Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#501      
Indy Illini Fan
Joel Goodson said:
leggings?
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#502      
Indy Illini Fan
LockportIllini70 said:
Any thoughts as to why OL recruiting as a whole has been bad under Bielema?
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I mean if putting multiple guys in the league and having above average big ten starters across the board is bad ?

I think the COVID class which was also his first class was pretty rough but he gets a pass …

He just landed a 4 star kid out of NJ … He’s absolutely crushed the portal evals on OL …

If that’s bad … Idk man …
 
#503      
djkirkpatrick22
Indy Illini Fan said:
I mean if putting multiple guys in the league and having above average big ten starters across the board is bad ?

I think the COVID class which was also his first class was pretty rough but he gets a pass …

He just landed a 4 star kid out of NJ … He’s absolutely crushed the portal evals on OL …

If that’s bad … Idk man …
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Also feel like he's done well in the portal for OL, retention of OL and the evals there as well.....
 
#504      
mhuml32
Indy Illini Fan said:
I mean if putting multiple guys in the league and having above average big ten starters across the board is bad ?

I think the COVID class which was also his first class was pretty rough but he gets a pass …

He just landed a 4 star kid out of NJ … He’s absolutely crushed the portal evals on OL …

If that’s bad … Idk man …
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This wasn't the discussion though. The discussion was about pre-2025 high school recruiting under Bielema. The o-line guys put in the league were either (a) transfers or (b) inherited by Bielema. The staff needs to do better at prep o-line recruiting and development.

The transfer portal has had some great hits (early Crisler, Adams, Davis, Priestly, Badovinac) and some duds (late Crisler, Dylan Davis, Leys, Schuster, Wigenton), which is to be expected. The portal raises the floor, but prep recruiting is going to raise the ceiling.
 
#505      
IlliniShelt
mhuml32 said:
This wasn't the discussion though. The discussion was about pre-2025 high school recruiting under Bielema. The o-line guys put in the league were either (a) transfers or (b) inherited by Bielema. The staff needs to do better at prep o-line recruiting and development.

The transfer portal has had some great hits (early Crisler, Adams, Davis, Priestly, Badovinac) and some duds (late Crisler, Dylan Davis, Leys, Schuster, Wigenton), which is to be expected. The portal raises the floor, but prep recruiting is going to raise the ceiling.
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I think development is development regardless of whether it's prep or portal guys. 4 OL in basically the top 800 guys in 2026 should indicate that OL recruiting is fine.

Could it be that BB has guys or profiles of guys that he wants and doesn't care what the rankings are?
 
#506      
Indy Illini Fan
mhuml32 said:
This wasn't the discussion though. The discussion was about pre-2025 high school recruiting under Bielema. The o-line guys put in the league were either (a) transfers or (b) inherited by Bielema. The staff needs to do better at prep o-line recruiting and development.

The transfer portal has had some great hits (early Crisler, Adams, Davis, Priestly, Badovinac) and some duds (late Crisler, Dylan Davis, Leys, Schuster, Wigenton), which is to be expected. The portal raises the floor, but prep recruiting is going to raise the ceiling.
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It’s a new world … Why develop a HS kid when you can spend a little extra $$ and get a kid who’s been in a P4 weight program and played at the HM level … OR go get a JUCO kid or a kid who’s played at a lower level and proven it or has all the tools and is physically ready to take the next step …

The development you’re going to see going forward is going to be with guys like the Knapik’s … Get them from a lower level, redshirt, develop and plug them in the following year …
 
#507      
mhuml32
IlliniShelt said:
I think development is development regardless of whether it's prep or portal guys. 4 OL in basically the top 800 guys in 2026 should indicate that OL recruiting is fine.

Could it be that BB has guys or profiles of guys that he wants and doesn't care what the rankings are?
Click to expand...

The data I shared on here was to avoid rankings. I'm a big believer in offers over rankings. But also, I was talking about performance when I gave the opinion about o-line recruiting. BB may have a specific profile, plus he shouldn't worry about rankings! My point is the HS o-line prep recruiting has low pedigree and low performance. Now, the 2025 class is much better for pedigree, now we wait for performance.

Indy Illini Fan said:
It’s a new world … Why develop a HS kid when you can spend a little extra $$ and get a kid who’s been in a P4 weight program and played at the HM level … OR go get a JUCO kid or a kid who’s played at a lower level and proven it or has all the tools and is physically ready to take the next step …

The development you’re going to see going forward is going to be with guys like the Knapik’s … Get them from a lower level, redshirt, develop and plug them in the following year …
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(a) Bielema is still recruiting and accruing HS o-line kids.
(b) There's plenty of data out there that the best CFB players never reach the portal. Schools pay to keep them. This is doubly true for offensive and defensive line. The answer to the veteran supply problem is to increase the HS talent you bring in to create your own supply.
(c) Just like HS recruiting, the portal isn't a sure thing. There are plenty of misses.
 
