Recent content by JucoIllini10

Any chance Stepp can pull off the 1-2 punch of Konkey and Knowles? That would be one heck of a size and speed WR combo to land.

I agree that bringing the SEZ stands down closer to the field needs to be priority #1. As you mentioned, this should be a lower cost fix. Football is an arms race and it just doesn't make financial sense to put that much $$$ into a full SEZ rebuild. I know the student section attendance has...

If it required leadership from the NCAA or voluntary reporting from athletic programs to increase transparency then I would agree but outside lawsuits will be the driving factor. How much do college players really get paid? Schools don’t want you to know — but you should

I eagerly await the future where college teams will be forced to be transparent with athlete salaries.

Unfortunately the guy they seemed to be prioritizing instead, Eli Thornton, just committed to Arkansas.

I agree with this (I didn't agree last class when some on this board tried to "spin" that Riordan was not a priority O-line target when he committed to Iowa) but I'm wondering specifically for the class of 27 who are all these recruits everyone is upset that Illinois missed on? Looking at the...

Red flags would be missing out on targets to programs with similar NIL funds. Illinois simply cannot compete dollar for dollar with Michigan, Ohio State, ND, Mizzou, Miami, etc. I'll start getting concerned if recruits the staff is prioritizing start committing to other mid-tier Power4...

The lack of early commitments is frustrating but there haven't been any real red flags yet with how the staff is recruiting this class. The majority of the staff's top targets have not signed elsewhere so it is too early to panic. Staff pursued a top in-state QB in Trae Taylor but couldn't...

The staff did have 8 prep commits by this point last recruiting cycle. I'm not concerned yet with this class but it was nice last year when the staff was able to lock in some priority targets early.

Wheatley and Parker would be quite the 1-2 punch for recruiting the state of Michigan.

Tony White (now at FSU) ran the 3-3-5 at Nebraska with decent success in 2023 and 2024. He also had a talented DL at Nebraska during that time which is the position that will likely determine the early success of this scheme at Illinois next year. Henry's "bend-don't-break" defense was...

Parker, McDaniel, Harris, Hawthorne, McNeal, and possibly the new DL or Safety coach. BB also has more time to recruit now that he doesn't have to help out with the defense as much.

If Orr is an option, I would rather BB bring in someone like Don Martindale from that Ravens defensive tree. Don ran a pretty good defense the last two years at Michigan despite a subpar Head Coach and Offense. Maybe he could even steal a few players from Ann Arbor while he is at it. Sounds...

Karl Scott

So you are saying our panic about the DL should now shift to the OLB/Edge group? I see the vision with Barna and Holmes but the depth beyond that is hit or miss with Brown/Kante.