Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

#76      

1970 John

1970 John
1970 John
Is he going to live at home? Illinois isn’t exactly the far side of the moon from Michigan. And personally, I wouldn’t have changed colleges to be closer to home. I loved my parents but you know, I was 17 already! Time to grow up.

Seriously, if he feels that way, he shouldn’t admit it, because it makes him sounds like he needs to cut the apron strings. Come up with a better excuse than that, lad.

My question is still, was he on scholarship for the spring semester?
 
#77      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
illinidarrin said:
I'm a football guy, and that really pisses me off that a sport is being favored over another one like this. How can the football team have success if they continue to get screwed by the basketball team? Seriously, how can the football team field a good team if they don't get the resources they need? This is not right.
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I think a logical question to ask is whether a fan base identifying its school as a 'basketball school" is counterproductive to said school's ability to succeed in football. All other things being equal, as a recruit, would you want to sign with a school (fan base) that actively promotes itself as a basketball school? Would said school be therefore somewhat dismissed by the media in football conversations that promote the sport, its brands and its players. I believe, both things are happening to a degree and to the detriment of the football program and to the ability to fund to athletic department as a whole. Flag waving basketball junkies are doing us no favors.
 
#79      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
SoCal Illini said:
if you want to see what happens when there is a massive gap between the have and have nots, anyone familiar with Southern California high school football should be familiar.

essentially 2 schools play twice a year, with a 3rd or 4th that can make it close with the top 2, who are typically the top 2 nationally or at least in top 5. The other games are foregone conclusions. The talent gap is that large. General interest has fallen substantially. Lacrosse is getting huge, along with country club sports. Players jump from school to school every year, much like college.

A lot of public schools with loads of tradition, once competitive with anyone, are now bonafide tier 2 or 3. They don’t try to compete off-field with the big boys because they can’t and have really embraced the ‘kids in the neighborhood’ approach. In other words, reverted to how things were initially, and left the top 2, with 5 or 6 others who still try, to do their own thing. As someone who’s followed SoCal football since I was 5, it’s nowhere near as fun to follow, and I really don’t anymore. Even though I’m an alum of one of the top 2, and coached at a once competitive, but still proud, public program.

I, as well as others, see something similar coming on the college level. Will Illinois be one to say, ‘f’ it, we’ll coach whoever we can get that wants to come here and play indianas, Purdues, northwesterns, and not even try to pull a mizzou?
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I’m an Oregon State fan also, and as much as the end of Pac 12 sucked it was probably the best thing for the school. They just don’t have the money to compete with the big boys the way things are going with NIL — especially at basketball. Yes, this first year has sucked as players have left not for just NIL reasons but because school is no longer a P5 school (WBB got really killed after its E8 run). The football team got hit with the double whammy of losing its coach too. But things will “normalize” and hopefully the teams will be successful at their new level.

Until the powers that be get a handle on things and figure out how to actually regulate NIL/transfer portal in a way that isn’t deemed illegal, this is college sports — and Illinois football.

This is the first time I’ve checked in on the football recruiting thread in probably at least a week. When I saw the latest round of transfers start via Twitter, I figured it was just best to stay away for a bit. Getting to the point that I’m thinking maybe best to limit my exposure to recruiting news. Just wait until a few weeks before season and figure out who we got and root for them — eliminating all the hand wringing over recruiting misses and transfers out.
 
#80      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
Illiniguy74 said:
I think a logical question to ask is whether a fan base identifying its school as a 'basketball school" is counterproductive to said school's ability to succeed in football. All other things being equal, as a recruit, would you want to sign with a school (fan base) that actively promotes itself as a basketball school? Would said school be therefore somewhat dismissed by the media in football conversations that promote the sport, its brands and its players. I believe, both things are happening to a degree and to the detriment of the football program and to the ability to fund to athletic department as a whole. Flag waving basketball junkies are doing us no favors.
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Yeah that’s the problem.
 
#82      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
TheGMan said:
Their money is primarily going to basketball, it seems. Both because we are a basketball school primarily, and they have had great success recently.

If football were to show success, I would imagine more donors would come to the party. The problem is that it is going to be increasingly more difficult to be successful without those donors.
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Honest question as I don’t really keep up with the NIL budgets, are big donor NIL donations truly “primarily going to basketball” or is it more that football isn’t receiving enough money to stay competitive in a sport that takes more NIL than bball?
 
#83      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
I still can’t help but think the 4th and 3 OPI non-call in the 2022 Michigan game was such a significant and ultimately catastrophic inflection point for this program. Win that game, win the B1G west, and the trajectory for recruiting, NIL donor funds, overall perception could have been so different going into that off season and beyond.
 
#84      

Point-Illinois

P
Point-Illinois
AutoPoster 3000 said:
I still can’t help but think the 4th and 3 OPI non-call in the 2022 Michigan game was such a significant and ultimately catastrophic inflection point for this program. Win that game, win the B1G west, and the trajectory for recruiting, NIL donor funds, overall perception could have been so different going into that off season and beyond.
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I know one play doesn’t make a game or season…but goodness what might have been if that ref, staring directly at the illegal action, had the balls to throw the flag.
 
