pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
should be pinned
This year has been an eye-opener for me. I would never have thought a coaching staff could make such a difference with, uh, coaching. I always thought in the end that talent wins out. Bielema and his staff are completely proving me wrong, and I couldn't be happier. In about 40 years of following Illini sports and sports in general religiously, I don't know if I've ever seen a better example of "coaching 'em up" than these Illini coaches are doing.
That said, I'll still be glued to both the football and basketball recruiting threads and hope to see as much good news as possible in both.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
You need both. Studs in HS doesn't necessarily equate to D1. Talent is really important, but so is coaching.
1998 in hoops is the only comparable example I can think of
Now what happens when you have good recruiting rankings and good coaching with the right players? You have yourself a consistent program playing in annual bowl games. I think we are on our way with Bert to that status.
That topic reminds me of Zook, actually. Great eye for projecting pro level talent, and a top level recruiter. But coaching left a lot to be desired. Lotta fun watching some of those guys, and the Rose Bowl season was amazing.
The 6-1, 220 pound 2024 RB from NJ is a top 350 recruit.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
We should definitely be moving up the recruiting food chain. Very much looking forward to that.
I've already said this, but I'll say it again...I can't freaking wait to see what kind of transfer/JUCO kids we can get.
We should be attractive to a QB, because our OLine will protect him. And defensively, if Walters stays there will be guys lining up to play for him. If I'm Bielema, I'm showing these guys the '23 schedule and telling these guys "come to Illinois and make history, we're going undefeated".
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
with Harsin almost certainly getting canned, I hope we can get Harkless to flip back to us
I absolutely agree. What Lon Krueger did with the same talent from the previous year was remarkable. I believe good coaching is the ability to recognize what talents your players have and enhance that. Coaches don't create the talent. But a good coach makes every single player better, not just the perceived best talent. I coached a lot of youth sports. I recognized the different levels of ability on the first day, but I worked with every single kid to make them better. Almost always, by the end of the year my baseball, soccer, or basketball teams were one of the best. That's what I see with this coaching staff. How else could we have basically a 2-deep defense at all levels.
Yikes....they better change their uniform colors.
......lol
100% agree with everything you posted here
I will say the SEC is a different beast than the other conferences. Almost every school in the SEC is top 30 recruiting most years except for probably Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has probably recruited more in the 40-60 range which works fine for the Big Ten not so much for the SEC. It is a great feeling having a competent coach who can do it all
Reminds me of the article I read about Texas recruits. (Probably got it from here, I don't recall exactly.) Short version is that they always got these high-ranked players, but the statistical analysis in the article showed that players' ratings were getting inflated simply because Texas was interested in them. Point being that they were not in fact getting high recruits, but more average ones, and that contributed to their long down period (down by Texas standards anyway).
Have we developed a Jersey pipeline?
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
2 points WRT recruiting:
- you can't depend on others to evaluate talent
- your talent evaluators need to be good (or better)
100% agree with everything you posted here
I will say the SEC is a different beast than the other conferences. Almost every school in the SEC is top 30 recruiting most years except for probably Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has probably recruited more in the 40-60 range which works fine for the Big Ten not so much for the SEC. It is a great feeling having a competent coach who can do it all
Jimbo is NOT a good HC. He won early at FSU with Bowden's recruits and slowly went down from there. No control over his teams, no going to class and the team went to crap (Jameis Winston to boot)! When Taggert took over, the team's GPA was 1.978! Jimbo is NOT a good coach or leader!!!
I don't disagree at all but if nothing else he got under Nick Saban's skin. That has to count for something.
Never said he was a good HC
Exactly my point about it is good to have a competent coach who can do it all
Auburn fires Harsin....see if anyone leaves or decommits
Jamarrion Harkless had this to say about Auburn in the last month or so
"The coaching staff, they really believe in me, and I really like them. When I committed, like eight players hit me up and said welcome to the family, so they are really welcoming. The environment, I mean, it's like no other. I think it's the best environment I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of schools."
All good if stays at Auburn but wouldn't hurt to reach out to him today
Jamarrion Harkless had this to say about Auburn in the last month or so
"The coaching staff, they really believe in me, and I really like them. When I committed, like eight players hit me up and said welcome to the family, so they are really welcoming. The environment, I mean, it's like no other. I think it's the best environment I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of schools."
All good if stays at Auburn but wouldn't hurt to reach out to him today
Step one of your plan - check!
217sports
- Springfield
He just visited Louisville I believe so he is still open if thats the caseAuburn fires Harsin....see if anyone leaves or decommits
Jamarrion Harkless had this to say about Auburn in the last month or so
"The coaching staff, they really believe in me, and I really like them. When I committed, like eight players hit me up and said welcome to the family, so they are really welcoming. The environment, I mean, it's like no other. I think it's the best environment I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of schools."
All good if stays at Auburn but wouldn't hurt to reach out to him today
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
This sentence is almost a bingo on the Bielema card.
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