... i don't think lovie cared about the fighting illini, i doubt he kept a shirt or a hat, the way he left fired instead of resigning showed me... illini isn't somethinghe ever cared about returning to. anyway... the whole bear coach then illini coach (ron turner) is just something i can live without forever
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Way behind the news from traveling.
- Great pickup from the staff. Kudos to them getting his commitment during his visit and holding it out until July.
- He'll need some development but that shouldn't be a problem with the RB room not scheduled to losing anyone, still having Anderson, McCray, Love, Feagin, & Laughery. Even if the season went fantastic and one of Love/McCray went in the draft + a transfer loss, the coaching staff should have priority of finding a transfer RB to buy another year for the younger guys.
- Still amazed this staff has recruits from Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, etc. Tough to describe how improbable that is based on Illinois football recruiting history.
- Still want Xavier Lucas over the other secondary options but Deylen Platt would be a solid pickup. Fun to dream of a development perfect storm where Illinois has 6'4 Tyson Rooks and 6'3 Deylen Platt starting in the same secondary.
- With Carroll off to Minnesota (ugh), I'll assume the staff is done with offensive line until portal season. That leaves some combination of Lucas, Platt, Levy (is FSU done with secondary adds?), Kennedy (interior defensive line? or have him and Tuerk figure out their preferred position later?), and Knight as known targets.
- I'm assuming the staff adds 2 more players at most before the season and then keeps (1) trying on Williams, Lightfoot, Knight, etc., (2) waits on late bloomers, especially in-state, and (3) shifts priority to 2025.
- The Fitz firing likely has little impact on recruiting because Illinois and NW rarely crossed paths for targets. That said, Fitz/NW loved getting early commits. It's possible some of those targets would have been more intriguing in past years under Beckman/Love/early Bielema but were already taken. It could make a couple more in-state recruits more interested in Illinois and wait out their recruitments that wouldn't have in the past.
- Woodward with a decent rankings bump this past weekend. I'm guessing he finishes as a top-3 ranked recruit in this class.
- Great pickup from the staff. Kudos to them getting his commitment during his visit and holding it out until July.
- He'll need some development but that shouldn't be a problem with the RB room not scheduled to losing anyone, still having Anderson, McCray, Love, Feagin, & Laughery. Even if the season went fantastic and one of Love/McCray went in the draft + a transfer loss, the coaching staff should have priority of finding a transfer RB to buy another year for the younger guys.
- Still amazed this staff has recruits from Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, etc. Tough to describe how improbable that is based on Illinois football recruiting history.
- Still want Xavier Lucas over the other secondary options but Deylen Platt would be a solid pickup. Fun to dream of a development perfect storm where Illinois has 6'4 Tyson Rooks and 6'3 Deylen Platt starting in the same secondary.
- With Carroll off to Minnesota (ugh), I'll assume the staff is done with offensive line until portal season. That leaves some combination of Lucas, Platt, Levy (is FSU done with secondary adds?), Kennedy (interior defensive line? or have him and Tuerk figure out their preferred position later?), and Knight as known targets.
- I'm assuming the staff adds 2 more players at most before the season and then keeps (1) trying on Williams, Lightfoot, Knight, etc., (2) waits on late bloomers, especially in-state, and (3) shifts priority to 2025.
- The Fitz firing likely has little impact on recruiting because Illinois and NW rarely crossed paths for targets. That said, Fitz/NW loved getting early commits. It's possible some of those targets would have been more intriguing in past years under Beckman/Love/early Bielema but were already taken. It could make a couple more in-state recruits more interested in Illinois and wait out their recruitments that wouldn't have in the past.
- Woodward with a decent rankings bump this past weekend. I'm guessing he finishes as a top-3 ranked recruit in this class.
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The fact that Barna, who was already low given his offer list, got lowered even more is just dumb. The whole ranking system is just bizarre.
Am I wrong or did valentine get lowered too?
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
His composite ranking is 4 star but 247 themselves only rate him as three star
No, his composite went up and his 247 stayed the same. If you click on the clock next to the national rating in the composite section it will take you to his ratings page where it will show you if his composite and top247 decreased, increased or stayed the same.
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pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
Illinois football continues recruiting push with commitment of Ca’Lil Valentine
Illinois added its highest recruit of the 2024 class earlier this week.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Yep, situations like this reinforce Robert's doubts about the system, that the ranking website are built for clicks instead of evaluation. This is why I trust the offers, especially recent offers, and official visits as a better measuring stick that only the rankings.
Even then it just basically comes down to trusting the coaches... our best draft pick in years had a tiny offer list and barely played football in HS.
Bret may have only been a positional coach in the NFL but he saw firsthand what the players in those defensive meetings looked like, their routines, and their mentality towards the game.
