Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#226      
Joel Goodson
ktal said:
I think a contributing factor to Zook recruits' not working out was the number who never made it to campus or got in trouble before they could make an impact on the field. I remember message boards discussing if Zook signed players he knew had no chance of getting admitted, just for the buzz of the signing.
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This. Zook chose to recruit kids who had question marks (e.g., academic, behavioral), presumably because they were more "gettable." Sometimes that paid off handsomely (e.g., Jeff Cumberland), but more often, it didn't. Just to be clear, I'm not saying all the kids Zook went after had question marks.
 
#227      
the juiceman cometh
Joel Goodson said:
This. Zook chose to recruit kids who had question marks (e.g., academic, behavioral), presumably because they were more "gettable." Sometimes that paid off handsomely (e.g., Jeff Cumberland), but more often, it didn't. Just to be clear, I'm not saying all the kids Zook went after had question marks.
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Despite this, Zook, had about 2x more players drafted to the NFL than all of his successors combined (obviously not talking about BB here, as none of his players would even be eligible for the draft).
 
#228      
Joel Goodson
the juiceman cometh said:
Despite this, Zook, had about 2x more players drafted to the NFL than all of his successors combined (obviously not talking about BB here, as none of his players would even be eligible for the draft).
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No doubt about it, Zook (and his staff) had an eye for talent.
 
#229      
mhuml32
Not disagreeing there were 1-2 of these situations per class, such as McCray or Deries Hodge. My view is it wasn't that different than Turner's tenure, with guys like Ismail Abdunafi. I also think it was a different time, with graduate success rate/academic progress rate becoming a bigger thing and coaches having to adjust to higher academic standards for incoming recruits and greater emphasis on their college success. Zook took some chances, mostly because he was able to "fish" in a better pool of talent than others, but I think it was over-stated on the risks he took compared to his predecessors.
 
#230      
KevinC
mhuml32 said:
I think this long-held belief is a bit overstated. Zook's top recruits panned out and made it to the NFL. A couple more guys may have washed out but it was the beginning of the growing trend of transfers but wasn't a big national discussion because Twitter, etc. was still in its infancy or non-existent. I do agree the end of the Zook era turned into him mailing it in on the recruiting side, which was catastrophic with Zook also being a terrible in-game coach.
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Zook's biggest problem with recruiting near the end was that everyone (coaches and players) knew that he basically only had one or two years left on his contract and many teams used that against him. Every opposing team asst coach that I knew, threw that out there whenever IL came up.
 
#231      
illini0440
KevinC said:
Zook's biggest problem with recruiting near the end was that everyone (coaches and players) knew that he basically only had one or two years left on his contract and many teams used that against him. Every opposing team asst coach that I knew, threw that out there whenever IL came up.
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Yup. Thomas was firing Zook no matter what. Word got out. Part of the reason for the 0-6 finish. Players and coaches knew he was gone no matter what they did.
 
#232      
bluemountain
KevinC said:
Zook's biggest problem with recruiting near the end was that everyone (coaches and players) knew that he basically only had one or two years left on his contract and many teams used that against him. Every opposing team asst coach that I knew, threw that out there whenever IL came up.
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His recruiting had gone south before that - his last 2 classes were not very good and didn't produce any NFL draft picks if I remember correctly. Prior to that he was bringing in outstanding talent, the best we had seen since the Mike White days
 
#234      
illinoistradition
illini0440 said:
Yup. Thomas was firing Zook no matter what. Word got out. Part of the reason for the 0-6 finish. Players and coaches knew he was gone no matter what they did.
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I still find this hard to believe. If Zook had gone 9-3 or 10-2, he'd still get fired? Who would have taken the job at that point?
 
#236      
the juiceman cometh
IllinoisOKC said:
Sorry to interrupt the memory lane on zook, but anything new on any potential transfers coming in? TE from iowa? O line, D line, wr or secondary help?
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Why do people think there is news out there that is not being posted because some side discussion has broken out? Like, there's some insider who has news but decided he couldn't post it because he didn't want to interrupt the Zook discussion?
 
#238      
illini80
#239      
KevinC
bluemountain said:
His recruiting had gone south before that - his last 2 classes were not very good and didn't produce any NFL draft picks if I remember correctly. Prior to that he was bringing in outstanding talent, the best we had seen since the Mike White days
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And that was used over his last two classes.
 
#240      
mhuml32
bluemountain said:
His recruiting had gone south before that - his last 2 classes were not very good and didn't produce any NFL draft picks if I remember correctly. Prior to that he was bringing in outstanding talent, the best we had seen since the Mike White days
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Depends on the cut-off. The 2009 class was an excellent class (Hawthorne, Scheelhaase, Green, Buckner, Buchanan, Spence, Hull, Thornton) and last time Illinois even sniffed the top-25 in recruiting classes. 2010 was the falling off a cliff in a similar vein of Lovie after 2017. If we're counting the 2011 season (Zook was fired before the signing period), it was a nice bounce-back with some solid college players and NFL guys (LaCosse, Jon Davis, O'Toole, Ferguson, Karras, and Willie Beavers (transferred to WMU)). If we're throwing out the 2011 class and going backwards, the 2008 class was a great class.
 
#242      
bluemountain
illinoistradition said:
I still find this hard to believe. If Zook had gone 9-3 or 10-2, he'd still get fired? Who would have taken the job at that point?
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No way he gets fired if he goes 9-3. the team basically gave up on him after the PSU game, and getting blown out in the last game of the year by a miserable Minnesota team was inexcusable. Thomas was a terrible AD, but Zook needed to be fired
 
#244      
KevinC
bluemountain said:
No way he gets fired if he goes 9-3. the team basically gave up on him after the PSU game, and getting blown out in the last game of the year by a miserable Minnesota team was inexcusable. Thomas was a terrible AD, but Zook needed to be fired
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Everyone knew that Zook was going to be fired with no extension. After a couple of losses, those guys were just trying to get the season over with.
 
#245      
illini0440
bluemountain said:
No way he gets fired if he goes 9-3. the team basically gave up on him after the PSU game, and getting blown out in the last game of the year by a miserable Minnesota team was inexcusable. Thomas was a terrible AD, but Zook needed to be fired
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Thomas had the papers signed and ready before the season even started……
 
#246      
TMC999
Cook said:
Pancake blocks all day!
Behind The Scenes Rage GIF by Envy
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Does he have 2-3 years remaining, or is he a Wookie?
 
#249      
CubsIlliniFan
the juiceman cometh said:
Why do people think there is news out there that is not being posted because some side discussion has broken out? Like, there's some insider who has news but decided he couldn't post it because he didn't want to interrupt the Zook discussion?
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I thought there rules on here are to stay on topic. Going back to the Zook days is inane and useless. This is the recruiting thread, lets stay on topic to the current recruiting. LOL.
 
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