I have been watching Illinois football for 40+ years. We have had some great years years here and there with promising outlook for building a top notch program. Unfortunately we always find a way back to mediocrity, irrelevance or flat out awful. We have never been able to sustain any type of consistency that would be characteristic of a top level program. This is why we continually miss out on the top in state players and have little to no chance of pulling any from out of state. I don't see any signs of this changing anytime soon. If it does great but I will have to see it to believe it.
If you look a little closer, what I'm guessing you'll find is that we've had consistently mediocre recruiting. We get a big time guy occasionally, and we've had some guys much better than their ranking. Then when we've been able to put it together and have an upperclassmen led team, we've been able to have success, sometimes a lot of success. However, since we had to wait 3-4 years to get that team to gel, they graduate and we're back to step 1. Ultimately, it's the inability to land consistently strong recruiting classes that lead to this. We don't have the next wave waiting in the wings.
Honestly, I don't think it will ever happen. Especially with the conference only getting more difficult. The only way we are going to get consist success is through money. Money to land top recruits, money to bring in and keep top coaches. I just don't think that's going to happen, especially for a school like Illinois. I personally think it's ridiculous that fans have to pay the players, but at Illinois where the basketball team has much more success than the football team, how long does it take before donors say, I'm wasting my money on the football program, but if I send that same money to the basketball side, we can be consistently great?