Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
This. If Pyfrom was a tackle, it would be a different story. WRT IOL, our cupboard is full.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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This. If Pyfrom was a tackle, it would be a different story. WRT IOL, our cupboard is full.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
This seems obvious. I actually think Pyfrom didn't get the expected attention after his Illinois de-commitment. It's a good landing spot for him, but Dennis is the better prize.
I mean he got a walk on offer from Nebraska lol
So the staff "cut ties" twice in the last week......
Are we offering guys when they enter the portal and than checking background info afterwards? The TE off the field issue for example was last season and should have been known about. 100% love BB but this definitely seems like not doing due diligence. If something "just happened", please share......(in general to anyone)
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
in the absence of info, including a timeline, about a situation, blaming staff is always the way to go
the prep TE was a done deal a long time ago. we gave the kid the time and space to announce the decommit on his terms
Patterson, who knows? staff has no obligation to share with us. guessing a behavioral red flag on his visit
Bielema gets it. Best coach we've had for a loooong time. I trust him.
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
The staff are the ones bringing in the recruits. It happens whether you have the #1 recruiting class or the worst. In this case, we have brought in two transfers who are gone with a blink of an eye in a few weeks. Asking a question about how they do procedure I think is more than fair. It doesn't mean the fans deserve an answer......just curious
So do I.....100%
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mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I have doubts the staff would want to add another RB from the portal and/or could attract someone worthwhile. That said, there are enough intriguing backs in the portal that being patient and seeing if one of them is available in a couple weeks might be worthwhile. I wouldn't be opposed to someone like AJ Green (Arkansas), Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams (UMass, ran for a ton of yards), or EJ Smith (Emmitt's kid, Stanford).
Shrug. I'm all for a good "we didn't want him anyways", but we would have celebrated him on our commit list, and Mizzou took him, and I would presume our class will unfortunately not come close to where Mizzou's will wind up
Do we have any with great speed? Asking, I don't know anything about the guys that haven't played for us yet. If not, it would be nice to get one.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Valentine.
Is this b/c you think:
1) Our coaches can't, or don't have the resources, to recruit effectively, or
2) A RB wouldn't be interested in competing with our RB room?
Between this and the tight end we backed off, not great. I trust the coaches to know when the value added is not worth the trouble, but this is a worrisome trend for recruiting.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
#2. Players in the portal are generally looking for playing time or success (preferably both). Someone like the UMass RB is the perfect example. He just ran for ~1,200 rushing yards on one of the worst FBS teams. He's proven to himself he can be a successful RB. Maybe that's enough for him, and he's tired for double-digit season losses, and wants to play for a contender regardless of his playing time situation. I'm thinking more like an Iowa, Louisville, etc. type of situation - not a serious CFP contender but a team that can win a conference title if everything clicks. Or, he wants to prove he can get 1,000+ yards in G5/low P5. In that situation, he can go to an App. State or Vanderbilt with some assurances he'll get plenty of carries as long as he stays healthy/effective. Illinois falls in a gap between those - he cannot reasonably expect to come here and have a shot at a conference title and he also can look at the current RB room and see that he likely is splitting carries, at best.
This is the conundrum for Illinois. They can attract talent, but not the type of talent they would want. Transfer portal stuff happens extremely quickly, so you have a finite amount of time the coaching staff can exert on targets. Choosing a dice roll for a RB might mean less time on defensive or offensive line targets.
The guys I brought up are possible fits just because the RB demand has shrunk. Lots of teams have intriguing if unproven talent already on their roster. Therefore, bringing in intriguing if unproven transfers isn't changing those team's prospects. You also have to weigh the dynamics of the current room - if adding a transfer RB means a current player (Laughery, Anderson, etc.) transfers, are you actually improving your team's roster and/or win expectancy? This adds to the game theory - where you can keep your roster + save recruiting time on other targets v. add a transfer RB - lose a current RB + lose some recruiting time.
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blackdog
- Champaign
Is it though? It obviously means the staff places a high value on character and isn't afraid to say no thank you to guys they think could detract from the team through their actions.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
exactly. it's not like it's BB's first rodeo
Our current RB room is:
1) Soph to be who showed potential but missed good time to injury
2) Several other underclassmen who have no/limited carries due to injury
3) A highly-rated true freshman that has never had a college carry
We are a Feagin injury from one of the weakest RB rooms in the P5
The current portal RBs are committed to:
- Etienne (will be big time)
- ASU
- NC St
- S. Carolina
- Mizzou
- Kentucky
- Oklahoma
- Memphis
- Boston College
- Louisville
Surely all those programs don't have a more enticing RB room than we do.
Which is exactly what I said when I said I trust the coaches. But expending time and effort on guys who very quickly don't pan out is not a good thing. Doesn't mean BB or any coach did wrong, maybe it's all on the players.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
This is the "fog of war" in recruiting. We just don't know and the team probably should not and maybe cannot (for legal reasons) tell us why the reasons for the break up with Konkel and (apparently) Patterson.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
It's a zero sum game. We've got more pressing needs elsewhere. FWLIW, I fully agree with that assessment.
The Illini are doing better recruiting with coach B, but not close to where it needs to be. It is frustrating to see programs in near neighboring states consistently stealing our lunch money year after year.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
it’s way way better to find out before Letters of Intent are signed vs finding out their frosh or soph year when some would find themselves in the wrong section of the newspaper
No doubt
Nebraska offered Pyfrom and than Nebraska had a few OL guys commit before Pyfrom initially committed to Illinois. Nebraska was in the running for a few more higher rated OL when Pyfrom became available and they landed the recruits and had a walk on spot for Pyfrom. Missouri has the in-state NIL deals they can use for extra leverage but moving to the SEC is always going to land them quality talent. Outside of Vanderbilt, majority of SEC is in the top 30 in recruiting year in and out.
Which is all the more confusing that they are actively recruiting a DB who had to leave his previous school for sexual misconduct.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
I am much less worried about this staff getting a transfer RB than others here. The one thing is staff has proven to able to get is four star RBs.
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