Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

[WhiteRhino]

We also hired Beckman, Self and Mike White (plus Lou Henson and Brad Underwood if I feel like starting an argument )

And Glen Mason, Jerry Kill and Tubby Smith are some of the most well-respected upstanding people in the profession.

It's all shades of gray everywhere.

My point wasn't that Illinois has been above reproach. My point was that was why Illinois hired those guys.

Big time college athletics is a tough gig. It's hard to find conservative coaches who will run a clean program and who will also be successful, competitively, at the highest level.

 

[ChazzReinhold]

How about this acronym PJ

Dubious Ones Undermining Control with Harrowing Egotism

 

[Deleted member 649710]

Five Fingers Makes a Fist

 

[ILL in IA]

Five Fingers Makes a Fist

I remember seeing that on CBS before the game and thinking "Damn right, we're going to come together as the fist and punch UNC to win this" like it was a great speech. Looking back....not so much.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

Lovie repping the Oxford comma. I like it.

 

[MoCoMdIllini]

How about this acronym PJ

Dubious Ones Undermining Control with Harrowing Egotism

Gary Busey could not have done it better.
Well played, sir.

 

[TheGMan]

Marcus Washington is fully reopening his recruitment

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1025126081639211009

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Marcus Washington is fully reopening his recruitment

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1025126081639211009

Huh. I guess that means he was ticketed for OSU.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Illinois has a long history of hiring button down white shirt guys who look great in a navy blue blazer and tan slacks with cordovan loafers. You then lease him a Cadillac or Lincoln from one of the dealers on Neil and you send him off with a Shell gas card to all the country clubs within 150 miles of CU, selling the prestige of the UI to everyone in the room , 99% of whom had a family member graduate. Those people eat that stuff up.

Lovie fits that role, even though he is black. Everyone knows we were the last B10 school to not have had a black major sport head coach and there was NO CHANCE AT ALL we were going to not hire a black guy this time. We had too. Whitman needed a known commodity.

Bill Self is really the lone hire you could maybe claim was a little outside the box, but Bill is/was still an Okie at heart, albeit with a strange ability to relate to the urban player. To me, while Mike White had a stain on his record, it was no worse than the tarnish everyone in the country club also carried around with them.

PJ Fleck is way outside those lines.

To me, the biggest outside the box hire we had in the last 30 years was Mike Thomas

With all due respect and appreciation for the entertaining stroll down memory lane, that's completely incoherent.

At every juncture Illinois has done what every school does, which is hire the coach they could afford that they felt was the likeliest to bring long-term success. The budgets and the people doing the choosing have been problems in the past, but these master narratives of what it all means have always been and will always continue to be utter bunk.

Ron Guenther's first choice to replace Kruger was Kelvin freakin' Sampson for goodness sakes. That documented fact blows the whole thing to smithereens.

 

[WhiteRhino]

With all due respect and appreciation for the entertaining stroll down memory lane, that's completely incoherent.

At every juncture Illinois has done what every school does, which is hire the coach they could afford that they felt was the likeliest to bring long-term success. The budgets and the people doing the choosing have been problems in the past, but these master narratives of what it all means have always been and will always continue to be utter bunk.

Ron Guenther's first choice to replace Kruger was Kelvin freakin' Sampson for goodness sakes. That documented fact blows the whole thing to smithereens.

Sampson didn't have the NCAA offenses on his record at the time, and when his shadiness became apparent his interview was canceled and Guenther moved on.

While it's apparent now that Self is a snake oil salesman, his record was also pretty clean when Illinois hired him, apart from being a grad assistant at Kansas when Larry Brown was there.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Sampson didn't have the NCAA offenses on his record at the time, and when his shadiness became apparent his interview was canceled and Guenther moved on.

While it's apparent now that Self is a snake oil salesman, his record was also pretty clean when Illinois hired him, apart from being a grad assistant at Kansas when Larry Brown was there.

But that's exactly my point. You don't know what the future holds when you hire these people. So the idea that there are these guardians of the process who keep out anyone who would ever do anything wrong is ridiculous.

Brad Underwood's top choice for lead assistant got arrested by the FBI mere months later.

As Hyman Roth once said, this is the business we've chosen.

 

[ktal]

Lovie fits that role, even though he is black. Everyone knows we were the last B10 school to not have had a black major sport head coach and there was NO CHANCE AT ALL we were going to not hire a black guy this time. We had too. Whitman needed a known commodity.

So, Lovie was an affirmative action hire? GMAFB

Lovie is the most professionally accomplished head coach ever hired here in a major sport, so there's something missing from your thesis; R. E. S. P. E. C. T.

 

[WhiteRhino]

But that's exactly my point. You don't know what the future holds when you hire these people. So the idea that there are these guardians of the process who keep out anyone who would ever do anything wrong is ridiculous.

