Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

[IlliniCC]

Any reason I just saw a crystal ball for Billingsley to Florida?

 

[illinidarrin]

It's a Florida guy, so i wouldn't worry about it that much just yet. If we start seeing others picking Florida as well, we got problems.

 

[Illiini]

Yeah but if you are an Illini fan or one that actually follows the recruiting trail u know by 2020 we should be back to playing some meaningful games

Well, yes, we know. And they should. But they're just looking at last year and saying that if he doesn't produce this year, he's gone. And that simply proves they don't know Whitman's rules. They're just not very good at their job.

 

[Deleted member 590820]

I don’t see Illinois firing Lovie regardless of record. What’s he got , 5 or 6 year deal? If he’s gone it’ll be Lovies choice not Whitman.

 

[mhuml32]

Speaking for myself I would hate Fleck no matter where he were, possibly even including Illinois, because that management buzzword speak and try-way-too-hard attitude makes my skin crawl in any context.

But I will certainly admit to fear that Lovie isn't going to work out. At 5-19 you're lying to yourself if you're not feeling that.

You look at the Big Ten West moving forward, I think Frost's Nebraska is going to rocket by everybody, Wisconsin is going to be what they are forever, Iowa and Northwestern are going to be what they are forever at that slightly lower level, with Purdue looking like they might get there as well. There aren't many life rafts left on this boat, pardon the pun.

Lovie and Fleck are fighting for the same bone, it seems to me. Hard to see both of them succeeding, IMO.

Agree with all of this besides the Purdue belief. Brohm had a team built for success in 2017 and his recruiting so far hasn't been impressive. If he makes a bowl in 2018, I'll change my mind.

 

[thunderwear]

Lovie will be our head coach in 2020. But I don't necessarily agree with this premise, depending by what you mean by "significantly".

I think I am in the minority. Unfortunately, I think you are in the minority’s as well. I think most people will see a bad season this season and start asking for lovie’s job. And by significantly I mean we will win 7+ and we will have a new floor.

 

[thunderwear]

Lovie simply has to show improvement by winning. The staff have to win a minimum of 4 games this year period. Anything less will likely see a huge negative swing in recruiting.

Our wins next year won’t mean much and I don’t think they will affect recruiting. Any way you look at it we will have story lines to sell. And Lovie is still a celebrity.

At this point in our roster, we still have too many holes and unknowns. This year will get us clear on our biggest needs and gaps. By 2020 we should have a complete team with playmakers. It will still be a young team with room for solid players to make an impact on day 1. Until our roster is full and players are developed with size and skill, we will be lacking. 2020, will be a breakout year for us. But few people outside of Illinois fans expect us to be more than a team qualifying for bowl games.

 

[TMillini]

Speaking for myself I would hate Fleck no matter where he were, possibly even including Illinois, because that management buzzword speak and try-way-too-hard attitude makes my skin crawl in any context.

But I will certainly admit to fear that Lovie isn't going to work out. At 5-19 you're lying to yourself if you're not feeling that.

You look at the Big Ten West moving forward, I think Frost's Nebraska is going to rocket by everybody, Wisconsin is going to be what they are forever, Iowa and Northwestern are going to be what they are forever at that slightly lower level, with Purdue looking like they might get there as well. There aren't many life rafts left on this boat, pardon the pun.

Lovie and Fleck are fighting for the same bone, it seems to me. Hard to see both of them succeeding, IMO.

I’m sorry it would have taken nick Saban himself to do any better with what Lovie had when he started and that’s only because he would automatically get the top players to come with him right away and he wouldn’t have had to play the kids that were there. U can’t win without talent no matter how good of a coach u r and let’s face it this was a team that lacked talent all over the field

 

[220Illini]

I've considered Fleck to be the exact opposite to Lovie when it comes to personality and demeanor as a head coach. I think Illini fans may have a fear that Fleck succeeds and Lovie doesn't. Meaning we took the exact opposite type of guy we needed.

I am NOT saying this will happen, but it might be in the back of some of our fans' minds when they see PJ's emotion and the way he talks and think "man, we should've got a guy like that".

