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Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football
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<blockquote data-quote="SuperintendentChalmers" data-source="post: 1567933" data-attributes="member: 535862"><p>Yes, shame on Lovie, though I don't think anyone expected or asked him to become some kind of recruiting demon. Best case scenario would have been for him to bring in an aggressive young assistant who could do that and possibly work his way up to heir apparent. That didn't happen and Lovie's approach toward assistant coaches almost seemed designed to infuriate fans purposely.</p><p></p><p>I'm glad BB has made a first-day public gesture to build recruiting within the state. However, even if he and his staff do everything right, I'm not sure how much fruit the good-faith gestures will bear on their own. Yes, they'll say nicer things and they'll continue to push us to give their sub-B1G level players scholarships out of some sense of state loyalty. However, it's always seemed to be one-way loyalty. When it comes down to in-demand players, I expect to hear the same, "Illinois did a great job, but he just couldn't say no to Michigan/Notre Dame/Wisconsin/Iowa/etc."</p><p></p><p>This isn't like some other B1G states where there is significant social pressure for top players to go to the state school regardless of coach, record and other offers. If a high school in Nebraska had a highly rated kid every year and none ever became a Husker, that coach would be questioned about it. How hilarious is to think about a situation like that in Illinois no matter how much sugar we slopped over the state's high school coaches? Hopefully, we get to the point someday where we get some sort of home-state benefit from Illinois players, but I suspect that if were that to happen, it would be an effect of us posting winning records, rather than a cause.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SuperintendentChalmers, post: 1567933, member: 535862"] Yes, shame on Lovie, though I don't think anyone expected or asked him to become some kind of recruiting demon. Best case scenario would have been for him to bring in an aggressive young assistant who could do that and possibly work his way up to heir apparent. That didn't happen and Lovie's approach toward assistant coaches almost seemed designed to infuriate fans purposely. I'm glad BB has made a first-day public gesture to build recruiting within the state. However, even if he and his staff do everything right, I'm not sure how much fruit the good-faith gestures will bear on their own. Yes, they'll say nicer things and they'll continue to push us to give their sub-B1G level players scholarships out of some sense of state loyalty. However, it's always seemed to be one-way loyalty. When it comes down to in-demand players, I expect to hear the same, "Illinois did a great job, but he just couldn't say no to Michigan/Notre Dame/Wisconsin/Iowa/etc." This isn't like some other B1G states where there is significant social pressure for top players to go to the state school regardless of coach, record and other offers. If a high school in Nebraska had a highly rated kid every year and none ever became a Husker, that coach would be questioned about it. How hilarious is to think about a situation like that in Illinois no matter how much sugar we slopped over the state's high school coaches? Hopefully, we get to the point someday where we get some sort of home-state benefit from Illinois players, but I suspect that if were that to happen, it would be an effect of us posting winning records, rather than a cause. [/QUOTE]
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Bret Bielema Takes Reins of Illinois Football
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