Exactly. From facilities, to level of competition, to training and instruction.
No comparison
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
- Status
Exactly. From facilities, to level of competition, to training and instruction.
No comparison
Guys come on.
Yes high school football in southern states is at a whole 'nother level up from Illinois football. Yes the players play year round and probably have better training. But there's literally an entire industry based on recruiting rankings and news. All this information is taken into account. That's why there's so few Illinois kids in the top 300 compared to Florida and Texas.
Deleted member 649710
D
Guest
We offered another QB for 18. This doesn't look good for Coran
https://twitter.com/djirons14/status/943963539500359686
https://twitter.com/djirons14/status/943963539500359686
About 40 miles east of Dallas is this impressive stadium, brick, luxury suites, etc, it is the high school stadium.
Katy Tx spent $70,000,000 on their high school stadium.
This is a different world both in facilities and the amount of talent.
Look no further than Pinkle at Mizzou. His whole game plan was to get his share of the handful of top players in Missouri and fill in with Texans. Early in his career, he used his Ohio contacts to recruit there but as those contacts weakened, he had 4 members of his coaching staff assigned to recruit Texas only.
We have ties to both Florida and Texas and if we can solve the QB and get a few wins, Lovie's scheme will work.
In fairness, Pinkle didn't inherit the 5 alarm dumpster fire that Lovie did.
Katy Tx spent $70,000,000 on their high school stadium.
This is a different world both in facilities and the amount of talent.
Look no further than Pinkle at Mizzou. His whole game plan was to get his share of the handful of top players in Missouri and fill in with Texans. Early in his career, he used his Ohio contacts to recruit there but as those contacts weakened, he had 4 members of his coaching staff assigned to recruit Texas only.
We have ties to both Florida and Texas and if we can solve the QB and get a few wins, Lovie's scheme will work.
In fairness, Pinkle didn't inherit the 5 alarm dumpster fire that Lovie did.
South Farms
- near Ogden & Rt 83
This
Used to be that while it was well known the talented players in those southern states were generally better than those up north , the linemen up north were equal with the southerners . That is not true any more either .
High schools in Florida and most southern states play a spring season version of football that is way more intense and real than our college spring season . They literally play and practice the game , in some school sanctioned way, shape or form 11 out of 12 months . Just as intense as our basketball players play the game year round .
Wouldn't you agree though it is easier to evaluate a guy who is matched up week in and week out with guys of similar size and skill vs say a player from SHG or Rochester who may only face similar competition once or twice a year?
Well RecruitGeorgia really likes him FWIW
https://recruitgeorgia.com/players/demarcus-irons-qb-grayson/
Tall kid, could be a big bodied QB if he puts on some weight (Roethlisberger, Wentz, Goff, etc...no I'm not saying he's that good, but he has the size that you like to see with a QB). Not a speedster, but enough to have to respect it. Looks like a decent arm (that highlight of him running left towards the sideline and throwing it 50 yards in the air was impressive).
Offer list is a little odd, but I'm intrigued with him.
Offer list is a little odd, but I'm intrigued with him.
I'm generally as big a homer as they come, but this just seems like a poorly-managed recruiting class. I want to be happy and appreciative of those who decide to play for our team, but taking all things into consideration I'm rather down about this.
Here's to hoping for great Player Development and 2018.
Here's to hoping for great Player Development and 2018.
Last edited:
Man, good for Irons to landing an offer. His film looks deserving.
But wow, Taylor, so unfortunate.
The way things have been the last few days......would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the recruiting war room..........just to really know how many Plan B and Plan C options we ran to when Plan A prospects went elsewhere.
I know we all feel like we can trust the staffs player evals but man they are going to have to hit on a lot more then they needed to with last years class. I hope it happens. For the sake of the program.
But wow, Taylor, so unfortunate.
The way things have been the last few days......would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the recruiting war room..........just to really know how many Plan B and Plan C options we ran to when Plan A prospects went elsewhere.
