Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

[DrCS01]

Ryan Easterling is implying that his offer was pulled? Why would you do that to a kid who made an official visit this weekend? Ridiculous.

https://twitter.com/RyanEasterling/....com/RyanEasterling/status/943173605776650241

Unless there's something more to this story then this staff needs to get start acting like the paid PROFESSIONALS they are supposed to be. It's one thing for a 17 or 18 year old kid to change his mind but a highly paid staff should have a better grip on things.

Could his tweet also be referring to Kerby Jospeh too?

 

[StateFarmCenter]

It's possible we got another commitment before him

 

[EJ33]

Just take a look at the average position ranking for a typical Iowa or Wisconsin recruit vs. an Illinois recruit. There is actually quite a bit of separation between classes largely comprised of three star recruits. One class might by largely top 1000 Power 5 kids while another class might be full of 3 star kids outside of the top 1000 and lacking Power 5 offers. There is a BIG difference between those classes.

But whether there is a real big talent difference is the question. And at those rankings, it gets pretty difficult to tell.

No, it's not difficult to tell. Coaching staffs and recruiting analysts can tell the difference. Take the case of 2 safety targets. Dallas Craddieth would be a huge get for us and has several P5 offers. He's a 3 star, ranked 29th at his position, and about 400th overall. Kevyon Davis, a former target, just committed to North Texas State. He's a 3 star, the 124th ranked safety, and about 1500th overall. If you get a bunch of Craddieth type recruits you're recruiting like Nebraska, Wisconsin, or Iowa. If you get a bunch of Davis type recruits you're recruiting at the MAC level.

 

[Dan]

Happy birthday coach @coachpatterTCHS !!
https://twitter.com/DeleAdeoye20/status/943204344173944834

 

[BWBW]

No, it's not difficult to tell. Coaching staffs and recruiting analysts can tell the difference. Take the case of 2 safety targets. Dallas Craddieth would be a huge get for us and has several P5 offers. He's a 3 star, ranked 29th at his position, and about 400th overall. Kevyon Davis, a former target, just committed to North Texas State. He's a 3 star, the 124th ranked safety, and about 1500th overall. If you get a bunch of Craddieth type recruits you're recruiting like Nebraska, Wisconsin, or Iowa. If you get a bunch of Davis type recruits you're recruiting at the MAC level.

Elegant. Simple. Accurate. :thumb:

 

[FT35]

It's possible we got another commitment before him

Any idea on who this could be? I'm just not seeing it. Maybe Adams has told the staff that he will commit but Adams is a CB who they just offered yesterday. If it's Craddieth then why is he flirting with Nebraska and Wisconsin now?

I'll admit that the recruiting this year for the secondary has been somewhat puzzling to me.

I think it's clear that Ware is being recruited as a Safety.

Hardge and Martin are listed as Safeties on their recruiting profiles. However, as BigStan noted earlier in this thread, Martin mentioned that he is a "CB" when he originally committed. Also, if you look at Hardge's Senior film he played exclusively as a CB for his high school so I'm not all that convinced that will be a Safety here. From a measurables standpoint he looks like the kind of player the staff likes at CB.

I don't have inside information so maybe I should hold off on judging what happened here with Davis. From the outside looking in it just appears to be rather bush league. Like I said before, it's one thing for a 17 or 18 year old kid to waiver on a life changing decision. It's another issue when a group of highly paid PROFESSIONALS can't get a grip on who does or doesn't have a commit-table offer this close to signing day. I don't doubt there are better players out there than Davis but this situation could have been handled better.

To make matters worse, Joseph is no longer listed as a "soft commit" for us:

https://247sports.com/college/illinois/Season/2018-Football/Commits

 

[FiveStar]

2 committed players getting schollies pulled would be yuck

 

[illinidarrin]

2 committed players getting schollies pulled would be yuck

Maybe they know a couple surprises are about to pop?

 

[JucoIllini10]

I'll admit that the recruiting this year for the secondary has been somewhat puzzling to me.

