Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
- Status
I'm in agreement with you both that it was very clear our line needs a major upgrade from this past year, and in theory replacing players who didn't really pop most of the year seems easy on paper.
But being a bit pragmatic, quality DTs and DEs aren't the cheapest when it comes to market value. It's where having a homegrown prospect might save you decent money if he's evaluated as ready to make the leap. Obviously you still have to pay to retain him, but it might be significantly less than trying to find an experienced player on the open market.
Just seems like with the number of holes on the d-line, we're going to need to hit well on a few evals if we don't want to break the bank here. Not sure how much Thompson, Neal, and Tomiwa cost us last year, but to get better players and value than them might be more difficult than we hope based on budget.
So not disagreeing per se, but I do see possible concern from a financial feasibility perspective.
What, like Colorado State, Penn, and Utah State is much better. If we’re going to be a big time program with big time money, we have to stop dumpster diving IMO.
Those are number typical of DLineman. Not earth shattering, nor bad.
Didn't last year's retention on the lines largely become a bad thing? We retained a bunch of dudes on D and the Oline who underperformed and cost us a shot at the CFP.
I'd also argue this is a good reason to question why we haven't moved on from Ahen or Miller...
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Losing a true sophomore on the d-line that’s plays enough to be one the top returning tacklers is not good. He also was starting to pop at the end of the season. I would be shocked if Illinois upgrades from this loss.
I’m not losing sleep over any loss, but McCullom wasn’t the problem on defense but was part of the (future) solution.
That means we have studs on the line and about to land...I believe
Can we start with the DC? Lol.
The OLine had everyone back and was certainly a disappointment but the DLine had very little retention, outside of Jacas as an Edge, we had transfers fill all the starting DL spots.
But I don't disagree on getting a new OLine coach would be warranted this year, given we'll have 4 new starters and we haven't done a great job developing guys at that position group
Indiana! If our defense couldve stopped 6 of their touchdowns, we would've won by a point!!
Starting to realize some people just don’t know ball… using stats for a nose guard is wild 
Yep, hopefully with someone better
Well, would be good to see UI involved in some top portal DL. The problem is they are expensive and everyone needs them
We seemed to pressure the QB a lot more in the bowl game, which most everyone here was clamoring for
i hesitated offering this, wish him well, but there were times it seemed Bowick
didn't know where he should be on plays, running away from a scrambling QB,
giving up on a play, maybe not wanting to go over the middle. he was a jump
ball guy in or near the end zone.
Ultimately, most guys are replaceable. And it's the name of the game nowadays
So are we going to go with the usc model next year all offense and just hope our defense can get a stop or 2?not trying to be negative but he was 1 of the true brightspots on the dline.i really hope Brett has something up his sleeve because dline is expensive in the portal and we need alot not just starters but also depth
Tell that to Cignetti… maybe we finally see a smile!
there were no bright spots, we got pushed around, couldn't get off blocks and couldn't hit the QB. it was easy to block Jacas
because he had no help.
Actually we went out and got 3 guys from Wisconsin and 1 from Florida state i wouldn't really call that retention more expansion on the dline.this is worrying as ahen is not the guy I mean how much pressure or hurries can a lineman have when so many of your fronts are are in a prevent defense 3 man front.but I do agree as we did retain the oline the past year that underperformed for sure
60% of those TDs were in the first two weeks. After the USC game he did not record a single TD the rest of the regular season, then finally had #5 in the bowl game. After the first 2 weeks he had fewer yards and receptions than Beatty, Clement, Dixon, and even Rusk. Heck after the first two weeks he has 1 fewer reception than Feagin and only 4 more receiving yards. I think there's a chance Elzy could have passed him up if he'd kept playing.
- Status