Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#751      

Illini4life04

Illini4life04
Illini4life04
LurkLongandProsper said:
Recent commentary lends itself to more positive reviews than you gave, just FWIW. As of June 3rd, he's listed at 360 at the Sound Mind Sound Body camp event up in Detroit and was noted as being the second best defensive player there (any position) by the 247 Football Scouting Director Steve Wiltfong.



Here's some tweets from Wiltfong about Juan Harris (the first with a quick vine) from the last two weeks. He seems to be pretty highly viewed by national talent evaluators.

https://twitter.com/SWiltfong247/status/741345100685561856

https://twitter.com/SWiltfong247/status/738748614722224128

Maybe the combination of these reviews would lend us to an assessment that he is a decent floor, good upside project guy?
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He has a lot of upside, but there a lot of questions out there that debate on whether or not he can reach it. If you watched an entire game of his, he never really stands out.
 
#752      

midastouch11

midastouch11
New York, New York
midastouch11
Illini4life04 said:
He has a lot of upside, but there a lot of questions out there that debate on whether or not he can reach it. If you watched an entire game of his, he never really stands out.
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There are a lot of good college lineman that have trouble with conditioning and focus in high school. The kid has some red flags, but the natural talent is undeniable and this is Illinois we're talking about, not Ohio State. If Illinois has a kid this talented interested, you pursue and hope a coaching staff as capable as Lovie's can make a difference for him.
 
#753      

EfremWinters84

E
S. Carolina
EfremWinters84
And don't forget the all-important "genetics" factor (Archie Manning, Ken Griffey Jr., Mychael Thompson just to name three). Not a guarantee, but a factor.
 
#754      

icengineer

I
Southern Illinois
icengineer
EfremWinters84 said:
And don't forget the all-important "genetics" factor (Archie Manning, Ken Griffey Jr., Mychael Thompson just to name three). Not a guarantee, but a factor.
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What is this "genetics factor" you speak of? I thought it was already determined that he wasn't related to the Bears Harris and he has since apologized for the false inference.
 
#755      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
ties will be resolved
Joel Goodson
icengineer said:
What is this "genetics factor" you speak of? I thought it was already determined that he wasn't related to the Bears Harris and he has since apologized for the false inference.
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The OP was referring to George Jr.
 
#757      

CUWPC

C
Geneva, IL
CUWPC
uofi09 said:
LB Micah Awodiran's Final Four are Illinois, Duke, Vanderbilt, & Yale

http://www.scout.com/college/illinois/story/1679609-illini-in-lb-micah-awodiran-s-final-four
https://twitter.com/Awodiran33/status/743960780748525568/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
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Would be a great get. As for Juan Harris I can't believe people would pass on this kid. Watched some of his highlights from the camp and the kid can move. For a kid his size he can dominate. Yes, when kids are that big motor gets questioned but once he gets into a proper college conditioning program the weight will fall off and his strength will increase. He may not pan out, but I see him as a huge get. They need this type of kid to bulk up the middle of the line. I hope Lovie can close on both of these guys. You can see that defense is a major priority for this team and once Lovie gets his players the D will win games.
 
#763      

BigStan97

B
Cincinnati OH
BigStan97
We lost out on Bailey to Vandy. I hope "the process speeding up" is to choose ILL.
 
#764      

Bomb Squad 217

B
Bomb Squad 217
I have to believe that the allure of being able to learn defense from this staff would have a much greater draw than Vandy.
 
#765      

IllinoisFanAtFSU

I
IllinoisFanAtFSU
Awodiran's decision is arguably the biggest recruiting battle of the Lovie Smith era thus far. I really hope it goes in our favor.

With that said, I see a lot of similarities between how our class is developing this year, and our 2015 recruiting class. I would be quite happy with a 40-50th ranked class in Lovie's first year, and I think that he will kill it around national signing day if the season goes well. With a "meh" season of 4 to 6 wins, I think he can match or slightly improve upon the quality of the 2015 recruiting class. If he gets 7-8, he could do top 35-40. If somehow he pulls off a minor miracle and exceeds that... top 25?
 
#766      

GameOfThrows

G
GameOfThrows
IllinoisFanAtFSU said:
Awodiran's decision is arguably the biggest recruiting battle of the Lovie Smith era thus far. I really hope it goes in our favor.

With that said, I see a lot of similarities between how our class is developing this year, and our 2015 recruiting class. I would be quite happy with a 40-50th ranked class in Lovie's first year, and I think that he will kill it around national signing day if the season goes well. With a "meh" season of 4 to 6 wins, I think he can match or slightly improve upon the quality of the 2015 recruiting class. If he gets 7-8, he could do top 35-40. If somehow he pulls off a minor miracle and exceeds that... top 25?
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To me it doesn't matter where the class "ranks". It's that we have Lovie Smith as our head coach and a quality coaching staff that can develop players into a winning team.

The reason that many recruits are ranked higher than others is because of the superior coaching that some players received in high school, that others did not.. Sometimes it is better to find and recruit the right under-developed players with more potential and develop them into better football players. I have faith that Lovie and staff can spot talent in a player regardless of the number of stars next to his name. Likewise, better players who are serious about a career in the NFL will want to come here which improves the quality of the pool of players the Illini have a chance to attract.
 
#767      

IllinoisFanAtFSU

I
IllinoisFanAtFSU
GameOfThrows said:
To me it doesn't matter where the class "ranks". It's that we have Lovie Smith as our head coach and a quality coaching staff that can develop players into a winning team.

The reason that many recruits are ranked higher than others is because of the superior coaching that some players received in high school, that others did not.. Sometimes it is better to find and recruit the right under-developed players with more potential and develop them into better football players. I have faith that Lovie and staff can spot talent in a player regardless of the number of stars next to his name. Likewise, better players who are serious about a career in the NFL will want to come here which improves the quality of the pool of players the Illini have a chance to attract.
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I agree with that perspective, but that does not mean that class rankings do not matter. They are huge for public relations and the perceived direction of the program, which in turn contributes to what sort of players we are getting in the next class.
 
#768      

BigStan97

B
Cincinnati OH
BigStan97
Anyone else gonna be mad if Treadwell jumps to Minny and doesn't stay home at ILL?
 
#770      

Deleted member 3875

D
Guest
Deleted member 3875
Somehow I don't think Bama's board is this quiet.
 
#771      

ritster

R
Wheaton, IL
ritster
Would love to have a list who we have offered at camps as well as some bios if possible . Illinois staff was in Florida all last week.
 
#772      

IrishIllini

I
IrishIllini
carmelillini said:
Somehow I don't think Bama's board is this quiet.
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Yeah, it's very quiet around here. I want to see some excitement/discussion! Not saying we're a CFB contender or even a top half finisher in the B1G, but the tide is turning for Illinois athletics (predominately FB)

:chief::shield:
 
#775      

ChiCityIllini

C
ChiCityIllini
Micah Awodiran

No inside info but watch out for Duke with Micah Awodiran. Best blend of academics and football success of his finalists.
 
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