+1

I know that Davis and Coleman are friends but the Davis recruitment didn't make sense even before this mix-up. Ware is a Stanley Green clone so that is one safety. The other two commits can play CB but could also slide over to safety if Craddieth doesn't commit. Davis seemed like an odd target when CB is a bigger need. Hopefully the delayed scholarship offer doesn't cost them Terin Adams.

 

[BZuppke]

Elegant. Simple. Accurate. :thumb:

I appreciate the education here, but these star rankings are pretty useless then. If the 400th player and the 1500th player are both 3 stars, the star system is rather useless. As someone who does not study it this deeply, I had always assumed all 3 stars were relatively of similar talent. Apparently not.

 

[ivwilsoniv]

Doesn't matter. It's the wrong thing to do. I know this is how major college football recruiting works but I'm not sure it's worth it to do this to these kids. Especially with Davis, I mean you need to figure out his scholly before you have him on campus for the weekend right before signing day. I know other schools do this, but they don't bungle it quite this bad, like day of his commit bad. These are very public examples of the program treating these kids very poorly. Kids from Texas and Florida. It is pretty naive to think others won't see this and other schools won't use this against us.

I would think, given we are unlikely to fill out this whole class, someone on the staff would figure out that it's less of a negative to keep the offer of a 3 star kid, and not reap all the negativity that comes from these actions.

Lastly, I hate the defense that this is how the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world run their programs. They can get away with it because elite prospects are dying to play there. Additionally, high school coaches tolerate these actions because it is a huge boost to them to have relationships with these programs. None of this is the case with Illinois. What if several of the coaches in Davis's high school conference ( they all talk) decide that they are not going to work with our staff anymore. Same with Joseph in Florida. What do these coaches lose by doing that? Nothing.

We are not good enough to be pulling this crap with recruits. It is going to cost us and it needs to stop.

So our fanbase is asking for results and wins, but we don't want our coaches to do what's best for the program? You want to worry about the kids who haven't even committed? Recruiting is fluid; I know that phrase gets overused and is sometimes an excuse, but most of these kids have had plenty of time to commit on a scholarship. During that time, things change. It's not like it's the only offer these kids have. We want our coaches to do what's best for Illinois, what will get us back on our feet as a football program, and allow us to maintain winning seasons year after year. We don't get there as a charity. Obviously, don't go around yanking schollies left and right, but high school coaches understand how this works too...

 

[wma500]

Doesn't matter. It's the wrong thing to do. I know this is how major college football recruiting works but I'm not sure it's worth it to do this to these kids. Especially with Davis, I mean you need to figure out his scholly before you have him on campus for the weekend right before signing day. I know other schools do this, but they don't bungle it quite this bad, like day of his commit bad. These are very public examples of the program treating these kids very poorly. Kids from Texas and Florida. It is pretty naive to think others won't see this and other schools won't use this against us.

I would think, given we are unlikely to fill out this whole class, someone on the staff would figure out that it's less of a negative to keep the offer of a 3 star kid, and not reap all the negativity that comes from these actions.

Lastly, I hate the defense that this is how the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world run their programs. They can get away with it because elite prospects are dying to play there. Additionally, high school coaches tolerate these actions because it is a huge boost to them to have relationships with these programs. None of this is the case with Illinois. What if several of the coaches in Davis's high school conference ( they all talk) decide that they are not going to work with our staff anymore. Same with Joseph in Florida. What do these coaches lose by doing that? Nothing.

We are not good enough to be pulling this crap with recruits. It is going to cost us and it needs to stop.

Just asking out of caution as we view this staff and these young men being recruited....are were sure academic issues aren't at play here? Have those fully been eliminated as possibilities for any offers being pulled?

 

[MadSeason]

We invited him to campus last weekend and offered a scholarship. Then we pulled it today, two days later. What academic issue occurred in the last two days? Mistakes were made. Either we did not due the due diligence necessary to determine he doesn't have the grades, not likely. Or, we recruited over him as we seem to have picked up some momentum with other target- far more likely.

Now the staff will never comment, and the prospect will never admit to being recruited over, which is convenient for the staff as speculation about possible "character" or "academic" issues can be floated to cover how the staff pulled an offer the morning, THE MORNING, he was set to commit to us and the day before signing day.

Brutal stuff, honestly makes it a little harder to root for these guys.

