Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#2,702      
thunderwear
mhuml32 said:
Regardless to the depth of Illinois recruiting talent, they need to find a way to convince more top-10 players to come to Illinois. Would gladly add any of these recruits to the incoming class.


Luke Ford
Quincy Patterson
Devin O'Rourke
Jack Sanborn
Micah Jones
Elijah Teague
Jeffrey Jenkins
Bryce Effner
Mik O'Laughlin
Wyatt Blake
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I am not a talent scout, but I would tend to agree, especially the recruits that we went hard after, like Luke Ford,etc. Lovie and staff need to work on improving their inroads to Illinois. I don't think anyone disagrees with that and I am pretty sure Lovie has said it on more than one occasion. And we have the added obstacle of tough admission standards. We can't go after lots of top talent because they don't have the grades.

But, ultimately, we can't afford to have people in the program that don't want to be in a rebuild. We wont win games next year. We may not win many the year after (5-6 wins). Grinding every day is challenging when you are winning, it is much harder when you are losing. We need players that can see the difference they are going to make and want the challenge. It is not for everyone.

As a turnaround consultant, every turnaround I participate in is intense. Many of them, the talent is in place and may be intense, but because the talent is there the turnaround is short. There have been a handful of turnarounds I have made where I needed to burn the place to the ground. The first time, I tried to keep everyone and kept them all for 1 year and then I realized how much those people tainted the next group in. I had to burn the place to the ground after one year and restart. I believe having people that believe and want to be there is key and getting rid of everyone else is key too.

But, even if we don't bring in any Illinois talent, I would be ok if we start winning, which is really the issue everyone (including me) has. I believe in the work Lovie has done so far, but in all honesty, I don't think we can tell how good or bad Lovie is doing until after 2019 or 2020 campaign. At this point, we just have to wait. We have waited this long. I can't imagine more turnover at coach would help the program. If in 2019 we are not winning Big ten games, then we go a different direction. By my observation, pertaining to the turnaround, I don't think anything looks off. But, I don't know talent and I only have ancillary knowledge on Football.
 
#2,703      
South Farms
Barry Alvarez took over a bad Wiscy team in Jan 1990
1990 1-10, 0-8 (overall, conf)
1991 5-6, 2-6
1992 5-6 3-5

1991 featured
31-13 win vs WIU
7-6 win vs Iowa St
21-6 win vs Eastern Mich
19-16 win over Minny (1-7 in conference that year)
32-14 win over Nothwestern (2-8 in conference that year)

1992 featured
39-18 win vs Bowling Green
18-17 win vs NIU
20-16 win over O$U (5-2-1 that year)
19-16 win vs Purdue (3-5)
34-6 win over Minny (2-6)
25-27 loss to Northwestern (3-5)

This is about as similar a situation that Lovie walked into. Alvarez had probably a more than a little edge on Lovie , college coaching-wise, as he had been a college LB coach at Iowa under Fry from 79-86, LB coach in 87 and then DC in 88-89 at NotreDame under Holtz. Those jobs, and the timing of when he got the Wiscy job (normal college carousel), allowed him to at least do a little recruiting.

Although Wiscy fans were al least given a little more to cheer about in year 2 than we were, they were not ready to crown him a god . They were still very skeptical.

Then the 1993 team caught lightning in a bottle and tied for 1st in the B1G and went to the Rose Bowl. That was what earned him the goodwill of the fandom and to his credit started winning more games than he lost most years thereafter.

Lovie needs to get the benefit of 5 years. We need to win a couple B1G games this year and anything less than 4-8 will be disappointing to most. No one is expecting much more than that.

Our situation in March 2016, was seriously about as dire a scenario for a Power 5 school , that I can recall , in the last 15 years. Right there with Kansas , in fact, worse imo. They don't have an anxious football fandom like we do. They are 100% all about hoops there.

Done correctly and within the rules, its not a quick fix with us. Our admin screwed the pooch when Mackovic left and then Turner and Guenther did the same after 2001. The football guy can be blamed for most of the mess we are in.
 
#2,704      
Centennial Illini
Thunderwears post should be in all caps.

