Illini Football 2026

#101      
therealmiket86
aaeismacgychel said:
$1.2M is certainly high for an unproven DT, however DT in general is a very expensive position group. It’s why in the offseason I was concerned when our DTs were leaving, not because they were so amazing here, but the idea that you can easily upgrade that position without paying a premium for it is a pipe dream. McCollum did show promise which is why it hurt that we weren’t able to retain him, but reading between the lines even then, if we weren’t able to afford retaining him, outbidding everyone on the open market for a proven DT seemed likely impossible. And unfortunately that was the case.

It’s also why I don’t have much of a bone to pick with the state of our DL. We were raided like a Group of 5 team at that position and would rather pay for offensive skill positions and bulking up the OL which they did a good job on.

Where we did make a major misstep though in my opinion was our LB group. That is not all that expensive relative to other position groups and it seems like we were just not aggressive enough to significantly upgrade there, which my gut feel is we could have done within budget. Having a large talent disparity at both the DL and LB groups is really not where one should end up. And the CSU signings look to be the gigantic miss the metrics hinted at.
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Coenen got 800k and he was also unproven. If that’s what the going rate is you have to pay it. We thought we had all these guys coming back and were caught off guard when they came back with huge offers. If the staff was aware what the dline market was going to be I think things would’ve played out differently. At the very least you would’ve retained Hayden, Hood, Warren and Neal. All guys that wouldn’t of cost much and would be playing a lot this year. Darrell Prater only started 3 games for Jacksonville state last year and he’s starting for us now.
 
#103      
Illini2010-11
bluemountain said:
One thing i haven't seen mentioned....we always seem to unnecessarily burn a lot of timeouts in the second half, and Saturday was no exception. It may not have mattered the way the offense was playing, but it certainly didn't help our chances
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The players need to understand the rules better for sure. Two of the timeouts were because of injury occurring after the ball was spotted, thereby causing us to use a forced timeout. If hurt, go down immediately!
 
#104      
aaeismacgychel
therealmiket86 said:
Coenen got 800k and he was also unproven. If that’s what the going rate is you have to pay it. We thought we had all these guys coming back and were caught off guard when they came back with huge offers. If the staff was aware what the dline market was going to be I think things would’ve played out differently. At the very least you would’ve retained Hayden, Hood, Warren and Neal. All guys that wouldn’t have cost much and would be playing a lot this year. Darrell Prater only started 3 games for Jacksonville state last year and he’s starting for us now.
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Yeah, and that’s what confuses me about this whole thing is that I’m not sure why the staff was caught off-guard as the DT position being an expensive one was a well known quantity. I mean they had to know going in their offers were well under market value. I can maybe possibly understand being surprised there was significant interest in our players in offering them market value, but it almost seems like it had to have been a calculated risk to try and spend less than competitive on the DL to spend more at other skill positions that unfortunately did not go as hoped. It also doesn’t help how much the market in general went up from last year to this one regarding NIL, but that’s something you have to deal with. The jump between this year and next will be a doozy as well.
 
#105      
therealmiket86
aaeismacgychel said:
Yeah, and that’s what confuses me about this whole thing is that I’m not sure why the staff was caught off-guard as the DT position being an expensive one was a well known quantity. I mean they had to know going in their offers were well under market value. I can maybe possibly understand being surprised there was significant interest in our players in offering them market value, but it almost seems like it had to have been a calculated risk to try and spend less than competitive on the DL to spend more at other skill positions that unfortunately did not go as hoped. It also doesn’t help how much the market in general went up from last year to this one regarding NIL, but that’s something you have to deal with. The jump between this year and next will be a doozy as well.
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Yeah I’m not sure how they were so far off. they thought they had Tomiwa,McCollum and Coenen coming back. But this a failure of the GM. Obviously having more money would help but this past offseason money wasn’t spent well. We literally spent little to no money on dl and lb. That’s not good roster management. I think the biggest issue with the defense is the linebacker room and coaching staff
 
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#108      
lstewart53x3
aaeismacgychel said:
Yeah, and that’s what confuses me about this whole thing is that I’m not sure why the staff was caught off-guard as the DT position being an expensive one was a well known quantity. I mean they had to know going in their offers were well under market value. I can maybe possibly understand being surprised there was significant interest in our players in offering them market value, but it almost seems like it had to have been a calculated risk to try and spend less than competitive on the DL to spend more at other skill positions that unfortunately did not go as hoped. It also doesn’t help how much the market in general went up from last year to this one regarding NIL, but that’s something you have to deal with. The jump between this year and next will be a doozy as well.
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From what I understand, it’s not that they were caught off guard by DL market, but more so, our current D-Lineman had agreed to come back. Them deciding to transfer is what caught them off guard.
 
#109      
Hingle McCringleberry
lstewart53x3 said:
From what I understand, it’s not that they were caught off guard by DL market, but more so, our current D-Lineman had agreed to come back. Them deciding to transfer is what caught them off guard.
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It sounds this past offseason was Brett being caught off guard a lot by both players and coaches that had seemingly committed to coming (back) here and then abruptly (and late in the cycle) decided not to.

Brett has historically been very good at having contingency plans. But because we were willfully waiting to make moves late in the cycle, there were no contingency options worth anything. So we took what we could and now we are paying the price on Defense (or lack thereof).
 
#110      
Fly Illini Fly!
lstewart53x3 said:
From what I understand, it’s not that they were caught off guard by DL market, but more so, our current D-Lineman had agreed to come back. Them deciding to transfer is what caught them off guard.
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"Staff thought they'd be back" is different from "they agreed to come back."

