It was during the time of Wes Lunt.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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The most important job of a HC is the hiring and development of assistant coaches. The success UI had under White and Mackovic was largely due to the quality of the coaching staffs they put together, same with Zook and RT to the extent they had success. Lovie has had plenty of time and opportunity to build a strong staff, and he hasn't done it. Until that changes, mediocrity will be our ceiling both on the field and in recruiting.
The kids I know we’re in on.
Krombopulos_Michael
- Aurora, Illinois (that’s a suburb of Chicago)
Classic. Guess they all can’t be perfectFunny. 247, in its recruiting eval section, still has Garrick McGee as Illinois' O coord and is ranked the 3rd best recruiter at Illinois.
It's reassuring when the big boys reveal that their every phrase is not Holy Writ.
Discussing the plausibility of during a coach or not is different than caring where recruits come from. I know that most of our recruits will come from the Midwest. But I don’t care if they do.
Deleted member 656517
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Since we’re using buildings as a metaphor, I’d say we’re at the point of putting up the wall studs on our House
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Need more studs!
I was looking at the 247 portal. Is this up to date and good? The pickings are pretty slim in the portal for immediate eligibility players unless there are some players that decide to transfer before the next semester starts.
247 definitely isn’t updated in real time so the answer is no but more importantly, it’s pre-bowl season. Most kids looking to transfer won’t announce until after those games. At least that’s how it transpired last year.
Ah. That makes sense. Well, I can’t say I would have left a burgeoning high school football dynasty for the dumpster fire that was Illinois football at that time either. We are in a position now where Derek actually might consider an offer from us.
We did not have assistants that could do any of this because we were not winning games and, the talent that Lovie inherited was so low, that very few were going to be able to go to the NFL, no matter how much one's coaching improved them. Those assistants may very well be good enough to do a successful job of branding. I will keep preaching the impact that a decent record and the performance center can have on one's perspective. Especially a 17 or 18 year old young man. The recruiting failures are not all on Lovie. We absolutely had the worst facilities in the B1G.
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Sure, get that.
However, what is the excitement about/for? Is it because these kids are better than those that we have signed for the past, say, two years?
Or is the excitement about because these that we are on are far better than all of the kids on the B10 West teams?
Aside: just for kicks I included the 5 portal kids from last year + Ford with the 2020 kids:
NB: 590 (18 kids: signed and hard commits)
NW: 828 (17)
WI: 863 (19)
IA: 877 (22)
MN: 940 (26)
IL: 1013 (13) ------------> this number, for UoI, jumped to 684 (the ave rank for those 6 kids is 81.8)
It would be nice if we can attract another set of similar kids from the portal for 2020. And, when the injured kids return, we should have a very good team.
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Deleted member 654622
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I keep hearing that the success of a season is usually one recruiting cycle away. For us it will be 2021 kids. Which makes sense when you look at the classes this year in the B1G. Northwestern and Nebraska had good classes even though they had bad seasons this year. Minnesota didn't get a great class after a great year but look at the three current commits they have in 2021. We should all be excited about the potential this class has for us. We have been developing relationships for a while, now we can add in some success.
FB facilities being upgraded in the Big 10
The list is long starting with a $150 million (UoI just spent $80 million or so) at NW (done deal), NB, MN, MSU, IU, Rutgers. All these schools could leap us in a few years.
So are plenty of other schools across the nation.
In another 3/4 years, the Smith center will certainly do its job - money well spent, but I very much doubt it will sway kids. For the simple reason other schools will spend money and leap us (just like we have done right now) - NW has already started work.
The list is long starting with a $150 million (UoI just spent $80 million or so) at NW (done deal), NB, MN, MSU, IU, Rutgers. All these schools could leap us in a few years.
So are plenty of other schools across the nation.
In another 3/4 years, the Smith center will certainly do its job - money well spent, but I very much doubt it will sway kids. For the simple reason other schools will spend money and leap us (just like we have done right now) - NW has already started work.
ivwilsoniv
- Aurora, IL
Are they spending all of that $150 million on upgrading their high school football stadium?
Deleted member 649710
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So did Bailey sign anywhere? St. John? Denver Warren? Curious.
Whatever NW does the fact remains that there are 6 B10 schools that have determined they need to upgrade their FB related facilities. If one reads comments about MN facilities one will laugh - kids eating in corridors, etc.
That leaves 7 other schools. We are nothing going to compete with tOSU, MI and PSU in the near future, even if they have worse facilities.
No idea where PU, IA, and WI stand.
The point I am trying to make is that I am glad we upgraded our facilities, but, I just do not think we should rely on our facilities to recruit. If a kid is impressed great. I do not think we have wasted the funds. We need to up our game elsewhere.
Aside:
UoI - rank range :: ave ranks for 2019 (with the 5 portal kids+Ford) / 2020
1-500 :: 167 (110)/ 396
501-1000 :: 515 (315) / 635
1001+ :: 901 (684) / 1013
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It is not just about swaying kids. It is about not being an embarrassment any longer.
An upgraded facility should be about recruiting, an aspect of it.
And, that is a very valid expectation.
However, the fact we upgraded shows that there were others that were better than us and therefore the importance of a state-of-the-art facility.
The cycle of upgrading will not stop with us. We may at best hold an advantage for a few years 5 or so?
Deleted member 654622
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I think KevinC was saying is, to go along with your comment about not relying on the facility to recruit. There is a big difference in showing a kid roughly what everyone else has and showing them something way worse. We have graduated from way worse, and therefore it should give us an uptick. Not about swaying kids, its just not deterring them
Oh. OK.
However, 2019-20 stats shows that kids have been "deterred". 2020 ave rank has dropped (when the Performance Center came on-line):
(Correcting my stats from my previous post)
Range :: Ave rank for 2019 (with 5 portal + Ford) / Ave rank for 2020
1-500 :: 167 (110) / 396 (55% drop)
1-1000 :: 515 (315) / 635 (20%)
1-1001+ :: 901 (701) / 1013 (12%)
And, based on the offer list for 2021 it does not seem too promising (so far), with all due respects to @Twangers
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All good my friend.
I will say that 247 is a solid reference for certain aspects of this process but in regards to offers, visits and where we actually sit with kids it’s a poor source of accurate information.
Holy cow. You are the poster child for, “Statistics don’t lie. People who manipulate them do.” Implying that because there was a drop this year that it shows the SPC did not have a positive effect is ridiculous. Maybe it had something to do with having an incredibly small class (again) and a head coach who, up until mid-October, was thought to be done. To be honest, for anyone who hasn’t been a part of the program and didn’t actually see the facilities day-to-day, they have no idea the difference with the new facility. Who cares if it won’t be “state of the art” in 5-10 years? It will still be a great place for athletes to use, and us winning will be a heck of a lot more important to getting those recruits than some building.
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