Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#2,051      
Unless one of the RBs on the current roster is transferring, I'm not sure I would have high interest in bringing in another in this class (Epstein, Bonner, Brown Norwood, Sims, Fedanzo, Cumby (more WR but could get some snaps), Love).
Brown? If that is Dre he said he is not coming back.
 
#2,053      

ivwilsoniv

Aurora, IL
Bailey is most likely headed to Rutgers, for the guy that recruited him

I’m told Newton is hard to read. If it was a 2 team race, it’s close to 50-50. If it’s a 3 team race, 33-33-33. The point being that we are in the mix, but I wouldn’t bet money on anyone.
I bet I can guess what it would be if another team entered the race.
 
#2,054      
Art green and Michael Thompson will be in the mix. Also the dameon hill kid and kid from Tennessee are guys to keep an eye on. Also the DE from Arkansas transfer.
 
#2,055      

Deleted member 654622

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Art green and Michael Thompson will be in the mix. Also the dameon hill kid and kid from Tennessee are guys to keep an eye on. Also the DE from Arkansas transfer.
This guy?
https://247sports.com/Player/Collin-Clay-46041217/
raw
 
#2,057      
Jadon not signing till Feb. So what is the word on the proverbial streets? Maybe he wants to do with his teammates all at one time in Feb. Could be he needs to take care of academics. We don't know. Has anything been verified that he is looking around? Just have to wait and see until Feb. I noticed that Rutgers is ahead of us in recruiting. Is it because we have a small class and their class is bigger? I like the guys we got committed to UI. Each one brings a special skill set to the team. Stars and bars are not the be all to end all. So how many actual scholarship will we have to give out if no one transfers and everything remains the same, which I know it won't. Every team goes through a transition.
 
#2,059      

ivwilsoniv

Aurora, IL
Jadon not signing till Feb. So what is the word on the proverbial streets? Maybe he wants to do with his teammates all at one time in Feb. Could be he needs to take care of academics. We don't know. Has anything been verified that he is looking around? Just have to wait and see until Feb. I noticed that Rutgers is ahead of us in recruiting. Is it because we have a small class and their class is bigger? I like the guys we got committed to UI. Each one brings a special skill set to the team. Stars and bars are not the be all to end all. So how many actual scholarship will we have to give out if no one transfers and everything remains the same, which I know it won't. Every team goes through a transition.
This is a lot of words. Haha.
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#2,062      
Jadon not signing till Feb. So what is the word on the proverbial streets? Maybe he wants to do with his teammates all at one time in Feb. Could be he needs to take care of academics. We don't know. Has anything been verified that he is looking around? Just have to wait and see until Feb. I noticed that Rutgers is ahead of us in recruiting. Is it because we have a small class and their class is bigger? I like the guys we got committed to UI. Each one brings a special skill set to the team. Stars and bars are not the be all to end all. So how many actual scholarship will we have to give out if no one transfers and everything remains the same, which I know it won't. Every team goes through a transition.

Rutgers has 15 commits to our 12. And our class based on average player rankings is about 11th in the big ten. I tend to look at average star ranking more than overall. Look at Minnesota. They are a top 25 class in the country but average ranking is about like ours. Quantity has an affect.
 
#2,063      
I noticed that Rutgers is ahead of us in recruiting. Is it because we have a small class and their class is bigger?
Numbers certainly plays a part, if it makes you feel better we have a higher average rating than Rutgers. On the other hand, we are roughly 1.2 pts better on average ranking than Rutgers, while we trail OSU by over 6 and only move to 11th place by average ranking in a small class....
 
#2,064      
Unless one of the RBs on the current roster is transferring, I'm not sure I would have high interest in bringing in another in this class (Epstein, Bonner, Brown Norwood, Sims, Fedanzo, Cumby (more WR but could get some snaps), Love).
There’s a huge amount of uncertainty with those rbs. Epstein chronic injury. Bonner limited upside. Norwood not strong enough for a lot of carries. Solid straight ahead speed, but little wiggle, doesn’t make tacklers miss. Sims probably not a p5 quality rb.
Cumby fast, but too small for a lot of carries. Fedanzo? Long shot at best. Love? Coming off an early season ending injury, and was just a middle 3* before the injury.

We have a lot of warm bodies at rb, but I don’t see a single reliable feature back on the roster for next year. That’s a huge problem for a running offense. I guess Bellamy just can’t recruit that level rb.
 
#2,066      
Rutgers has 15 commits to our 12. And our class based on average player rankings is about 11th in the big ten. I tend to look at average star ranking more than overall. Look at Minnesota. They are a top 25 class in the country but average ranking is about like ours. Quantity has an affect.
I think if you are looking purely at recruiting numbers we are within the noise of Rutgers, also reasonably competitive with most of the bottom of the big and when your comparison is Rutgers I don't think you really want to start that argument.

...I think you can argue that smaller classes in general probably lead to higher average recruiting numbers because of cherry picking; on the other hand you can say we likely took a hit because we took a higher number of OL/DL with lower rankings because of need. We also certainly lack the higher end Beason/Williams boost from last year & the ave. number is down from last year.

That said this class isn't over, this staff seems to have done a good job finding/developing 3 star talent, and last year the staff did a great job filling holes with transfers, so I'm not advocating the sky is falling either.
 
#2,067      
Numbers certainly plays a part, if it makes you feel better we have a higher average rating than Rutgers. On the other hand, we are roughly 1.2 pts better on average ranking than Rutgers, while we trail OSU by over 6 and only move to 11th place by average ranking in a small class....
We have a lot of mid to lower 3*s, but few elite players in this class. If we had great developmental coaches for them, they may be ok, but we’re exceedingly weak at DL, LB, DB and OL coaching. We have about DII level coaching there.

