Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#101      

Deleted member 654622

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Deleted member 654622
FiveStar said:
We lost 5-6 guys sure. But did our general talent pool increase or decrease through the portal overall?
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I was about to say the same thing. However, I believe his response was more toward the total number of scholarships (correct me if I am wrong). But yes, I will take that tradeoff
 
#102      

ILL_INI

ILL_INI
ILL_INI
ChiCityIllini said:
Feels like recruiting is on backburner
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It probably is on the back burner because, as Joel alluded to, schools, college and high school, have started practices. It also might feel that way because August is a dead period, meaning no face to face contact so no one is coming in. Coaches can still call and text, though, and I'm sure that is still happening.
 
#104      

Twangers

T
Twangers
FiveStar said:
We lost 5-6 guys sure. But did our general talent pool increase or decrease through the portal overall?
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Oh it vastly increased but that’s not the conversation, the conversation is about how many guys we will look to add this offseason. I haven’t looked at our numbers but for arguments sake, let’s say we have 15 scholarships available (random number). You can’t approach that by saying “We will aggressively pursue 5 transfer portal players, so we will only look to add 10 HS seniors”. You have to approach it as if you may lose as many transfers as you might add, if you have 15 available scholarships you need to bust your butt to add 15 HS seniors.
 
#105      

Deleted member 649710

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ChiCityIllini said:
Feels like recruiting is on backburner - staff needs to go 3-0 in the non-conf and do so in somewhat convincing fashion, get the new facility open, get some buzz going into B1G schedule. Conversations and potential prospects may change drastically based on how that all goes... We can't have a repeat of the last couple of years where we struggle to barely beat MAC competition (and not even good MAC teams).
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The entire month of August is a dead period per the NCAA calendar.
 
#106      

thunderwear

thunderwear
thunderwear
Twangers said:
Oh it vastly increased but that’s not the conversation, the conversation is about how many guys we will look to add this offseason. I haven’t looked at our numbers but for arguments sake, let’s say we have 15 scholarships available (random number). You can’t approach that by saying “We will aggressively pursue 5 transfer portal players, so we will only look to add 10 HS seniors”. You have to approach it as if you may lose as many transfers as you might add, if you have 15 available scholarships you need to bust your butt to add 15 HS seniors.
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We have roughly 8 more spots to fill, and I’m sure we will have attrition, but I don’t envision many, if any players that will be asked to graduate because they completed 4 years. Maybe Peters loses the starting job, he may graduate early? Maybe a redshirted lineman? Maybe we lose a qb or two? But overall, I think attrition will be low.
 
#107      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
Joel Goodson
thunderwear said:
We have roughly 8 more spots to fill, and I’m sure we will have attrition, but I don’t envision many, if any players that will be asked to graduate because they completed 4 years. Maybe Peters loses the starting job, he may graduate early? Maybe a redshirted lineman? Maybe we lose a qb or two? But overall, I think attrition will be low.
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Maybe. The outgoing transfer pool is primarily comprised by upperclassmen who haven't played and/or guys who have been passed up on the depth chart by younger players (class-wise). We'll find out, when we find out.
 
#108      

Twangers

T
Twangers
thunderwear said:
We have roughly 8 more spots to fill, and I’m sure we will have attrition, but I don’t envision many, if any players that will be asked to graduate because they completed 4 years. Maybe Peters loses the starting job, he may graduate early? Maybe a redshirted lineman? Maybe we lose a qb or two? But overall, I think attrition will be low.
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We lost very few name players (2?) last offseason and still had, I believe, 7 players transfer out of our program. I think your gut instinct may be a little too optimistic.

If our season turns to mud and we have a coaching staff purge, all bets are off.
 
#109      

thunderwear

thunderwear
thunderwear
Twangers said:
We lost very few name players (2?) last offseason and still had, I believe, 7 players transfer out of our program. I think your gut instinct may be a little too optimistic.

If our season turns to mud and we have a coaching staff purge, all bets are off.
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I probably misstated. I know there will be attrition. I don’t imagine the staff will have many people that they will convince to leave because their scholarship is up.
 
#110      

Twangers

T
Twangers
thunderwear said:
I probably misstated. I know there will be attrition. I don’t imagine the staff will have many people that they will convince to leave because their scholarship is up.
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Gotcha, I probably misread you too.

I haven’t done any sort of count but by my view we should have around 15-17 open scholarships next season. With a large junior class and a small incoming 2019 class, it is crucial we sign every bit of 17 seniors .
 
#111      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Joel Goodson said:
Maybe. The outgoing transfer pool is primarily comprised by upperclassmen who haven't played and/or guys who have been passed up on the depth chart by younger players (class-wise). We'll find out, when we find out.
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To be fair, the incoming transfer pool is also comprised of several upperclassmen who haven't played much.
 
