Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#1,353      
IMO, HS coaches seem to wield more authority than they used to. They can either trash or promote a college program to their players. The ILLINI are good enough for their MAC players but not the cream. Until the program secures a consistent winning program, don't look for too many players from metro Chicago or Northern Illinois. Lovie would be better off to concentrate on downstate coaches and players when it comes to recruiting Illinois. Just MO.
Let’s be clear. Head Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fischer, Drink from Mizzou and Fleck actually call and talk to kids several times during the week. Lovie don’t. Example Lovett from ESL. He has talk to head coaches from Mizzou, Oregon, Bama, LSU etc several times. He talked to Lovie once at the school for less than a minute. He has never spoken with Stoker one on one. Yes, Patterson is on him calling as much as possible. The problem is he play WR and not TE. As soon as he commit to a school other than Illinois, the narrative will be Coach Sunkett spoke against Illinois. Kids compare notes. Stop with the nonsense. It’s no way Jimbo Fishser from Texas A&M should visit ESL more than Lovie. No way! Most are severely missinformed.
 
#1,354      

Deleted member 716187

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What @FT35 said it 100% correct. Why waste our time when the high school staff would undermine us regardless. Also that kid isn’t a 4*, watch his film. He’s ranked purely on size and potential.

Im pretty tired of this mentality. Its the coaches job to build a relationship with in state high school coaches and change the perception of the program for the better, not just give up and accept that kids and coaches in state just dont respect us, so lets not give them the time of day. This is what they get paid to do and to not even try to land an in state 4 star is inexcusable. Im also sick of people trying to convince themselves a southern 3 star is better than a midwest 4 star. geography isnt going to make a kid bigger, faster, stronger or more talented. there are plenty of central illinois kids that can hang with "southern talent" and Iowa, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Minnesota all know it.
 
#1,355      

whatahack

St. Peters MO
Let’s be clear. Head Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fischer, Drink from Mizzou and Fleck actually call and talk to kids several times during the week. Lovie don’t. Example Lovett from ESL. He has talk to head coaches from Mizzou, Oregon, Bama, LSU etc several times. He talked to Lovie once at the school for less than a minute. He has never spoken with Stoker one on one. Yes, Patterson is on him calling as much as possible. The problem is he play WR and not TE. As soon as he commit to a school other than Illinois, the narrative will be Coach Sunkett spoke against Illinois. Kids compare notes. Stop with the nonsense. It’s no way Jimbo Fishser from Texas A&M should visit ESL more than Lovie. No way! Most are severely missinformed.

Is it just me or is this unfathomable???
 
#1,356      
What @FT35 said it 100% correct. Why waste our time when the high school staff would undermine us regardless. Also that kid isn’t a 4*, watch his film. He’s ranked purely on size and potential.
That is a prescription for failure. You have to take the time and make the effort to build these relationships. There are no guarantees this approach will work, but it is guaranteed that not even trying will result in failure.
 
#1,357      
He dislikes them because Illinois can’t land them
I have no ill will against in-state kids, I root for them to succeed at whichever school they go to. But top kids have never come, even when we’re good. They have no loyalty or pride in playing for Illinois. And that’s fine and completely their choice. But look at what a composite 87 from Illinois ends up doing compared to a 87 from Georgia. I have the data and will share it if you want. A kid ranked similar overall from Georgia is better than the same ranked kid from Illinois. But yet for some reason we obsess over this instate kids and get all disappointed when they spurn us again. I’m okay with a different strategy, if this one doesn’t work then Lovie will be gone.
 
#1,358      
That is a prescription for failure. You have to take the time and make the effort to build these relationships. There are no guarantees this approach will work, but it is guaranteed that not even trying will result in failure.
So your theory is to keep throwing time and resources into a program that undermined you to a commit? To me I’d rather spend time and resources in places where once a kid commits the coaches support you.
 
#1,359      
I have no ill will against in-state kids, I root for them to succeed at whichever school they go to. But top kids have never come, even when we’re good. They have no loyalty or pride in playing for Illinois. And that’s fine and completely their choice. But look at what a composite 87 from Illinois ends up doing compared to a 87 from Georgia. I have the data and will share it if you want. A kid ranked similar overall from Georgia is better than the same ranked kid from Illinois. But yet for some reason we obsess over this instate kids and get all disappointed when they spurn us again. I’m okay with a different strategy, if this one doesn’t work then Lovie will be gone.

i gues Juice Williams, Mendenhall aren’t from Illinois?Illinois didn’t get the top Qb’s in the state when they got Bailey,O’Toole, and Lunt (Transfer). When you get the top kids you have to treat them right. Bottom line.
Final, stars don’t mean anything, okay on the field does. Who cares about an 87 ranting if you can play the way the team need you to. It’s call fitting the system. Some 4nd 5 stars never touch the field while some 2 stars become fist round draft picks. You bragged on a kid from Atlanta that look slow and not aggressive on film but mention the upside. On the flip side the kid from Simeon is horrible and only getting recruited because of his size.
 