You need elite DL(6), RB (2), QB (2), WR (3), MLB (2) and CB (3) talent to make this team work, and great OL coaching or talent to make this team successful. Those players need to be high 3* or 4* quality to contend. You don’t need 70 like tOSU or Clemson. Except for one prep and last year’s transfers, we’re just not recruiting at tha level. Without the transfer 4*s and 5*s we brought in last year, does anyone doubt that recruited prep talent was better than 2 or 3 wins?
 
#2,068      

Deleted member 654622

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I think if you are looking purely at recruiting numbers we are within the noise of Rutgers, also reasonably competitive with most of the bottom of the big and when your comparison is Rutgers I don't think you really want to start that argument.

...I think you can argue that smaller classes in general probably lead to higher average recruiting numbers because of cherry picking; on the other hand you can say we likely took a hit because we took a higher number of OL/DL with lower rankings because of need. We also certainly lack the higher end Beason/Williams boost from last year & the ave. number is down from last year.

That said this class isn't over, this staff seems to have done a good job finding/developing 3 star talent, and last year the staff did a great job filling holes with transfers, so I'm not advocating the sky is falling either.
No this isn't over and there is still time for some big impact guys. Sadly we may not get them until next years class however. St. Louis area has some big time talent again in the next class. I hope with all that work and now some success, we can nab some of them
 
#2,069      
There’s a huge amount of uncertainty with those rbs. Epstein chronic injury. Bonner limited upside. Norwood not strong enough for a lot of carries. Solid straight ahead speed, but little wiggle, doesn’t make tacklers miss. Sims probably not a p5 quality rb.
Cumby fast, but too small for a lot of carries. Fedanzo? Long shot at best. Love? Coming off an early season ending injury, and was just a middle 3* before the injury.

We have a lot of warm bodies at rb, but I don’t see a single reliable feature back on the roster for next year. That’s a huge problem for a running offense. I guess Bellamy just can’t recruit that level rb.

Chase brown and Reggie love would be more than enough. Also one of sims, norwood, cumby with be enough in my opinion.
 
#2,071      
We have a lot of mid to lower 3*s, but few elite players in this class. If we had great developmental coaches for them, they may be ok, but we’re exceedingly weak at DL, LB, DB and OL coaching. We have about DII level coaching there.

You need elite DL(6), RB (2), QB (2), WR (3), MLB (2) and CB (3) talent to make this team work, and great OL coaching or talent to make this team successful. Those players need to be high 3* or 4* quality to contend. You don’t need 70 like tOSU or Clemson. Except for one prep and last year’s transfers, we’re just not recruiting at tha level. Without the transfer 4*s and 5*s we brought in last year, does anyone doubt that recruited prep talent was better than 2 or 3 wins?

How can you possibly judge coaching to the D2 level. That’s ridiculous. You’ve also had a negative opinion of Austin Clark and all that guy has done is recruit.
 
#2,072      
There’s a huge amount of uncertainty with those rbs. Epstein chronic injury. Bonner limited upside. Norwood not strong enough for a lot of carries. Solid straight ahead speed, but little wiggle, doesn’t make tacklers miss. Sims probably not a p5 quality rb.
Cumby fast, but too small for a lot of carries. Fedanzo? Long shot at best. Love? Coming off an early season ending injury, and was just a middle 3* before the injury.

We have a lot of warm bodies at rb, but I don’t see a single reliable feature back on the roster for next year. That’s a huge problem for a running offense. I guess Bellamy just can’t recruit that level rb.
Love (.8837) was higher ranked than Dre Brown (.8744) or Corbin (.8244), Epstein, Bonner, Feranzo, Cumby all fall in between Brown & Corbin. We are losing our 1 & 2 back so there will always be some uncertainty, the staff also picked up Chase Brown to address the need. I think as easy as it is to say we have question marks with all our backs, I don't think it is that far fetched to believe that a few of those options will work out, add another year to most of our OL, get some receivers back to balance our offense and I don't see this as anywhere near our biggest depth hole.
 
#2,073      
So how many actual scholarship will we have to give out if no one transfers and everything remains the same, which I know it won't. Every team goes through a transition.
I keep that number updated in the scholarship grid. Right now there are 4 scholarships available. Sneaky john ekey had posted earlier that the staff was expecting an additional 4-5 scholarships available from transfers out.
 
#2,074      
We have a lot of mid to lower 3*s, but few elite players in this class. If we had great developmental coaches for them, they may be ok, but we’re exceedingly weak at DL, LB, DB and OL coaching. We have about DII level coaching there.

You need elite DL(6), RB (2), QB (2), WR (3), MLB (2) and CB (3) talent to make this team work, and great OL coaching or talent to make this team successful. Those players need to be high 3* or 4* quality to contend. You don’t need 70 like tOSU or Clemson. Except for one prep and last year’s transfers, we’re just not recruiting at tha level. Without the transfer 4*s and 5*s we brought in last year, does anyone doubt that recruited prep talent was better than 2 or 3 wins?
Guess we are done then. Cancel the program.
 
#2,075      
Rutgers has 15 commits to our 12. And our class based on average player rankings is about 11th in the big ten. I tend to look at average star ranking more than overall. Look at Minnesota. They are a top 25 class in the country but average ranking is about like ours. Quantity has an affect.
There are 5 recruits that are below 85.
3 OL which you never know about. I've seen 4 and 5* recruits that don't pan out. We will see how good McClain really is.
1 LB Gardner which I think he should be over 85 watching his highlights. Maybe they're considering his size.
1 DT McCoy has the body to put on good weight, quick, and has a great attitude. IMO, he is a sleeper.
 
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