There's just no reason to doubt this staff quite yet, especially after winning 8 games last year.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
if I could like this a million times, I would
It would have been nice to keep that staff fully intact for one more year. But yeah. I like the thing Coach B is Bbuilding here. I especially like their approach to in-state recruiting. We've made progress and it's the kind of foundational build that stands up. Also you can't hate what we see happening in the trenches. I don't know how the wins and losses will breakdown but it's a lot of fun to go watch our students play at Memorial Stadium again, and I wasn't able to say that for what seemed like ages.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
UPDATE - Fun nuggets when comparing the start of the 2022 - 2023 - 2024 recruiting classes under Bielema:
Commits as of July 12th of each year:
2022: 13
2023: 12
2024: 17
Average # of G5 (or better) offers of committed players*:
2022: 4.54 (most: Badie - 14)
2023: 7.83 (most: Smith - 21)
2024: 12.00 (most: Woodward - 21)
Average # of P5 offers of committed players*:
2022: 1.54 (most: Badie - 10)
2023: 3.50 (most: Smith - 13)
2024: 5.82 (most: Tuerk - 15)
* at time of commitment, as of July 12th
AVG Rating**
2022: 85.26 (~ 1164th ranked recruit)
2023: 86.44 (~ 936th ranked recruit)
2024: 86.24 (~ 1000th ranked recruit)
**total class, not available for time stamped data
Commits as of July 12th of each year:
2022: 13
2023: 12
2024: 17
Average # of G5 (or better) offers of committed players*:
2022: 4.54 (most: Badie - 14)
2023: 7.83 (most: Smith - 21)
2024: 12.00 (most: Woodward - 21)
Average # of P5 offers of committed players*:
2022: 1.54 (most: Badie - 10)
2023: 3.50 (most: Smith - 13)
2024: 5.82 (most: Tuerk - 15)
* at time of commitment, as of July 12th
AVG Rating**
2022: 85.26 (~ 1164th ranked recruit)
2023: 86.44 (~ 936th ranked recruit)
2024: 86.24 (~ 1000th ranked recruit)
**total class, not available for time stamped data
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
If I may add, it's a lot of fun to watch our students play on the road, too!
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
This proves Robert‘s point as well.
Our recruits have almost double the number of G5 / P5 offers as last year, yet our average rating per recruit has gone *down* since last year. Tells you everything you need to know.
This really only proves a point if there are higher rated players who have less power 5 offers. It seems somewhat unlikely to me
I struggle with calling our football and basketball players students anymore. They often talk about spending a great deal of their time studying/ learning/training to refine their athletic craft. Don't see how that allows much time for traditional academic studies.
I bet Devon Witherspoon is really kicking himself for not taking chemistry and gender studies more seriously.
CB for Kevin Levy to L'ville. Not surprised it's trending away from FSU with all the WR/DB commits they have but can't understand why he would choose L'ville
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Agreed. Follow the offers, follow the official visits. Here's the example -
# of commits with 4+ Power-5 Offers (Based on the same timeline as above):
2022: 3 (out of 13)
2023: 5 (out of 12)
2024: 11 (out of 17)
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
On this same topic:
I always wonder what the conversations are like between the people who run 247 sites at SEC schools and the people doing the rankings. And "scholarship punter" is probably a great way to discuss it.
When you add a scholarship punter, they go on the list. But no punters are going to be ranked very high. Which means you're adding a player who is going to severely lower the class ranking (and the "average rating" number). The SEC site managers have to pitch a fit. A player with an 81 rating just destroys the class they've spent a lot of time propping up.
I'm saying it this way because I already know the answer of how they do it. I saw that Declan Duley was rated as the #2 punter, so I clicked on the link to see the other rankings. And the answer to the question of "how do SEC team site managers keep scholarship punters from ruining their class rankings?" is "they get the rankers to name their guy as a 4-star punter":
That's so incredibly hilarious to me. Ratings for the top-5 punters: 90, 81, 81, 81, 81. No, in the SEC, they won't let a punter ruin their class ranking. They'll just say that the punter is a 4-star. LOLOL.
The 90 Illini #69: Declan Duley
I always wonder what the conversations are like between the people who run 247 sites at SEC schools and the people doing the rankings. And
In fairness, IlliniGuy74 didn’t say whether that was a good or bad thing. I know a few former student athletes who did not become star cornerbacks who actually do regret not taking undergrad seriously. Okay, maybe not gender studies.
an Australian P with a cowboy hate, that is pretty sweet, but I'll take our small town guy. Love when those kids from tiny schools make it big.On this same topic:
The 90 Illini #69: Declan Duley
I always wonder what the conversations are like between the people who run 247 sites at SEC schools and the people doing the rankings. Andilliniboard.com
I love that photo too. But, I’m guessing it is from a visit at Oklahoma state where he is committed. Still good, but would’ve liked it if he normally dressed like that.
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