#1,360      
i gues Juice Williams, Mendenhall aren’t from Illinois?Illinois didn’t get the top Qb’s in the state when they got Bailey,O’Toole, and Lunt (Transfer). When you get the top kids you have to treat them right. Bottom line.
Final, stars don’t mean anything, okay on the field does. Who cares about an 87 ranting if you can play the way the team need you to. It’s call fitting the system. Some 4nd 5 stars never touch the field while some 2 stars become fist round draft picks. You bragged on a kid from Atlanta that look slow and not aggressive on film but mention the upside. On the flip side the kid from Simeon is horrible and only getting recruited because of his size.
I’m sorry I don’t get what your trying to say here.
 
#1,361      
Im pretty tired of this mentality. Its the coaches job to build a relationship with in state high school coaches and change the perception of the program for the better, not just give up and accept that kids and coaches in state just dont respect us, so lets not give them the time of day. This is what they get paid to do and to not even try to land an in state 4 star is inexcusable. Im also sick of people trying to convince themselves a southern 3 star is better than a midwest 4 star. geography isnt going to make a kid bigger, faster, stronger or more talented. there are plenty of central illinois kids that can hang with "southern talent" and Iowa, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Minnesota all know it.
A coaches job is to win football games. Is Lovie suppose to throw resources and time into the state with minimal returns? It’s a bad strategy right now, go to where you have momentum. 4 stars in Illinois are better than 3 stars from the south. But a three star from the south is more solidly scouted than a Illinois three star, because they play much better competition. It’s a math problem right now and the numbers say that our money, time and resources are better spent in areas outside the state. Lovie is trying to win now, spending time and resources trying to repair relations rather than land recruits doesn’t seem like a good idea.
 
#1,362      
He has to win with out of state guys and for the in state coaches/players hand. If we were to win 8 or 9 games this year in state kids will start to show more interest. Not gonna magically dominate the state but doors will open and we will start getting some. I think we land 1 or 2 in state this year and closer to 5 next year.
 
#1,363      
Let’s be clear. Head Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fischer, Drink from Mizzou and Fleck actually call and talk to kids several times during the week. Lovie don’t. Example Lovett from ESL. He has talk to head coaches from Mizzou, Oregon, Bama, LSU etc several times. He talked to Lovie once at the school for less than a minute. He has never spoken with Stoker one on one. Yes, Patterson is on him calling as much as possible. The problem is he play WR and not TE. As soon as he commit to a school other than Illinois, the narrative will be Coach Sunkett spoke against Illinois. Kids compare notes. Stop with the nonsense. It’s no way Jimbo Fishser from Texas A&M should visit ESL more than Lovie. No way! Most are severely missinformed.

I'm in Florida and hardly get back to Illinois so, I really don't know what's happening. MO is based on what I read in forums. The facts are, top rated kids from the Chicago metro area have not been selecting the ILLINI. Western Illinois has been dominated by Iowa. If Lovie and Stoker have not been talking to recruits in St. Louis metro like you say, this cannot be tolerated by JW. For goodness sakes, a call takes 10 to 15 minutes out of the day to better the program. The ILLINI needs the 4 and 5* players from Illinois and 3* players from other football states.
 
#1,364      
Let’s be clear. Head Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fischer, Drink from Mizzou and Fleck actually call and talk to kids several times during the week. Lovie don’t. Example Lovett from ESL. He has talk to head coaches from Mizzou, Oregon, Bama, LSU etc several times. He talked to Lovie once at the school for less than a minute. He has never spoken with Stoker one on one. Yes, Patterson is on him calling as much as possible. The problem is he play WR and not TE. As soon as he commit to a school other than Illinois, the narrative will be Coach Sunkett spoke against Illinois. Kids compare notes. Stop with the nonsense. It’s no way Jimbo Fishser from Texas A&M should visit ESL more than Lovie. No way! Most are severely missinformed.

In all fairness, Stoker is very busy telling Illini fans to buy NW jerseys.
 