 

[TMillini]

I think I am in the minority. Unfortunately, I think you are in the minority’s as well. I think most people will see a bad season this season and start asking for lovie’s job. And by significantly I mean we will win 7+ and we will have a new floor.

Well if u expect him to win 7+ this season then u might as well as him for his job now the average linemen takes 2 years to develop which means that those Bobby roundtree is already ahead of the curve give Lovie time also if u get rid of Lovie who r u going to hire to replace him no one who cares about job security

 

[Second and Chalmers]

And by significantly I mean we will win 7+ and we will have a new floor.

I think you are both overestimating where this class will end up, overestimating the importance of raw Rivals stars talent to the marginal differences between Big Ten West teams on the field, and underestimating the drag on recruiting not one but two more 2-10 type seasons would present.

 

[Title]

Our wins next year won’t mean much and I don’t think they will affect recruiting. Any way you look at it we will have story lines to sell. And Lovie is still a celebrity.

At this point in our roster, we still have too many holes and unknowns. This year will get us clear on our biggest needs and gaps. By 2020 we should have a complete team with playmakers. It will still be a young team with room for solid players to make an impact on day 1. Until our roster is full and players are developed with size and skill, we will be lacking. 2020, will be a breakout year for us. But few people outside of Illinois fans expect us to be more than a team qualifying for bowl games.

On one hand, the excuse is playing 17 plus underclassmen this year. Now with all those guys returning, if you can't be better than 2 wins that is a problem. From a recruit perspective, if you are a 3 star or higher, you want to win. If you don't think that is important tell me how many top recruits sign with losing programs. Even Texas is struggling to get top recruits based on performance. Everyone is giving Lovie the benefit of the doubt (as they should) but, if you think you can only win 2 games three years in a row and continue to land top recruits, you are out of touch.

 

[Title]

Well if u expect him to win 7+ this season then u might as well as him for his job now the average linemen takes 2 years to develop which means that those Bobby roundtree is already ahead of the curve give Lovie time also if u get rid of Lovie who r u going to hire to replace him no one who cares about job security

7 plus wins in 2020. I think 4 is a good goal for this year.

 

[mhuml32]

7 plus wins in 2020. I think 4 is a good goal for this year.

This is where I am at. Need 4 wins this year to show the progress. Need to win 7 games in 2020 to show this rebuild has been successful.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

This is where I am at. Need 4 wins this year to show the progress. Need to win 7 games in 2020 to show this rebuild has been successful.

To be very frank, 7 wins being the culmination of a 5-year barren rebuild is hardly "successful". Tim Beckman won 6 games in year 3.

I will take the over on 16 wins over the next three years. I find it a bit strange that people who style themselves as Lovie optimists aren't thinking that way.

A little bit of Illini fans in general fetishizing our own suffering mixed with a bit of the Loyalty recruiting myopia, would be my guess.

Lovie Smith is a damn good football coach and has built a staff of damn good football coaches and that is going to show. Or it's not.

 

[IllinoisFanAtFSU]

No matter the results this year, I am still in and optimistic for 2019 and 2020. However, I do not think that 7 wins in 2020, following awful years in 2018 and 2019, would be a resounding success. The general path I see is:

2018 -- 3-5 wins
2019 -- 5-7 wins
2020 -- 7-9 wins

I am not even significantly changing the result that many of you see for 2020, what I disagree on is 2019. 2018 will be rough but competitive and better than last year, 2019 will be a borderline bowl team or a bowl team, and 2020 we either establish that "new floor" that somebody mentioned or we will be borderline special. This is the path I see, and I will be ecstatic if it happens. I also do not think it is unrealistic in the slightest. Let's enjoy the ride and keep supporting Lovie and the team!

