Recent content by illiniobserver22

But Bielema is doing it with like 6 weeks before signing day, most of the best prospects already signed, and only a partial staff. And he is STILL getting guys in Lovie’s wheelhouse. So I think you may be making more of a point about Lovie than about Bielema.

Hey I would love nothing more than for Collier to win a Heisman for the Illini. I just don’t personally see it on tape, and think we’ll move to more of a caretaker QB anyway in the next couple years.

I voted Kreutz. I think he has a chance for a career similar to Doug Kramer and to anchor some very good OLs. I love sons of former NFL players, I think they know what it takes and have a genetic advantage. I’m not super high on any of the others, but my next votes probably go to Pat Bryant and...

I think you have to keep in mind that we have huge depth concerns at key positions and new schemes that our players were not recruited to and have never played in. Yes there are some reasons to be optimistic but I think like 6 wins is more realistic. Continuity is important and teams almost...

Or Bellamy back to WR

Come on, they are not making that choice. Nate Hobbs absolutely thinks he’ll be in the NFL this time next year. Is he wrong? Maybe, but in his head that calculation is not even close to Illinois vs no football ever again.

I’d guess that if things take a turn for the worse over the next couple years Lovie will retire once it is clear it’s not working. There were some rumors of that last year when we were 2-4 IIRC.

Definitely lots of time to grow. When I saw him he was really scrawny and not a huge difference maker, so there’s a lot you have to imagine. Good prospect because like I mentioned he’s got a nice jumper, but you don’t see a lot of kids that small who average 11 points on mediocre suburban teams...

Cam is a good shooter like his brother but he’s really small, IMO he needs to grow a lot to be an MSU caliber guy.

Hope there’s some traction, but I bet he’ll get offers from just about everyone in the country.

DJ Richardson and Brandon Paul were #38 and #42 on Rivals in 2009. At least in the ballpark

Fair point, but Freeman is much better IMO and would get a much longer time to adjust to the level than Alstork did.

On the one hand, yeah he can’t shoot. On the other, if he improved and shot 33-34% he’d be a potential All-American with as good as he is at everything else. Great rebounder, playmaker, passer, defender, and he gets to the rim and finishes.

Yeah I look at the 2021-22 roster and I see three guards, Curbelo/Miller/Hutcherson (Classifying Griffin as a wing). Are we positive Hutcherson contributes enough next year to avoid grad transferring out as a senior for more PT? And what do we do if any of those three gets injured? Obviously...

I watched some tape and interviews with him and I’m not sure he’s that great, but he is tough, smart, and competitive, and he has the attitude and work ethic that will lead to being a big part of a winning team at some point. Guys like Purdue has had in the vein of Ryan Kline, Dakota Mathias...