Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#401      
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Indy Illini Fan said:
Tried to tell y’all yesterday … Best is yet to come !!!
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I think I recall in the past hearing that BB provided some direction or requests to the recruits about the timing of their commitment anouncements to maximize hype/momentum for the program. With multiple kids seemingly already committed (just not publicly yet), is that what's going on or is it more that every kid and their family has their own timeline?
 
#405      
Mr. Tibbs
my belief is there is some coordination of announcements . only makes sense this time of year , imo
 
#406      
HensonHall71
mhuml32 said:
Let's ignore the recruiting ranking funny business for a second and reflect on the 2025 B1G class rankings.


Illinois finished 12th (out of 18) in recruiting ranking and had two 4-stars (Trimble and Beerman). Seeing the pending recruiting wave upcoming for Illinois, it's obvious that this class is going to elevate above previous years, but how much can they realistically rise? Let's do a breakdown. The 2025 class has six (!) teams who secured 10+ 4-star recruits:

Ohio State (19)
Penn State (19)
Oregon (17)
Michigan (14)
USC (12)
Nebraska (11)

Looking at the 2024 class and it's a slightly different list (swap in Wisconsin for Nebraska), but the same threshold. Therefore, to break into the top 1/3 of the conference requires 10+ 4-star recruits. Is that feasible in the 2026 class? That seems like a really tall task. Assuming everything goes Illinois' way this cycle, with two current commits bumped up to 4*, then they get Rankin, Thomas, Blade, Anderson, Sutter, Alexander, and Pritchard, and then win the lottery and get Singleton, that would put them at 10. That's almost a clean sweep of every top target. I'm hopeful like all of you but that seems improbable, and maybe more of a very aggressive goal for 2027 if the '26 season goes swimmingly. So let's dive into the next tier of B1G teams based on the '25 rankings:

Washington (8)
Wisconsin (8)
Maryland (5)
Iowa (5)
Rutgers (4)

This seems realistic, especially the bottom three teams. In fact, I'll go further and say falling below the 4-5 4-star threshold this year would be a disappointment (and a cold realization that the climb up the mountain is steep). Now catching Wisconsin or Washington's 8 is a good, possibly too aggressive goal. Putting it into context - (a) get one of the current commits to bump up to 4-star (1) + Thomas (2) + Rankin (3) + Anderson (4) + Alexander (5) + Tilson (6) + Gebhardt (7) + Riordan (8). That would be a reallllllly good haul, but also requires some luck with landing all of these guys and a few of them getting bumped up (Alexander, Gebhardt, Tilson, and Riordan). All that said, the arbitrary cut-off between 4-star and high 3-star is a silly cutoff to assess, and I'm a "follow the offers and visits" guy to the end, but this is still an important talent barometer to follow as the spring and summer march on.
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Good analysis- I completely agree we’re not going to be on the upper tier level of recruiting in the ‘26 class yet but there is no reason we can’t be at the Wisconsin level. We have to capitalize on the success on the field and it looks like the staff is doing that - most importantly to me is if they are getting the guys they want the most, rather than the number of stars. It’s also important they start raising the bar on who they are going after, which it appears they are. That was one of my big criticisms of Weber when he got here - he still had a recruiting mindset of MVC and after IDKWTI, he seemed to settle for lower talent targets nationally.

It’s exciting to see the momentum- talent wants to play with talent so it has a snowball effect - we just need to keep the snowball rolling down the hill!
 
#409      
BretMyBeachHouse
HensonHall71 said:
That was one of my big criticisms of Weber when he got here - he still had a recruiting mindset of MVC and after IDKWTI, he seemed to settle for lower talent targets nationally.

It’s exciting to see the momentum- talent wants to play with talent so it has a snowball effect - we just need to keep the snowball rolling down the hill!
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He set his sites on plenty of higher level recruits. He just couldn't land them. Let's face it. There's a wide gap between Bruce Weber and Bret Bielema when it comes to what they bring to a visit. That gap is even wider when you compare Jay Price to anyone on Bielema's staff.
 
#411      
ChiTown
Joel Goodson said:
I'm kinda stunned by the level of interest we're garnering from VG or better players. I think the question about whether we'd be able to parlay our excellent season into improved recruiting looks almost laughable.
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This coming season is going to be pivotal to our future success in keeping the momentum,if we can string together another successful season on the field then more recruits will realize that this is not a fluke.
 
#412      
rtbritt
Forgive me if I missed it, but Rankin is listed as an ATHLETE, what position is he likely to play here? Any insight?
 
#416      
Epsilon
mhuml32 said:
Let's ignore the recruiting ranking funny business for a second and reflect on the 2025 B1G class rankings.


Illinois finished 12th (out of 18) in recruiting ranking and had two 4-stars (Trimble and Beerman). Seeing the pending recruiting wave upcoming for Illinois, it's obvious that this class is going to elevate above previous years, but how much can they realistically rise? Let's do a breakdown. The 2025 class has six (!) teams who secured 10+ 4-star recruits:

Ohio State (19)
Penn State (19)
Oregon (17)
Michigan (14)
USC (12)
Nebraska (11)

Looking at the 2024 class and it's a slightly different list (swap in Wisconsin for Nebraska), but the same threshold. Therefore, to break into the top 1/3 of the conference requires 10+ 4-star recruits. Is that feasible in the 2026 class? That seems like a really tall task. Assuming everything goes Illinois' way this cycle, with two current commits bumped up to 4*, then they get Rankin, Thomas, Blade, Anderson, Sutter, Alexander, and Pritchard, and then win the lottery and get Singleton, that would put them at 10. That's almost a clean sweep of every top target. I'm hopeful like all of you but that seems improbable, and maybe more of a very aggressive goal for 2027 if the '26 season goes swimmingly. So let's dive into the next tier of B1G teams based on the '25 rankings:

Washington (8)
Wisconsin (8)
Maryland (5)
Iowa (5)
Rutgers (4)

This seems realistic, especially the bottom three teams. In fact, I'll go further and say falling below the 4-5 4-star threshold this year would be a disappointment (and a cold realization that the climb up the mountain is steep). Now catching Wisconsin or Washington's 8 is a good, possibly too aggressive goal. Putting it into context - (a) get one of the current commits to bump up to 4-star (1) + Thomas (2) + Rankin (3) + Anderson (4) + Alexander (5) + Tilson (6) + Gebhardt (7) + Riordan (8). That would be a reallllllly good haul, but also requires some luck with landing all of these guys and a few of them getting bumped up (Alexander, Gebhardt, Tilson, and Riordan). All that said, the arbitrary cut-off between 4-star and high 3-star is a silly cutoff to assess, and I'm a "follow the offers and visits" guy to the end, but this is still an important talent barometer to follow as the spring and summer march on.
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All true, good comments and analysis, but there’s probably going to be new guys coming onto our radar too, so it’s not like we have to have a near perfect “hit rate” with our current 4* prospects. Will be curious where the ‘26 class lands, as well as who we pick up late in the ‘25 cycle (including transfers), to the extent that we have been able to leverage a great season.
 
#417      
Mr. Tibbs
FantaIllini said:
I think I read that the staff prefered him as a DB but Rankin prefers to play WR and we are happy to accommodate that and take him as a WR
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which means it could easily be one or the other by the time he gets on the team his frosh year.
you let him try the position he really wants to play, and over time he will gravitate to the side of the ball that gives him more playing time.
 
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