I know we all feel like we can trust the staffs player evals but man they are going to have to hit on a lot more then they needed to with last years class. I hope it happens. For the sake of the program.
I understand some of the disappointment, because I too expected bigger names coming here when Lovie was hired. However the first year results of his evaluation were without question remarkable.
Our bottom 5 ranked recruits from 2017 in order:
Nate Hobbs- All BTN Freshman team
Bennett Williams- ESPN All American Freshman Team
Dawson Degroot-
Jamal Woods- Honorable Mention BTN Freshman team
Blake Hayes- Honorable Mention All Big 10
I don't care about the rankings when you hit like this on evaluations
Our bottom 5 ranked recruits from 2017 in order:
Nate Hobbs- All BTN Freshman team
Bennett Williams- ESPN All American Freshman Team
Dawson Degroot-
Jamal Woods- Honorable Mention BTN Freshman team
Blake Hayes- Honorable Mention All Big 10
I don't care about the rankings when you hit like this on evaluations
Well we'll find out how our talent stacks up against them in a few years. Sept 5th, 2020 in Champaign.
Illiini
- In the land of the Nittany Lion
Thanks for pointing this out.
Robertson is a program changing commit, but for me all is forgiven even if we land Brown. We would then have....
2017
OLine - Larry Boyd, Vederian Lowe, Alex Palczewski
DLine - Kendrick Green, Owen Carney, Isaiah Gay, Lere Oladipo, Bobby Roundtree, Deon Pate, Jamal Woods
2018
OLine - Verdis Brown, Reuben Unije, Jordyn Slaughter, Julian Pearl, Kievan Myers, Julian Pearl,
DLine - Calvin Avery
....as our last two recruiting classes in the trenches. I would like to add a couple DL guys in this class, but Brown could end up there anyway. The point is that we are building a B1G team, one that in 2-3 years will be able to hang with any team at the line of scrimmage. Couple that with the Florida speed of our skill players, and that's a team that can compete. Soon.
All is well folks. Enough with the meltdowns! (Note: the last part is not targeted at IlliniMed, I actually agree with their post)
Winning teams start in the trenches. Wisconsin gets "Ok" talent at most positions but what makes them stand out is their D and O line. It looks like we have been shoring up those areas. I wonder what this staff could recruit like if we have a winning season of at least 6-6. Tell recruits that "hey, we could do this with these types of players, imagine what we can do if you come on board"
I don't follow recruiting. And quite frankly, I was only able to watch a few games this season. But, I've read repeatedly here, that the all-freshman awards are evidence of Lovie's and his staff's ability to identify talent. I've also read repeatedly, that we could not be expected to compete because we play Freshmen against Juniors and Seniors. Now, I completely believe and agree with the Freshman being overmatched by upperclassmen. But, if our Freshmen are playing significantly more snaps than the Freshmen on other teams, isn't it obvious that we would have several all-Freshmen team players? Some of those guys have talent, no doubt. But my guess is that few will ever be All-Conference 1st or 2nd team selections. And ultimately, we need guys that deserve those awards if we are going to start winning games.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
I understand what some of you are saying in regards to our frosh winning the awards due to playing time. But... don't you think that the experience gained from the playing time/awards is going to provide motivation to excel that they otherwise might not have? They are all we've got and I have zero issues with how this team and these players are developing.
My follow up question is: do they HAVE to choose a freshman at each position or is it just if they deem a player worthy?
Otherwise, I think it is a combo of us playing a ton of freshmen and them being worthy of All Big frosh award
Of course I agree. In Florida and Texas, you have teams with multiple P5 players. In Illinois, you're lucky if you entire conference has that many quality players. In the south there's spring football. I lived in Texas when I was in junior high. Even at that age, we had 200 kids in my grade playing football (5 teams). Football was literally a class in our schedule. There's far more training, development, and emphasis put on it down there. I don't know what the argument is?
- Status