#1,365      

Deleted member 654622

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Coaches (High School) are not the final decision makers. In a lot of cases they are far from it. Think about this for second. Coach Reed in STL is great friend with Patterson. I mean great friends, yet not one of his top players have chose Illinois. I know the reason and it's not because he don't like Patterson.
I will but not while recruiting is taking off a little bit. Keep the positive energy for now.
Let’s be clear. Head Coaches like Lincoln Riley, Nick Saban, Jimbo Fischer, Drink from Mizzou and Fleck actually call and talk to kids several times during the week. Lovie don’t. Example Lovett from ESL. He has talk to head coaches from Mizzou, Oregon, Bama, LSU etc several times. He talked to Lovie once at the school for less than a minute. He has never spoken with Stoker one on one. Yes, Patterson is on him calling as much as possible. The problem is he play WR and not TE. As soon as he commit to a school other than Illinois, the narrative will be Coach Sunkett spoke against Illinois. Kids compare notes. Stop with the nonsense. It’s no way Jimbo Fishser from Texas A&M should visit ESL more than Lovie. No way! Most are severely missinformed.
I am going to assume this is what you were referring to earlier.
 
#1,366      

Deleted member 654622

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I am trying to get a full pic here, so does Lovie go on trips to the south to recruit often or does he basically wash his hands of the majority of the recruiting biz?
 
#1,367      
I’m sorry I don’t get what your trying to say here.

I was typing on the phone and it wouldn't allow me to edit.

You said Illinois has never gotten top recruits out of the State yet 3 of the top QB's over the last ten years chose Illinois. O'toole and Baily with Lunt transferring to Illinois. I also named Juice and Mendenhall as top players from the state that chose Illinois. On the current team you have Green and Ricky Smalling that were top recruits in the State. Illinois also got the top RB from Mt Carmel who never made it too campus. There are more examples to eliminate your argument of Illinois kids and coaches not wanting to chose Illinois.
 
#1,368      
A coaches job is to win football games. Is Lovie suppose to throw resources and time into the state with minimal returns? It’s a bad strategy right now, go to where you have momentum. 4 stars in Illinois are better than 3 stars from the south. But a three star from the south is more solidly scouted than a Illinois three star, because they play much better competition. It’s a math problem right now and the numbers say that our money, time and resources are better spent in areas outside the state. Lovie is trying to win now, spending time and resources trying to repair relations rather than land recruits doesn’t seem like a good idea.
To expand on your math point, it's a whole lot more expensive for a school like Illinois to recruit in Georgia, texas, etc than it is to recruit chicago or St Louis. Illinois is not texas in terms of HS talent, but it's a whole lot better than Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, etc. Ignoring the talent in your backyard and the coaches in the state is just plain foolish. We have always lost alot of the top players in the state to UM, ND, etc. We have always lost some of the mid tier players to Iowa and UW. But to lose all the top and mid-tier players in a state with the talent base of Illinois is inexcusable and points to really poor program management. Even when Mike White heavily recruited CA Juco's he still recruited a good amount of local talent - both lines on the '83 rose bowl team consisted of IL players, with maybe one exception
 
#1,370      

Deleted member 746648

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I have no ill will against in-state kids, I root for them to succeed at whichever school they go to. But top kids have never come, even when we’re good. They have no loyalty or pride in playing for Illinois. And that’s fine and completely their choice. But look at what a composite 87 from Illinois ends up doing compared to a 87 from Georgia. I have the data and will share it if you want. A kid ranked similar overall from Georgia is better than the same ranked kid from Illinois. But yet for some reason we obsess over this instate kids and get all disappointed when they spurn us again. I’m okay with a different strategy, if this one doesn’t work then Lovie will be gone.

I would be curious to see this data if you don't mind sharing.
 
#1,372      
I was typing on the phone and it wouldn't allow me to edit.

You said Illinois has never gotten top recruits out of the State yet 3 of the top QB's over the last ten years chose Illinois. O'toole and Baily with Lunt transferring to Illinois. I also named Juice and Mendenhall as top players from the state that chose Illinois. On the current team you have Green and Ricky Smalling that were top recruits in the State. Illinois also got the top RB from Mt Carmel who never made it too campus. There are more examples to eliminate your argument of Illinois kids and coaches not wanting to chose Illinois.

Okay ill give some data for you then.

From 2010-2021. I took the top 30 prospects in Illinois. That is 12 recruiting classes and 360 prospects. 33/360 choose the beloved which is 9.1%, so less than 10% of Illinois prep players ended up playing at Illinois, by far the lowest percentage from ANY power-five state. On the right is top 15 players in the state. As you can see ND, IOWA and NW all do better with top in-state kids than us and have been for 13 seasons. We don't recruit the state well and haven't since 2010, so maybe its time for a new strategy, that is my main point.