You have no idea what the backstory is, so perhaps walking back from the ledge a bit until we know what actually happened.

 

[MadSeason]

That's the huge plus for the staff. True story never comes out and fans, who really want to like these guys, give them the benefit of the doubt. See Cordell Littlejohn. Davis was coming to us, something happened, he lashes out at Illinois on twitter, then deletes it. People in the know, Werner and Easterling report the offer was no longer commitable and he flips to UNT. What do you think happened here?

I guess the one positive in this is that recruits may jump to sign tomorrow seeing that if they wait the staff may recruit over them and pull their offers.

Full disclosure, even if it's the worst case scenario I'm ok with it as part of the game. Kids flip, coaches pull scholarships and life goes on.

It just seems that U of I enrollment for athletes is both more stringent and slow moving than other programs. It always feels like we are on pins and needles waiting till last second on a test or final grade. Maybe that is just my perception, but it seems like our coaches are always having to maneuver around admission issues

 

[bert1991]

I appreciate the education here, but these star rankings are pretty useless then. If the 400th player and the 1500th player are both 3 stars, the star system is rather useless. As someone who does not study it this deeply, I had always assumed all 3 stars were relatively of similar talent. Apparently not.

Not when you are evaluating thousands of kids and using only 5 stars to do so.

 

[FT35]

That's the huge plus for the staff. True story never comes out and fans, who really want to like these guys, give them the benefit of the doubt. See Cordell Littlejohn. Davis was coming to us, something happened, he lashes out at Illinois on twitter, then deletes it. People in the know, Werner and Easterling report the offer was no longer commitable and he flips to UNT. What do you think happened here?

I guess the one positive in this is that recruits may jump to sign tomorrow seeing that if they wait the staff may recruit over them and pull their offers.

I have to agree. With the Cordel Littlejohn commitment, Easterling and Werner both publicly stated that the staff screwed up that recruitment and it had nothing to do with grades.

They offered him in February, pushed for him to commit in August, McGee saw him play (poorly) in September and then they pulled his offer. They really could have held off on pushing Littlejohn to commit instead of accepting his commitment, letting him post it all over social media and then telling him a month later that his offer was no longer commit-able. It's an awful situation that could have been avoided.

I'm not sure what the entire story here is with Joseph and Davis. At best you can say there's been a series of communication misfires between certain members of this staff and various recruits as opposed to something more sinister. Either way, Lovie needs to step in and put a stop to it ASAP.

Last year year certain members of the staff were trying to get James Knight/Jeff Thomas as a package deal. When the staff wavered on whether to accept the commitment from Knight alone, Lovie stepped in and said that they would accept him unconditionally. That is the right thing to do.

We all want Illinois to get the best players but right now it looks like amateur hour with this staff. Maybe it's just a couple of members of the staff who are creating problems and the upcoming shake up will resolve these issues.

 

[blmillini]

That's the huge plus for the staff. True story never comes out and fans, who really want to like these guys, give them the benefit of the doubt. See Cordell Littlejohn. Davis was coming to us, something happened, he lashes out at Illinois on twitter, then deletes it. People in the know, Werner and Easterling report the offer was no longer commitable and he flips to UNT. What do you think happened here?

I guess the one positive in this is that recruits may jump to sign tomorrow seeing that if they wait the staff may recruit over them and pull their offers.

Sounds like you know the full story. Please share all details. Did the visit go well? Assume all went smooth, he said and did all the right things. There were no issues that would have prompted the result. The original offer was truly an offer and was comfortable. Wait, coaches can't discuss any of that so how would you know? How would anyone know? Sure, we can all speculate... including reporters!

 

[wma500]

We invited him to campus last weekend and offered a scholarship. Then we pulled it today, two days later. What academic issue occurred in the last two days? Mistakes were made. Either we did not due the due diligence necessary to determine he doesn't have the grades, not likely. Or, we recruited over him as we seem to have picked up some momentum with other target- far more likely.

Now the staff will never comment, and the prospect will never admit to being recruited over, which is convenient for the staff as speculation about possible "character" or "academic" issues can be floated to cover how the staff pulled an offer the morning, THE MORNING, he was set to commit to us and the day before signing day.