#86      

SoCal Illini

S
SoCal Illini
AutoPoster 3000 said:
I still can’t help but think the 4th and 3 OPI non-call in the 2022 Michigan game was such a significant and ultimately catastrophic inflection point for this program. Win that game, win the B1G west, and the trajectory for recruiting, NIL donor funds, overall perception could have been so different going into that off season and beyond.
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Not the only bad call against Michigan inflection point. 2000 undefeated and ranked #17 they called a fumble on Jameel cook when the ground clearly caused it. For some reason it seemed like they couldn’t get over that game and finished 5-6.

Sandwiched between an 8-4 ‘99 and 10-2 big ten champs ‘01.

Just a history nugget.
 
#87      

GoDucks349

GoDucks349
GoDucks349
EyeoftheIllini said:
I’m an Oregon State fan also, and as much as the end of Pac 12 sucked it was probably the best thing for the school. They just don’t have the money to compete with the big boys the way things are going with NIL — especially at basketball. Yes, this first year has sucked as players have left not for just NIL reasons but because school is no longer a P5 school (WBB got really killed after its E8 run). The football team got hit with the double whammy of losing its coach too. But things will “normalize” and hopefully the teams will be successful at their new level.

Until the powers that be get a handle on things and figure out how to actually regulate NIL/transfer portal in a way that isn’t deemed illegal, this is college sports — and Illinois football.

This is the first time I’ve checked in on the football recruiting thread in probably at least a week. When I saw the latest round of transfers start via Twitter, I figured it was just best to stay away for a bit. Getting to the point that I’m thinking maybe best to limit my exposure to recruiting news. Just wait until a few weeks before season and figure out who we got and root for them — eliminating all the hand wringing over recruiting misses and transfers out.
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Good post, as a Duck who grew up near Corvallis (Albany), I grew up on Oregon State sports, Terry Baker, Mel Counts, "The Great Pumpkin" etc. I agree that Oregon St had a very difficult time competing with the money schools. Still they managed to have very tough football and baseball teams. I respect the situation they are in and wish them well. They are always scrappy and probably will find a way to compete at the highest levels.

Note: Without Phil Knight and Nike, Oregon would be in the very same position.
 
#88      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
therealmiket86 said:
We don’t have the bankroll to fund an elite football roster.
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The question at this point feels more like do we have to bankroll to fund a competent football roster. I really hope so because I think this staff and our players work hard and deserve some success. We hate losing as fans but they live this every day.
 
#89      

therealmiket86

T
therealmiket86
illini80 said:
The question at this point feels more like do we have to bankroll to fund a competent football roster. I really hope so because I think this staff and our players work hard and deserve some success. We hate losing as fans but they live this every day.
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It’ll be hard. I know a lot of money goes towards player retention but imagine how much money Johnny wouldn’t gotten this year from a sec school. We would have a hard time matching that
 
#90      

IllinoisssssssVarsity

I
IllinoisssssssVarsity
I think it’s been dropped on the basketball side that we have about $5M in bball NIL with room for more for the right guys. $5M for 13 scholarship players.

Football I believe has 85 scholarship players. If you just proportion that directly from basketball to football, you need about $33M to operate in the same ball park for football that basketball does.

Idk if it’s directly proportional like that, but if it is, and you look at that raw number, it’s no wonder why we’re not there.
 
#91      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
IllinoisssssssVarsity said:
I think it’s been dropped on the basketball side that we have about $5M in bball NIL with room for more for the right guys. $5M for 13 scholarship players.

Football I believe has 85 scholarship players. If you just proportion that directly from basketball to football, you need about $33M to operate in the same ball park for football that basketball does.

Idk if it’s directly proportional like that, but if it is, and you look at that raw number, it’s no wonder why we’re not there.
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to be fair , you really can’t compare the two sports regarding NIL.
 
#97      

Orangeandblue72

O
Orangeandblue72
illini80 said:
The question at this point feels more like do we have to bankroll to fund a competent football roster. I really hope so because I think this staff and our players work hard and deserve some success. We hate losing as fans but they live this every day.
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My guess is once we find top end talent here,they transfer out and get paid bigger bucks. We can’t afford to run with a lot of the top schools. We will continue to be below average most of the time. It sucks.
 
#98      

Orange Roughy

O
Orange Roughy
Orangeandblue72 said:
My guess is once we find top end talent here,they transfer out and get paid bigger bucks. We can’t afford to run with a lot of the top schools. We will continue to be below average most of the time. It sucks.
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Yip. My guess is if we do not quadruple (at least) our NIL $$$ fund, we will just be a bottom feeder farm club team for the true players of the game. Sad.

We won't even have players long enough to coach them all the way up and get something from it.
 
#99      

GoDucks349

GoDucks349
GoDucks349
Before I retired, I had a number of universities as clients, including Kansas, and I have to say Kansas seemed to have the most dysfunctional athletic department culturally of all my clients. Here's a short list, Michigan, Tenn, A&M, Oregon St, Bradley, Bentley, Davidson...