 

[Subortus]

Lovie has a multi-year contract and a multi-year rebuilding plan. Recruiting better talent is the key. Better players will lead to more wins, but not necessarily immediately. Lovie's first recruiting class (2017) was an obvious improvement upon what Beckman and Cubit did. His second class (2018) was okay, but overall was not as impressive as some of us had hoped. This may have been the result of certain situations involving assistant coaches who were not performing up to standards. This led to coaching vacancies on our staff at an inopportune time in the recruiting cycle. It's unfortunate, but in the long run perhaps it was a mere bump in the road. Lovie has made the necessary replacements and improvements to his coaching staff, and they are off to an impressive start in the 2019 recruiting cycle.
We'll still probably need patience before we see a significant improvement in the won-loss record. No matter who ends up being our starting quarterback this season, he will be unproven. We are all hoping that one of the candidates unexpectedly shines, and can perform up to the level of a good Big Ten quarterback, but the reality is that nobody right now knows how likely (or not) that may be.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Lovie has a multi-year contract and a multi-year rebuilding plan.

Just to throw another turd in the punchbowl, we probably have to extend Lovie after this season. At the very least after 2019.

 

[mhuml32]

Made a mistake on the years.


This is where I am at. Need 4 wins this year to show the progress. Need to win 7 games in 2019 to show this rebuild has been successful.

 

[Peoria Illini]

To be very frank, 7 wins being the culmination of a 5-year barren rebuild is hardly "successful". Tim Beckman won 6 games in year 3.

I will take the over on 16 wins over the next three years. I find it a bit strange that people who style themselves as Lovie optimists aren't thinking that way.

A little bit of Illini fans in general fetishizing our own suffering mixed with a bit of the Loyalty recruiting myopia, would be my guess.

Lovie Smith is a damn good football coach and has built a staff of damn good football coaches and that is going to show. Or it's not.

I'm going with 12 wins over the next 2 seasons (18 and 19). Guessing 5 this season, and 7-8 in 19.

 

[IlliniCC]

On one hand, the excuse is playing 17 plus underclassmen this year. Now with all those guys returning, if you can't be better than 2 wins that is a problem. From a recruit perspective, if you are a 3 star or higher, you want to win. If you don't think that is important tell me how many top recruits sign with losing programs. Even Texas is struggling to get top recruits based on performance. Everyone is giving Lovie the benefit of the doubt (as they should) but, if you think you can only win 2 games three years in a row and continue to land top recruits, you are out of touch.

Is this a joke? Texas has had a Top 10 recruiting class 3 of the past 4 years despite never winning more than 7 games and having 3 losing seasons in that timespan. What I find even worse is that they are barely out producing us in NFL players at the moment at 22 to 18 on active rosters. Really doesn’t matter the level you’re playing at or NFL talent you’re producing, as long as you have the recruiting hotbed and name brand recognition.

 

[illini80]

90% of the problem is the lack of a proven QB. I think we will be better everywhere else, but if we don't at least get marginal play from the QB it will be tough to win 4 or more.

I'm amazed at the pessimism. When was the last time we had a reason to be more optimistic than now? Early Zook years? Sheesh people. Is it that hard to at least give him a chance?

 

[Centennial Illini]

If we get marginal play out of the QB position we could surprise.

Two years ago we had an immobile QB with a good arm. Unfortunately we may have had the worst set of receivers in D1 football. They couldn't get open and when they did, they had problems with drops.

Last year saw a big improvement in the receiving corp but our QBs couldn't throw it in the ocean from the beach. We pushed a freshman who was not physically ready into the fire and not surprisingly he got hurt.

Give this team an adequate QB to keep our defense off the field and we could sneak in and win a few.

 

[breadman]

All this conjecture about how many wins this team will have over how many years to come to me is just silly. This team is in the middle of being rebuilt by a professional-based coaching staff. My focus for this next season only is to observe how last season's freshmen have improved and how this season's freshman are coached up and competitive against the sophomore class. After next season is finished is when I will tell you how many games the team won. Then move on to the next season to continue the rebuild.

 

[Title]

Is this a joke? Texas has had a Top 10 recruiting class 3 of the past 4 years despite never winning more than 7 games and having 3 losing seasons in that timespan. What I find even worse is that they are barely out producing us in NFL players at the moment at 22 to 18 on active rosters. Really doesn’t matter the level you’re playing at or NFL talent you’re producing, as long as you have the recruiting hotbed and name brand recognition.

Texas went from 10 to 7 to 25 and back to 3. Are you implying that the drop to 25 wasn’t a result of the lack of success on the field from Charlie Strong?