Brutal stuff, honestly makes it a little harder to root for these guys.

Lovie is going to need to be really careful. That whole "high character guy" shtick has limited mileage when you do stuff like this.

Nobody knows the whole story, so in a very big sense this is all just speculation. That said, I find it very hard to believe that this staff would be just plain clumsy and unprofessional to have a kid in over the weekend, offer him, then pull it two days later, without some good reason for doing so. That just doesn’t add up.

 

[blmillini]

Must be nice to be able to talk yourself into anything other than the obvious here. I wish I could get there too, but it's too obvious. I get it, because we are fans we want to like the staff and approve of their actions. But why assume the unlikely rather than the likely? You are making my point. All this speculation, aided by the staffs inability to comment, helps distract from the vastly most likely scenario. We all know what happened here, cmon man.

So, you are saying you have no idea. It makes perfect sense that it is always the coaching staff's fault because they have no ability to defend against any narrative anyone else chooses. I'm not defending them, just making it clear that nobody really knows and it is therefore asinine to rant as if you do.

 

[wma500]

People do know, they reported it. I'm sorry I'm not going to spell out content people have to pay for. I'm being as obvious as possible here. This is also not the first time this staff has done this. That event was also reported. I wish I could hide behind the " no one really knows what happened" deal, but I can't because that's not the case here. This happened, we recruited over a kid and pulled his scholly the morning he was going to commit to us. We can move on, but let's not try to add doubt to what happened here. I know, it makes you feel bad about the staff, but it happened.

On a more positive note, guess this means they think we are getting a higher ranked safety.

Behind the magic paywall, were there comments from coaches, either on or off the record? Just asking. I trust certain folks who do their homework on stuff like this, but just asking if they were able to obtain info from the actual staff.

 

[IlliniNation1010]

Ryan Easterling is implying that his offer was pulled? Why would you do that to a kid who made an official visit this weekend? Ridiculous.

https://twitter.com/RyanEasterling/....com/RyanEasterling/status/943173605776650241

Unless there's something more to this story then this staff needs to get start acting like the paid PROFESSIONALS they are supposed to be. It's one thing for a 17 or 18 year old kid to change his mind but a highly paid staff should have a better grip on things.

+1 The staff is very happy with what they've done in TX as are we all, but this has to be handled better! We don't want any negativity floating around TX about the U of I. I'm confident that we're good with all of our TX commits, but the timing is like we're trying to sabotage ourselves. We can do better

 

[South Farms]

BREAKING NEWS !!


College athletics is no longer run by 250 lb old white guys wearing college sweatshirts and Bike brand shorts with a whistle around their neck. The days when only the "dirty" programs recruited over a commit are long over. Millions of dollars are at stake. This is business that would rival the Fortune 500 of just 20 years ago.


Is it GREAT that we seemingly did what we did ? No
But I will give the staff the benefit of the doubt and will assume they had GOOD reason to pull an offer, just hours after it was given. This happens ALL THE TIME at most of the schools in the AP top 20. Yea it would have been better if player X would have committed to us earlier, so we could have avoided pulling this lads offer so quickly, but life seldom is a perfectly ordered process and things need to be done to correct it. As unfair and bad as it may seem.

Its not like the rebuffed player here got stood up at the alter at the last second and was left without a program to accept him . I can recall that happening to some guy a few years ago, and forget what school/coach did that.

Sure I wish it never had to happen to anyone, especially a player we offer. I also wish I had a million dollar W-2. Guess what ? I don't and I'm okay with that even though people with 10% of my ability got lucky and have one.


If we want a winner on the field, this is going to happen now and then. Eggs get broken to make a cake.

 

[Ramrod2010]

On one hand it stinks for the player and can put them in an unfortunate situation.

On the other, we've seen this play out the other way around where either the basketball or football program is left flapping in the wind by a recruit (sometimes on signing day).

Is it a bad look? Yeah.
Is it something that every other school does? Yeah.
Could our staff be better at it? Definitely, it seems.

 

[ivwilsoniv]

BREAKING NEWS !!

Eggs get broken to make a cake.

Hot take right here.

 

[itsJUPITER]

The egg came first