Agreed to come back would mean they signed a contract, but still bolted.
 
#111      
lstewart53x3
Fly Illini Fly! said:
"Staff thought they'd be back" is different from "they agreed to come back."

Agreed to come back would mean they signed a contract, but still bolted.
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True, when I said agreed, I meant they had lead the staff to believe they would return through their words, not that they broke a contract. I don’t believe I saw any reports of broken NIL agreements.
 
#112      
Birdus
lstewart53x3 said:
True, when I said agreed, I meant they had lead the staff to believe they would return through their words, not that they broke a contract. I don’t believe I saw any reports of broken NIL agreements.
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These days, words mean very little don't they. I think the LESSON WAS LEARNED. Hopefully we can somehow get to 6 wins this year and keep some form of momentum going. Anything better than that would be a major achievement. Frankly I don't see 7. We have a lot of toss up games and with our defense the way it is, Purdue is going to be tough. Those of you that don't believe that need only go back two years ago. What was it? 49-48?
 
#113      
BryceHopkins
Birdus said:
These days, words mean very little don't they. I think the LESSON WAS LEARNED. Hopefully we can somehow get to 6 wins this year and keep some form of momentum going. Anything better than that would be a major achievement. Frankly I don't see 7. We have a lot of toss up games and with our defense the way it is, Purdue is going to be tough. Those of you that don't believe that need only go back two years ago. What was it? 49-48?
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We are not losing to Purdue at home. That just can't happen. I won't allow it.
 
#119      
Dkayak
aaeismacgychel said:
Yeah, and that’s what confuses me about this whole thing is that I’m not sure why the staff was caught off-guard as the DT position being an expensive one was a well known quantity. I mean they had to know going in their offers were well under market value. I can maybe possibly understand being surprised there was significant interest in our players in offering them market value, but it almost seems like it had to have been a calculated risk to try and spend less than competitive on the DL to spend more at other skill positions that unfortunately did not go as hoped. It also doesn’t help how much the market in general went up from last year to this one regarding NIL, but that’s something you have to deal with. The jump between this year and next will be a doozy as well.
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This market behaves like a continuous auction. As the money flowing in continues to grow, market prices will continue to rise. It’s pretty easy to see how one could misjudge the market price for each skill/experience level at each position in this environment. There’s no equilibrium in sight.

As long as funding soars in a significant number of programs, market salaries will soar as well. These schools will not leave their pot unspent. They’ll bid up prices endlessly, producing the surprises you describe. How to plan and budget in such a market? It’s a very tough job.

Only two factors could produce stability: funding stabilizing or being capped (demand) or a big influx of talent (supply). However, there’s no end in sight to the money gusher and of course supply isn’t going to change significantly.
 
#120      
lstewart53x3
Dkayak said:
This market behaves like a continuous auction. As the money flowing in continues to grow, market prices will continue to rise. It’s pretty easy to see how one could misjudge the market price for each skill/experience level at each position in this environment. There’s no equilibrium in sight.

As long as funding soars in a significant number of programs, market salaries will soar as well. These schools will not leave their pot unspent. They’ll bid up prices endlessly, producing the surprises you describe. How to plan and budget in such a market? It’s a very tough job.

Only two factors could produce stability: funding stabilizing or being capped (demand) or a big influx of talent (supply). However, there’s no end in sight to the money gusher and of course supply isn’t going to change significantly.
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The important thing for donors to realize: right now is the cheapest it’ll ever be.

Had we spent $30 million this year, we’re in the playoff. A few years from, $30 million likely won’t even crack the top 25.
 
#121      
mhuml32
I've held onto my Eddie Tuerk stock. Fingers crossed he gets a chance and runs with it.
 
#122      
Dkayak
lstewart53x3 said:
The important thing for donors to realize: right now is the cheapest it’ll ever be.

Had we spent $30 million this year, we’re in the playoff. A few years from, $30 million likely won’t even crack the top 25.
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And that’s a huge problem in two respects. First, it ensures salaries remain an unpredictable moving target. How is a coach supposed to plan and budget with any confidence?

I assume the arms race discourages even some mega donors, who have no confidence their gift will move the needle. Do you want you give a couple million bucks only to find your team still can’t afford much talent?
 
#123      
lstewart53x3
Dkayak said:
And that’s a huge problem in two respects. First, it ensures salaries remain an unpredictable moving target. How is a coach supposed to plan and budget with any confidence?

I assume the arms race discourages even some mega donors, who have no confidence their gift will move the needle. Do you want you give a couple million bucks only to find your team still can’t afford much talent?
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Yeah it's tough. Reportedly, we spent in the 20s this year. Assuming we spent $15m of our $20m available in revenue sharing on football, that means donors/businesses likely contributed another $5-$10m in NIL. Maybe not that exactly, but likely somewhere in that range.

If that $5m-$10m were to net a 5 win season, how eager are they to pony up even more next year? And more the year after that?

It's easy to raise NIL when you're winning. How easy was it for Indiana to take in another $15m after going 16-0 and winning the national championship?

It's way more difficult when you're underperforming expectations.
 
#124      
BZuppke
lstewart53x3 said:
The important thing for donors to realize: right now is the cheapest it’ll ever be.

Had we spent $30 million this year, we’re in the playoff. A few years from, $30 million likely won’t even crack the top 25.
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At what point is this unsustainable?
 
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