austin Brown this year. Eddie Smith may play CB. There is a big hole for the 3rd CB spot.
 
#514      

217sports

217sports
Springfield
217sports
I assume that defense will be the focus outside of big targets such as S Miller and Baer. I think one of Selah Brown or Kutas needs to be the main goal for sure. Not many options in state for defensive guys left so there may be some names we haven't heard yet pop up
 
#515      

WeWillWhen

WeWillWhen
WeWillWhen
I suspect there will be some in-state late bloomers who pop onto the radar screen in the Fall, especially given their junior year weird pandemic season.
 
#516      

GILL-INOIS

G
GILL-INOIS
Yeah we always need more depth in the secondary


I will say this and think will be a huge factor in the BB era compared to the Lovie era. I don't think Illinois was ever in the top 100 in time of possession while Lovie was around. BB is building in the trenches on offense and working his way out. You always need defense but I also feel like the defense won't be fatigued as much and hopefully not on the field as much either once BB gets things going.
 
#518      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
IllinoisOKC said:
CB’s for miller!
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I only see one so far but it’s Werner and he’s not often wrong this late in the game. I won’t celebrate just yet, but this will be HUGE if comes thru. Maybe the best thing is beating other quality B10 programs for players. I’m sure we have before, but it feels like a lifetime ago. This staff is working their behinds off.
 
#519      

suburbanILLINI

S
suburbanILLINI
illini80 said:
I only see one so far but it’s Werner and he’s not often wrong this late in the game. I won’t celebrate just yet, but this will be HUGE if comes thru. Maybe the best thing is beating other quality B10 programs for players. I’m sure we have before, but it feels like a lifetime ago. This staff is working their behinds off.
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Up to 2 now; other is from a "Mountain Region Recruiting Analyst". Didn't know that Florida has mountains
 
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