Illinois Coaching Staff Search
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South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
I really doubt we hear anything until the coaches convention is over next week Thursday/Friday.
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I heard on Jeremy Werner's show the other day the name Aaron Morehead as a member on someone's wish list.
Won a superbowl with the Colts, coached at Stanford, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M, was the ACC recruiter of the year (they said on the radio) and of course played for Illinois. I don't believe I have seen his name on here anywhere
Won a superbowl with the Colts, coached at Stanford, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M, was the ACC recruiter of the year (they said on the radio) and of course played for Illinois. I don't believe I have seen his name on here anywhere
Hiring Ron Turner as OC would end my faith in Lovie. Not only do I have too many bad memories of the turner era, he was well known for not liking recruiting....Just my opinion
The other nice thing about him would be he could tell recruits that playing for Illinois helped him get to the NFL
Turner coached 4 of the worst offenses in the Country at FIU according to advanced stats. His offenses with the Bears were never in the upper half of the league and several finished near the bottom according to advanced metrics. His last successful offense was at Illinois in the early 2000's.
I appreciate the role Turner played in bringing Lovie here, but he shouldn't be the guy. I can't imagine that is the route Lovie will go.
I maintain that Lovie needs to look outside the box for the next OC. "Pro stye" in all reality has become an extension of the spread system with better athletes.
Here is a list of the top 15
Oklahoma
Ok State
Louisville
Memphis
UCF
USF
Ohio State
Mizzou
FAU
Arkansas State
Colorado State
Arizona
So Cal
Toledo
SMU
All of those schools have great QB play, are not afraid to control of the tempo, and I would not be above poaching one of the smaller schools' OC (I'm looking at you Arkansas State, USF & Memphis). You don't have to have a hurry-up offense every play, but you should be able to quick snap and control the clock. I have been very vocal about this and I honestly think that if we try to go with a traditional I-formation, power run scheme, we will be going backward and hurt the program more moving forward.
While Turner and his brother (Norv) are known for the Air Coryell passing style, not sure that helps either. We fired Ron Turner years ago, going back would be the equivalent of going back to a terrible ex-girlfriend and thinking that you can make it work the 2nd time.
Here is a list of the top 15
Oklahoma
Ok State
Louisville
Memphis
UCF
USF
Ohio State
Mizzou
FAU
Arkansas State
Colorado State
Arizona
So Cal
Toledo
SMU
All of those schools have great QB play, are not afraid to control of the tempo, and I would not be above poaching one of the smaller schools' OC (I'm looking at you Arkansas State, USF & Memphis). You don't have to have a hurry-up offense every play, but you should be able to quick snap and control the clock. I have been very vocal about this and I honestly think that if we try to go with a traditional I-formation, power run scheme, we will be going backward and hurt the program more moving forward.
While Turner and his brother (Norv) are known for the Air Coryell passing style, not sure that helps either. We fired Ron Turner years ago, going back would be the equivalent of going back to a terrible ex-girlfriend and thinking that you can make it work the 2nd time.
Glory Days
- Palmetto, FL
You can't make chicken salad out of chicken excrement. The 3 new hires have got to be stud recruiters. Illinois fans are excited about having 2 UA All-Americans. The Illini have 2 4 star recruits.
First off, the best high school players almost always go to the US Army game, and secondly, other schools have more than a dozen 4 stars. Auburn has 16, plus a couple 5 stars.
Illini need to get better players. This year recruiting has been a huge let down. Huge.
Nothing improves until the talent level does.
First off, the best high school players almost always go to the US Army game, and secondly, other schools have more than a dozen 4 stars. Auburn has 16, plus a couple 5 stars.
Illini need to get better players. This year recruiting has been a huge let down. Huge.
Nothing improves until the talent level does.
The Army game and UA game get the same amount of good recruits. I don't know how you can say one gets the better players.
I think some (me included) had hopes of Lovie showing up and kids just automatically wanting to play for him and get to the NFL. Facilities play a big part and our facilities are being upgraded. I have hope that next year and beyond will be a better recruiting classes. Our program wasn't going to be fixed overnight.
Comparing us to Auburn? They've had a better track record lately.
Dren1
- Glenview, IL
I agree with you that the new hires should be quality recruiters, but I would not call the recruiting this year a huge let down. Perhaps a little disappointing thus far, but we are similar to some of our Big Ten West rivals. I don't know that anyone should be expecting us to recruit like Auburn, who just went 10-4 and 7-1 in the SEC, with their only losses coming to LSU, Georgia, Clemson, and UCF, all ranked teams.
It's not likely that Lovie will hire an offensive coordinator in an attempt to simply copycat a program that has a wide-open and high-scoring offense. He will, though, hire someone who he thinks can better utilize the young talent on the team and put more points on the board.
Further, Lovie surely understands that all of the new coaching hires need to be good recruiters as well as good coaches. That said, it's simply not reasonable to think that we can match the overall quality of Auburn's recruiting class any time soon. The standard, instead, should be whether the talent on the Illini team has improved as a result of Lovie's recruiting classes. It has; we are making progress.
Further, Lovie surely understands that all of the new coaching hires need to be good recruiters as well as good coaches. That said, it's simply not reasonable to think that we can match the overall quality of Auburn's recruiting class any time soon. The standard, instead, should be whether the talent on the Illini team has improved as a result of Lovie's recruiting classes. It has; we are making progress.
JDHalfrack
- Springfield, IL
Based on what exactly?
The only things I know about him are what I just read off his Wikipedia page, but based on that and that he was apparently reported as recently being the ACC recruiter of the year, he seems like he would be a fantastic choice.
Robert (@ALionEye) had a tweet throwing out the names Noel Mazzone OC, Aaron Moorehead TE, Van Malone DB. All seem like very solid choices. I don't know that Van Malone would give up a DC job to be DB coach, but could see making him a Co-DC or something. Not seeing any connections to Lovie but all proven college coaches.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
First time that Illinois has had back-to-back classes ranked in the 40's in a decade. I'd say that's not bad. For the long-term, it isn't great, but it's fine when understand the context of the situation that is Illinois football.
I'm more worried about the 2019 class (and why I think it's important for Illinois to add an ace recruiter on staff). Going to be the third straight year under .500 with the same staff, will be a tougher sell to recruits (can't use playing time for many positions), and the coaching staff has disappointed in the targeted recruiting areas of STL and Indianapolis. Doing well in Texas, but is that sustainable?
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Little early for that. I understand how bad things looked this year, but Freshman to Sophomore can bring about significant improvements. Lots of question marks I will agree, but a lot of talent too. Hopefully adding a few more talents recruits as well
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
And that's fair. If they even go .500 in 2018, then things are in really good shape. But I'm guessing Vegas will have their win total at 3 or 4, so I'm going off the general expectations.
Oh I agree that Vegas and no one else will expect much and they shouldn't. Smart money would be on us finishing under .500 and a lot will have to go right for us to get to that point. If pressed I would say it is unlikely but not out of the question just seeing some of the flashes last season from our young guys.
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