2025 is set up for a huge year. You lose Davis, Bryant and Franklin which are all huge loses but everyone else is back. Add a LT and a wr and this offense is nasty.
Defensive really needs to add some olb and DT
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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2025 is set up for a huge year. You lose Davis, Bryant and Franklin which are all huge loses but everyone else is back. Add a LT and a wr and this offense is nasty.
Defensive really needs to add some olb and DT
Yeah, on offense, I still think you need to portal 1-2 impact WRs, an RB1, and an OT
With the return of Rusk I think you only need 1 wr. I would add a rb for depth but I don’t think it needs to a priority
Hopefully they hit on one of the freshman OT. So far Henderson is the only prep recruit BB has brought in that’s gotten real playing time. I would imagine we hit the portal and JC’s hard for a OT
If Jacas goes pro we will really need a Olb and DT. His ability to play both makes him so valuable.
Pretty big unarticulated "if" factor there but...
BB has done a very good job with player retention
I don’t expect any major losses as of today … At least what I’d consider major …
Elite job … He convinced 3 of our star players to take less and come back last offseason … In one particular case he convinced a kid to take half of what an SEC school offered …
NIL is instant money … NFL is forever money …
What he said….
At some point we will lose a key player for more money. Right now the guys I see leaving are guys buried in the depth chart
Or, the success we're seeing will get more NIL funds flowing in to keep building this thing.
If we could somehow get into the top third of the conference in NIL football $, imagine what could be built here.
Altmyer the only "major" for me.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Getting more NIL increases your protection but doesn't make you impenetrable. TAMU lost their best offensive weapon to the portal this last offseason.
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mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
I'd also add that we shouldn't be too confident about NIL increases. Athletic departments are still in the rapid rise phase for NIL because [puts on nerd glasses] the economic trends for middle/upper class (i.e., wage increases compared to inflation, stock market) is creating a much easier environment for those to give. Also, the novelty of "you are helping us buy better players!" is still new. Now only do programs need to increase their NIL coffers, but they need to outpace their competitors. That's the more mysterious part of the discussion. Bielema saying the program went from dead last to 12th is much more meaningful than saying increases.
I'd prefer we improve recruiting through winning. No desire to be the top NIL in the conference
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
Where is the "Why not both" meme?
In all honesty, I would prefer the same, but I feel that ship has sailed. To have a top (notice, I didn't see THE) class in the B1G will take both winning and $$$.
Edit: Beat by a "moment"
Unfortunately, that won't happen, and while money is available, kids should be motivated by it.
What once was a free ride to a great degree has now become that, plus the opportunity to earn significant and meaningful money.
Most of these kids won't play in the NFL. Imagine if you could earn $30K, $50K, or $100K over four years as a role player and get a B1G, SEDC, ACC, or ND degree. That money could make a huge difference in life (assuming it's used wisely).
Trust me when I say this, you definitely want to be top NIL in the conference. Just look at basketball as evidence. That said, to actually get top NIL in conference for football... Not easy. Not easy at all. For perspective, it is estimated that OSU, USC, Michigan, Oregon, and PSU all have $10M+ NIL available for football. It was previously hinted we might have somewhere between $2-3M. To even get into the top half of the conference with regards to NIL, we probably have to pull in over $5M for football alone. This season will help for sure, but we're talking about an entirely different level of playing field right now. The hope would be to consistently overachieve enough that the cash flow can catch up.
But if you have 20-25% of the available payroll of the top 3rd of the conference, it does make a very notable difference. So if we can just even bridge that gap by 5% per year over the next 5 years, we're talking a much healthier long term program with substantial depth that's consistently competing for 8-10 win regular seasons
NIL has also led to more nationwide recruiting . players now have money to fly home whenever they want and/or fly family to games to see them play
I predict more players on our roster from the west coast due to that and the expansion of the league to include the 4 premier schools out there
I predict more players on our roster from the west coast due to that and the expansion of the league to include the 4 premier schools out there
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