#113      

CogDog

CogDog
CogDog
I really hope we can start landing some more linebacker talent. Yes, Shammond was a huge coup for us and he will be good once he gets a year or two in the weight room, but I worry about depth at this position big time. Does anyone have insight as to who we are currently recruiting at linebacker?
 
#114      

thunderwear

thunderwear
thunderwear
CogDog said:
I really hope we can start landing some more linebacker talent. Yes, Shammond was a huge coup for us and he will be good once he gets a year or two in the weight room, but I worry about depth at this position big time. Does anyone have insight as to who we are currently recruiting at linebacker?
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Our depth is actually pretty strong here. We have 9 LBs on the current roster. Shammond and Barnes both look great and we have good distribution among classes. If we add Schirmer, I think we will be solid here as a bowl team until Cooper and Barnes are ready to start.

My biggest concern is whether college LBs can run Lovie's system, not the talent itself. I think we have some strength and depth at LB as Cooper and Barnes are still receiving low 2nd or high 3rd team reps and Barnes has been receiving tons of accolades for his early performance in camp.
 
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#115      

Deleted member 654622

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Deleted member 654622
thunderwear said:
Our depth is actually pretty strong here. We have 9 LBs on the current roster. Shammond and Barnes both look great and we have good distribution among classes. If we add Schirmer, I think we will be solid here as a bowl team until Cooper and Barnes are ready to start.

My biggest concern is whether college LBs can run Lovie's system, not the talent itself. I think we have some strength and depth at LB as Cooper and Barnes are still receiving low 2nd or high 3rd team reps and Barnes has been receiving tons of accolades for his early performance in camp.
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If we get Dlineman that can create havoc, which I think we have that in the works, Lovie's scheme just needs fast athletic middle and strong side LBs (Shammond and Barnes). The weak side LB needs to be more on the thicker side (Tolson). I think its looking promising. A little later than we wanted, but it looks to be there
 
#116      

thunderwear

thunderwear
thunderwear
Dude said:
If we get Dlineman that can create havoc, which I think we have that in the works, Lovie's scheme just needs fast athletic middle and strong side LBs (Shammond and Barnes). The weak side LB needs to be more on the thicker side (Tolson). I think its looking promising. A little later than we wanted, but it looks to be there
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I think we seem to be in much better position in 2020-2024. And that’s not to say we aren’t in solid position this year. I think we have a bowl caliber team this year. Add in a few players, Dorsey, Boyd, Williams, Roundtree, etc. and I don’t think there’s a question that we are a bowl team.
 
#118      

Takeittothehoop

T
Takeittothehoop
The transfers were all highly ranked coming out of high school. Each may have something to prove with a clean slate at Illinois.
 
#120      

Greensboro

Greensboro
Greensboro
Twangers said:
Oh it vastly increased but that’s not the conversation, the conversation is about how many guys we will look to add this offseason. I haven’t looked at our numbers but for arguments sake, let’s say we have 15 scholarships available (random number). You can’t approach that by saying “We will aggressively pursue 5 transfer portal players, so we will only look to add 10 HS seniors”. You have to approach it as if you may lose as many transfers as you might add, if you have 15 available scholarships you need to bust your butt to add 15 HS seniors.
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Joel Goodson said:
Maybe. The outgoing transfer pool is primarily comprised by upperclassmen who haven't played and/or guys who have been passed up on the depth chart by younger players (class-wise). We'll find out, when we find out.
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With regards to vastly improved, I would also include Dorsey, Boyd, & Williams in the outgoing transfer pool, so although for various reasons they didn't add any help on the field last year, we did lose some significant pieces to transfers...so it also depends on what point in time you view the talent, at the end of this year we may have a different view of the talent level being brought in as well. I'm still happy with the end result...just not sure it is a totally fair comparison looking back vs. forward.
 
#121      

Twangers

T
Twangers
Greensboro said:
With regards to vastly improved, I would also include Dorsey, Boyd, & Williams in the outgoing transfer pool, so although for various reasons they didn't add any help on the field last year, we did lose some significant pieces to transfers...so it also depends on what point in time you view the talent, at the end of this year we may have a different view of the talent level being brought in as well. I'm still happy with the end result...just not sure it is a totally fair comparison looking back vs. forward.
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I think the comparison as we look forward can only reasonably be viewed year to year. Where were we last season, where are we today, where can we be in 2020. It’s doesn’t make much sense to consider players who don’t fit in those timelines.
 
#125      

FT35

FT35
Naperville
FT35
TwoElevenEastDaniel said:
I am not sure if this is relevant, but I think the Illini were in on him before. Perhaps a sit one, play four candidate?

https://247sports.com/college/illin...DK-Blaylock-Enters-Transfer-Portal-134511657/
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I've read that he's transferring because he wants to play basketball so he is probably done playing football. He was actually an Iowa State commit at one point and was going to enroll early but decided to stay in High School to play basketball for the entire season.

He averaged 22 PPG as a Senior at New Deal High School.
 
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