Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
#2      

logjam

logjam
logjam
200-47.gif
 
#5      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
The staff has established the importance of in-state recruiting. Here's the breakdown of in-state player rankings since 2019 (top 50)

2019
#11 - Randolph
#25 - Fedanzo
#38 - Kirts
#48 - Moore

2020
None

2021
#25 - Kreutz
#38 - Barlev

2022 (Bielema's first class)
#11 - Laughery
#12 - Badie
#16 - Anderson
#18 - Pugh
#19 - Boyer
#20 - Beatty
#26 - Hood
#31 - Griffin
#37 - Bailey
#42 - Leonard

2023
#4 - Elzy
#7 - Feagin
#12 - Henderson
#21 - Hayden
#24 - McMillen
#26 - Farrell
#34 - Resetich

2024
#18 - Griffin
#23 - Tuerk
#32 - Hansen
#33 - Barna


Under no circumstances can you convince me that Tuerk, Hansen, and Barna deserve a ranking that low. For example, Griffin was 31st ranked in 2022 and had one offer (Illinois). He was offered after his senior season. Barna is 33rd in a weaker 2024 in-state class and has offers from Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Purdue, Washington St., Kansas, and many solid G5 programs. My rankings for these '24 commits would be: Tuerk #8 (same quality as Stec), Barna #12 (way ahead of guys like Lucas Austin + McCaslin), Hansen #16, and Griffin #25.



Overall, this last class was a disappointment. There are some caveats - they really wanted guys like Lightfoot, Konkel, Luke Williams, and Dupree - with various factors causing those to be lost. After finishing 5-7, it's going to be especially important to re-capture the '23 in-state success to make sure the incoming HS talent isn't going through significant peaks-and-valleys.
 
Last edited:
#7      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
Agreed, would be an excellent get. He's got a bunch of really good offers so let's hope the call home is strong (and Iowa doesn't get involved).
 
#8      

CV Illini

C
CV Illini
#11      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
Next five days are going to give us the remaining picture on incoming transfers before spring ball.
 
#12      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
I wanted to give a shout out to @STLflyinIllini for this post last year. I was wanting Illinois to secure 4-5 of the top 15 but stated this too strongly. They built a strong overview saying that it was going to effectively be impossible for Illinois to achieve that in '24.


Screenshot 2024-01-02 at 9.43.43 AM.png



I can make my argument that Tuerk, Hansen, and Barna are top-15 in-state, but it's a tough argument and Griffin's knee injury knocks him out. It's still an aspirational goal. If Illinois can get 4-5 of the top 20 (and/or one of the top 6!), they're going to keep taking baby steps forward for roster talent.
 
#14      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
Prieskorn was a star in the Peach Bowl and will be their no-doubt starter. Guessing Ole Miss wants Rusk as a back-up and they will give him some NIL as they load up for a playoff run. Will become a question of whether (a) Illinois is willing to give some NIL or not (b) whether starting at Illinois will matter more than NIL.
 
Last edited:
#16      

CV Illini

C
CV Illini
mhuml32 said:
Prieskorn was a star in the Peach Bowl and will be their no-doubt starter. Guessing Ole Miss wants Rusk as a back-up and they will give him some NIL as they load up for a playoff run. Will become a question of whether (a) Illinois is willing to give some NIL or not (b) whether starting at Illinois will matter more than NIL.
Click to expand...
10000% this
 
#17      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
top banana or complementary guy? the choice should be pretty easy, unless short term money is paramount
 
#20      

STLflyinIllini

S
STLflyinIllini
mhuml32 said:
I wanted to give a shout out to @STLflyinIllini for this post last year. I was wanting Illinois to secure 4-5 of the top 15 but stated this too strongly. They built a strong overview saying that it was going to effectively be impossible for Illinois to achieve that in '24.


View attachment 29802


I can make my argument that Tuerk, Hansen, and Barna are top-15 in-state, but it's a tough argument and Griffin's knee injury knocks him out. It's still an aspirational goal. If Illinois can get 4-5 of the top 20 (and/or one of the top 6!), they're going to keep taking baby steps forward for roster talent.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was hoping for more top in state gets as well for '24, but unfortunately, we've been so bad for so long that it will probably just take more time of BB showing we can be a consistently solid program before the dream of getting ~5-6 of the top ~20 kids comes to fruition.

That's part of the reason this season was such a letdown. We had a schedule that was as unimposing as we will ever see, and not taking advantage of that schedule probably sent us back a bit on that front.

With that said, I do think BB is doing a pretty darn good job so far. It was easy to expect another great season and another step up in recruiting, but in '22 we relied heavily on several Senior/Super Seniors who went to the NFL and are flourishing... and in regards to recruiting, the '23 class had Feagin and Elzy, which probably got us a little too hopeful that we were already "there" with the state's top talent, when in reality they were both recruiting situations that were extremely favorable to us (Feagin with location and Elzy with the Cincy coaching change). I think BB will continue to bring us towards respectability, but it will be a slower grind than most of us would like.

While we're giving shout-outs, I appreciate your recent recruiting analysis with visual graphs and representation. Great work! ILL
 
#21      

BRucks

BRucks
BRucks
Status
Not open for further replies.