Several years ago there was an article on the worst team in Illinois history, Ron Turner's first year winless bunch, They quoted a senior on that team as saying we could have won some games that year but Turner ran off a bunch of experienced middling players because in the senior's words "they had gotten used to losing".

Turner didn't want the new recruits tainted by the by the holdovers.

I can't prove it but I am sure that a few of our transfers this fall may fall into that category.

Its a cultural thing
 
#2,707      
SescIllini
Henson71 said:
Lovie shouldn't get any excuses, these recruiting classes just aren't that special. Beckman wasn't getting higher ranked classes than this. I think the fear that the splash of the hire of Lovie would be dampened by his staff's lack of experience in college recruiting has come to fruition.

That said, nothing builds excitement like wining and now over half the players are his recruits, so if he can win with them despite the rankings, the excitement will grow and he'll get better players. Plus, it seems he's emphasizing recruiting with his most recent hires which is good.
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I've compared Lovie's recruits with Beckman and overall through 2000. First of all Lovie's freshmen saw the field and many overtook starting jobs from Beckman's. Many of Beckman's top players proved overrated or didn't pan out. Lovie players look the part of BIG players. The O and D line have bigger players. Lovie seems to be on even ground recruiting Illinois next year. I expevt this year he will get some top 10 players.
 
#2,708      
thunderwear
SescIllini said:
I've compared Lovie's recruits with Beckman and overall through 2000. First of all Lovie's freshmen saw the field and many overtook starting jobs from Beckman's. Many of Beckman's top players proved overrated or didn't pan out. Lovie players look the part of BIG players. The O and D line have bigger players. Lovie seems to be on even ground recruiting Illinois next year. I expevt this year he will get some top 10 players.
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Top 10? Do you have inside information or are you being optimistic? I would imagine Top 10 players would be interested in winning more than rebuilding.
 
#2,709      
lexwaldez
Here's an interesting link http://picksixpreviews.com/how_to_win_in_recruiting.html It takes time to change perceptions. I think this illustrates why we're looking for diamonds in the rough, underrated and overlooked players, and why we've got to do a better job coaching them up to their maximum potential. We've gotta crawl out of the bottom five and into the top half. It took decades to drive this program into the basement of the power five; it'll probably take the better part of a decade to crawl out. I am grateful we have such a talented, dedicated staff working on our behalf right now.
 
#2,711      
South Farms
thunderwear said:
His film looks decent, does anyone know why he is ranked so low?
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He went to a college academy high school . Often times those type of schools play in obscure leagues , against suspect competition. At least they do in Illinois . That could explain part of his ranking .

It would be like us getting a player from Uni High , U of Chicago lab school , or North Shore Country Day. Doubt they would have a high ranking either, no matter how good they were .
 
#2,713      
JDHalfrack
I'm gonna say it right now: in 3 years, people are gonna look back at this class and talk about how good this class was even though it was ranked 51st (or whatever). I'm no expert, but I like a lot of the players we signed. I like our coaches and think we can turn a lot of these 3* into 3.5* and 4* players.

I mean, I get that we have a class ranked lower than a lot of B1G teams, but I trust our coaches a hell of a lot more than I trust theirs.
 
#2,714      
TexasIllini
I saw Tyrik Henderson committed to Minnesota, but then decommitted. Illinois never pursued, or even showed interest. He still remains uncommitted. I assume he has grade issues? He's top 10 recruit in Illinois in 2018.
 
#2,715      
thunderwear
South Farms said:
He went to a college academy high school . Often times those type of schools play in obscure leagues , against suspect competition. At least they do in Illinois . That could explain part of his ranking .

It would be like us getting a player from Uni High , U of Chicago lab school , or North Shore Country Day. Doubt they would have a high ranking either, no matter how good they were .
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That speed and height though
 
#2,718      
South Farms
Illiniguy13 said:
2018 All-Name Team
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brought back memories of a kid Turner signed back in the mid 90's, Antoine McNutt who was about 380 lbs. We signed him from CVS I believe. He ended up transferring out about 1/2 way through. We was Fridge Perry size.
 
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