IllinoisNWIowaMinnMighNotre DameIllinoisNWIowaMinnMighNotre Dame
2010​
1​
1​
2​
1​
0​
2​
2010​
0​
1​
2​
0​
0​
2​
2011​
5​
2​
4​
1​
1​
1​
2011​
2​
1​
3​
0​
1​
1​
2012​
2​
3​
5​
1​
0​
0​
2012​
1​
1​
4​
0​
0​
0​
2013​
5​
4​
4​
0​
2​
1​
2013​
2​
2​
1​
0​
2​
0​
2014​
2​
4​
0​
0​
1​
2​
2014​
0​
3​
0​
0​
1​
2​
2015​
6​
5​
1​
2​
0​
3​
2015​
2​
1​
0​
1​
0​
3​
2016​
1​
2​
4​
0​
0​
1​
2016​
0​
0​
0​
0​
0​
1​
2017​
6​
2​
3​
2​
0​
3​
2017​
3​
0​
1​
0​
0​
2​
2018​
3​
3​
3​
2​
0​
1​
2018​
1​
2​
2​
0​
0​
1​
2019​
2​
3​
4​
2​
1​
1​
2019​
1​
2​
1​
2​
1​
1​
2020​
0​
5​
5​
0​
1​
1​
2020​
0​
3​
2​
0​
1​
1​
2021​
0​
1​
3​
6​
1​
2​
2021​
0​
1​
2​
4​
1​
2​
33​
35​
38​
17​
7​
18​
12​
17​
18​
7​
7​
16​
 
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#1,373      
Okay ill give some data for you then.

From 2010-2021. I took the top 30 prospects in Illinois. That is 13 recruiting classes and 390 prospects. 33/390 choose the beloved which is .0846%, so less than 1% of Illinois prep players ended up playing at Illinois, by far the lowest percentage from ANY power-five state. On the right is top 15 players in the state. As you can see ND, IOWA and NW all do better with top in-state kids than us and have been for 13 seasons. We don't recruit the state well and haven't since 2010, so maybe its time for a new strategy, that is my main point.

IllinoisNWIowaMinnMighNotre DameIllinoisNWIowaMinnMighNotre Dame
2010​
1​
1​
2​
1​
0​
2​
2010​
0​
1​
2​
0​
0​
2​
2011​
5​
2​
4​
1​
1​
1​
2011​
2​
1​
3​
0​
1​
1​
2012​
2​
3​
5​
1​
0​
0​
2012​
1​
1​
4​
0​
0​
0​
2013​
5​
4​
4​
0​
2​
1​
2013​
2​
2​
1​
0​
2​
0​
2014​
2​
4​
0​
0​
1​
2​
2014​
0​
3​
0​
0​
1​
2​
2015​
6​
5​
1​
2​
0​
3​
2015​
2​
1​
0​
1​
0​
3​
2016​
1​
2​
4​
0​
0​
1​
2016​
0​
0​
0​
0​
0​
1​
2017​
6​
2​
3​
2​
0​
3​
2017​
3​
0​
1​
0​
0​
2​
2018​
3​
3​
3​
2​
0​
1​
2018​
1​
2​
2​
0​
0​
1​
2019​
2​
3​
4​
2​
1​
1​
2019​
1​
2​
1​
2​
1​
1​
2020​
0​
5​
5​
0​
1​
1​
2020​
0​
3​
2​
0​
1​
1​
2021​
0​
1​
3​
6​
1​
2​
2021​
0​
1​
2​
4​
1​
2​
33​
35​
38​
17​
7​
18​
12​
17​
18​
7​
7​
16​
Great data, but your math teacher is frowning: 33/390 = 0.0846 = 8.46%.

Generally, I should think we would be slightly ahead of NW and significantly ahead of Iowa, if our world was "in order".

It is also interesting to note that for each year, the sums of each row of 6 schools is only about half of the totals (30 and 15). So, lots of kids going elsewhere, too, which would seem to be an opportunity.

The zeroes in 2020 and 2021 for us indicate a downward trend, which gets to the main issue at hand.
 
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#1,375      
Great data, but your math teacher is frowning: 33/390 = 0.0846 = 8.46%.

Generally, I should think we would be slightly ahead of NW and significantly ahead of Iowa, if our world was "in order".

It is also interesting to note that for each year, the sums of each row of 6 schools is only about half of the totals (30 and 15). So, lots of kids going elsewhere, too, which would seem to be an opportunity.

The zeroes in 2020 and 2021 for us indicate a downward trend, which gets to the main issue at hand.
If you look at the data 23/25 players that went to Notre Dame or Michigan were in the top 15 in the state. They basically only come into Illinois to take the top talent out of Chicago. Iowa and Minn tend to work more in down state and take less top prospects and more depth. NW is solid and takes usually 2-5 kids each year in-state and then works the border states. Migh State and Ohio State have taken a lot of players as well, i should have included them. Migh state has around 30 and Ohio state around 18 within the same timeline.
 
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