Brad Underwood's top choice for lead assistant got arrested by the FBI mere months later.

As Hyman Roth once said, this is the business we've chosen.

I still think there's a big difference between Illinois hiring Brad Underwood before the stuff about his assistant at OSU came out, and Indiana hiring Sampson after he had already been shown to be a serial cheater at Oklahoma.

You are right that it is a dirty business, and even though administrators may try to have a rule-abiding athletic department sometimes it is a sisyphean endeavor. However, some schools, such as Kansas, Auburn and Mississippi State don't seem to make any attempt at being clean.

 

[Chukwuwumba]

So, Lovie was an affirmative action hire? GMAFB

Lovie is the most professionally accomplished head coach ever hired here in a major sport, so there's something missing from your thesis; R. E. S. P. E. C. T.

I remember a poster stated a while back that someone on the hiring board or school board wanted a more diverse candidate and was willing to delay hiring. not Sure what sport or when. Recent hiring, could have been groce or Whitman or after Beckman fires? But general sentiment was to hire best candidate, which you alluded to.

 

[Chukwuwumba]

Huh. I guess that means he was ticketed for OSU.

From Twitter rabbit hole, Appears he was down to osu and mizzou. With osu news, people are assuming mizzou is not a legit #2 or we would just commit there.

 

[WhiteRhino]

I still think there's a big difference between Illinois hiring Brad Underwood before the stuff about his assistant at OSU came out, and Indiana hiring Sampson after he had already been shown to be a serial cheater at Oklahoma.

You are right that it is a dirty business, and even though administrators may try to have a rule-abiding athletic department sometimes it is a sisyphean endeavor. However, some schools, such as Kansas, Auburn and Mississippi State don't seem to make any attempt at being clean.

Slight amendment to my post - I meant Ole Miss, not Mississippi State

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Slight amendment to my post - I meant Ole Miss, not Mississippi State

Those old line Southern football schools don't know any other way, under the table bidding wars between boosters is as much of a tradition as bands and cheerleaders down there.

A coach wouldn't be able to stop that stuff if they wanted to.

 

[JucoIllini10]

Marcus Washington is fully reopening his recruitment

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1025126081639211009

His dad went out of his way to let Illini fans know Marcus will never go to Illinois. He has already made a few negative posts about Illinois. I never understood these parents publicly bashing teams that have offered their children. They are offering a full ride to play D1 football at a top academic university.

 

[Joel Goodson]

Massey is announcing at 1 pm today. Think it'll be us, but he's a very impressionable young man...

Anywho, he'll be a very big get. Will we take 5 WRs in this class? JUCO Johnson being the 5th?

 

[IlliniTom]

His dad went out of his way to let Illini fans know Marcus will never go to Illinois. He has already made a few negative posts about Illinois. I never understood these parents publicly bashing teams that have offered their children. They are offering a full ride to play D1 football at a top academic university.

And what if it doesn't work out at the first school and you are looking for somewhere to transfer? He wouldn't even be their top WR commit at OSU. Keep every opportunity open for your son.

 

[Joel Goodson]

And what if it doesn't work out at the first school and you are looking for somewhere to transfer? He wouldn't even be their top WR commit at OSU. Keep every opportunity open for your son.

Generally speaking, yes. But highly rated kids will have no problem amassing suitors should they come back on the market.

WRT Washington, it's pretty clear that his dad has a big ax to grind with Patterson. ABI, forever.

 

[Deleted member 654622]

His dad went out of his way to let Illini fans know Marcus will never go to Illinois. He has already made a few negative posts about Illinois. I never understood these parents publicly bashing teams that have offered their children. They are offering a full ride to play D1 football at a top academic university.

I ran into those tweets a few days ago. It is very clear that he does not want his son at Illinois. It is also very clear that he has no idea what is going on either. He thinks Lovie is getting fired after this season.

 

[Deleted member 654622]

Massey is announcing at 1 pm today. Think it'll be us, but he's a very impressionable young man...

Anywho, he'll be a very big get. Will we take 5 WRs in this class? JUCO Johnson being the 5th?

On the Jeremy Werner show a few days back they mentioned that they would take 5 WR due to their lack of confidence in everyone not named Ricky or Mike. It is pretty telling when a LB switches positions and jumps all the way up to second string within a few weeks

 

[Hoppy2105]

On the Jeremy Werner show a few days back they mentioned that they would take 5 WR due to their lack of confidence in everyone not named Ricky or Mike. It is pretty telling when a LB switches positions and jumps all the way up to second string within a few weeks

Interesting. I figured Carmoni Green would be wowing people by now. But then again, he is only a sophomore. Maybe his jr and sr years will be breakout years.

 

[Illini_1979]

It's like a parody of a football coach, played by Rod Coddry.

Would that be this Rod Coddry?