#508      
217sports
mhuml32 said:
The data I shared on here was to avoid rankings. I'm a big believer in offers over rankings. But also, I was talking about performance when I gave the opinion about o-line recruiting. BB may have a specific profile, plus he shouldn't worry about rankings! My point is the HS o-line prep recruiting has low pedigree and low performance. Now, the 2025 class is much better for pedigree, now we wait for performance.




(a) Bielema is still recruiting and accruing HS o-line kids.
(b) There's plenty of data out there that the best CFB players never reach the portal. Schools pay to keep them. This is doubly true for offensive and defensive line. The answer to the veteran supply problem is to increase the HS talent you bring in to create your own supply.
(c) Just like HS recruiting, the portal isn't a sure thing. There are plenty of misses.
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Point B is especially true. The prices for backup quality OLs with p5 experience this year was 500k+ on the open market, we can't survive if we have to pay that (and we didn't). We have to develop HS linemen moving forward with a better hit rate than we have seen to continue to be successful
 
#509      
JucoIllini10
mhuml32 said:
(a) Bielema is still recruiting and accruing HS o-line kids.
(b) There's plenty of data out there that the best CFB players never reach the portal. Schools pay to keep them. This is doubly true for offensive and defensive line. The answer to the veteran supply problem is to increase the HS talent you bring in to create your own supply.
(c) Just like HS recruiting, the portal isn't a sure thing. There are plenty of misses.
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This is my thought as well. Successful recruitment of high school prospects will continue to be the foundation of any successful team. The top teams in college football (including Illinois) are still putting a lot of time and money into high school recruiting. To say why bother developing high school talent as if a team can be predominantly made up of transfers is not a serious response. Yes, Bret has shown a willingness to seek an upgrade in the team's talent through every available source (P5 transfers, G5 transfers, JUCO, High School) and this is what makes him such a great head coach in the new world of college football roster management. For 2025, half of the starters on the team are transfers. For 2026, I expect a lot of transfers to fill in for the graduating seniors from this year's roster. However, Bret is only having to rely so heavily on transfers because of the poor success rate on Class of 2021 and 2022 high school recruits.

As for the original question of high school O-line recruiting, I think 2026 will be a better indicator of this staff's ability to identify and recruit talented high school offensive linemen. The Class of 2022 O-line group was a massive failure but beyond that Illinois has a number of intriguing options that could be in the running for starting spots in 2026 (Henderson is already likely to start this year and beyond while McMillen and Hansen have already pushed their way up the depth chart).
 
#511      
RML
217sports said:
... The prices for backup quality OLs with p5 experience this year was 500k+ on the open market, we can't survive if we have to pay that (and we didn't).
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If the market is paying $500k for players, then don't you need to $400k or so just to keep the ones you have?
 
#514      
217sports
RML said:
If the market is paying $500k for players, then don't you need to $400k or so just to keep the ones you have?
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Not in all cases. We have retained players at a much cheaper price than the open market may provide them by selling development, environment, and future earnings rather than an extra 100-200k now.
 
#522      
ptgrd23
Bret is killing it recruiting. With NIL$ it is impossible to get the 5 stars away from OSU, ND, Texas but we are cleaning up on 4 star and 3 star recruits. Hard to believe just 5-10 years ago we were reduced to stealing recruits from mid majors.
 
#524      
jamarvelous31
mhuml32 said:
The data I shared on here was to avoid rankings. I'm a big believer in offers over rankings. But also, I was talking about performance when I gave the opinion about o-line recruiting. BB may have a specific profile, plus he shouldn't worry about rankings! My point is the HS o-line prep recruiting has low pedigree and low performance. Now, the 2025 class is much better for pedigree, now we wait for performance.




(a) Bielema is still recruiting and accruing HS o-line kids.
(b) There's plenty of data out there that the best CFB players never reach the portal. Schools pay to keep them. This is doubly true for offensive and defensive line. The answer to the veteran supply problem is to increase the HS talent you bring in to create your own supply.
(c) Just like HS recruiting, the portal isn't a sure thing. There are plenty of misses.
Click to expand...
Ok, but the guys you're talking about were out of Illinois's reach in previous recruiting cycles (and still arguably are).

Illinois just achieved its highest final AP Top 25 ranking since 2001. Why not trust the dude that brought them here?
 
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