Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#155      
mhuml32
BrownTown said:
Could the '27 class be the breaking through moment in Illini recruiting?
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Depends on what you consider the breakthrough. There are many steps from lower-level P5 team (in 2020) to conference title contender in the top two conferences. Illinois took a sizable step up in the 2024 class, then another leap for the current 2026 class.


Screenshot 2025-09-12 at 1.19.00 PM.png



Further climbing the ladder will be progressively harder. The Illinois 2026 class has between 2-6 four-star recruits. This jumped them from ~45th to ~25th best overall class, but still only about average for B1G. Ignoring the ongoing discussion about recruiting rankings - Illinois is entering a phase where they need to secure commitments from the recruits that are undoubtedly elite: high 4-stars and 5-stars. Every program wants them, everyone is willing to pay them, many of the programs can pay them AND offer a viable chance at a national title. Illinois also isn't going to be able to offer them paths to immediate playing time (and even if Illinois was able to bring in, say a 5-star DE that would start immediately, that player also can likely start or get serious playing time at a blue blood).

This is a continuum and impossible to pick out a logical step forward, but let's say the next step is bringing in 10 four-star recruits. That's a big number. For comparison, that would have required Illinois to land all of the following in the 2026 class:

Hankins
Rankin
Pritchard
Thomas
Messiah Tilson
Mack Sutter
JC Anderson
Micah Smith
Keenan Harris
McHale Blade

Just using this as an example, and removing six lower-ranked players at similar positions from the recruiting class, it would move Illinois' recruiting ranking from 26th to.....19th. Six more four-stars and you only move up 7 spots. Just shows you it becomes much harder to climb further. This move would put Illinois right at the cut-off for 5th or 6th in B1G recruiting. That's the estimated and lofty goal for me: if Illinois can get to 5th in B1G recruiting over a long time period, then they can get a shot at a B1G title.
 
#156      
BrownTown
mhuml32 said:
Depends on what you consider the breakthrough. There are many steps from lower-level P5 team (in 2020) to conference title contender in the top two conferences. Illinois took a sizable step up in the 2024 class, then another leap for the current 2026 class.


View attachment 43619


Further climbing the ladder will be progressively harder. The Illinois 2026 class has between 2-6 four-star recruits. This jumped them from ~45th to ~25th best overall class, but still only about average for B1G. Ignoring the ongoing discussion about recruiting rankings - Illinois is entering a phase where they need to secure commitments from the recruits that are undoubtedly elite: high 4-stars and 5-stars. Every program wants them, everyone is willing to pay them, many of the programs can pay them AND offer a viable chance at a national title. Illinois also isn't going to be able to offer them paths to immediate playing time (and even if Illinois was able to bring in, say a 5-star DE that would start immediately, that player also can likely start or get serious playing time at a blue blood).

This is a continuum and impossible to pick out a logical step forward, but let's say the next step is bringing in 10 four-star recruits. That's a big number. For comparison, that would have required Illinois to land all of the following in the 2026 class:

Hankins
Rankin
Pritchard
Thomas
Messiah Tilson
Mack Sutter
JC Anderson
Micah Smith
Keenan Harris
McHale Blade

Just using this as an example, and removing six lower-ranked players at similar positions from the recruiting class, it would move Illinois' recruiting ranking from 26th to.....19th. Six more four-stars and you only move up 7 spots. Just shows you it becomes much harder to climb further. This move would put Illinois right at the cut-off for 5th or 6th in B1G recruiting. That's the estimated and lofty goal for me: if Illinois can get to 5th in B1G recruiting over a long time period, then they can get a shot at a B1G title.
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I don't think landing those 10 should be an insurmountable objective for a top 10 team.

We still haven't locked down Illinois like I THINK we are about to start seeing. (Not complete domination but you get the point). East St Louis is opening up. Florida has always been good to us. Ohio has also really started to open it's doors to low 4 and high 3 star guys who were overlooked by the flagship state university.
 
#157      
Joel Goodson
mhuml32 said:
Depends on what you consider the breakthrough. There are many steps from lower-level P5 team (in 2020) to conference title contender in the top two conferences. Illinois took a sizable step up in the 2024 class, then another leap for the current 2026 class.


View attachment 43619


Further climbing the ladder will be progressively harder. The Illinois 2026 class has between 2-6 four-star recruits. This jumped them from ~45th to ~25th best overall class, but still only about average for B1G. Ignoring the ongoing discussion about recruiting rankings - Illinois is entering a phase where they need to secure commitments from the recruits that are undoubtedly elite: high 4-stars and 5-stars. Every program wants them, everyone is willing to pay them, many of the programs can pay them AND offer a viable chance at a national title. Illinois also isn't going to be able to offer them paths to immediate playing time (and even if Illinois was able to bring in, say a 5-star DE that would start immediately, that player also can likely start or get serious playing time at a blue blood).

This is a continuum and impossible to pick out a logical step forward, but let's say the next step is bringing in 10 four-star recruits. That's a big number. For comparison, that would have required Illinois to land all of the following in the 2026 class:

Hankins
Rankin
Pritchard
Thomas
Messiah Tilson
Mack Sutter
JC Anderson
Micah Smith
Keenan Harris
McHale Blade

Just using this as an example, and removing six lower-ranked players at similar positions from the recruiting class, it would move Illinois' recruiting ranking from 26th to.....19th. Six more four-stars and you only move up 7 spots. Just shows you it becomes much harder to climb further. This move would put Illinois right at the cut-off for 5th or 6th in B1G recruiting. That's the estimated and lofty goal for me: if Illinois can get to 5th in B1G recruiting over a long time period, then they can get a shot at a B1G title.
Click to expand...

if we keep chopping wood and carrying water we'll be fine
 
#164      
Timj83
Mr. Tibbs said:
yup
if we keep doing what we have been doing , the six 4*’s & two 5*’s will come soon enough
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State of Illinois typically has about 8-12 4 star players a year with another 2-4 that are either 4 star on composite or have the same rating level of a 4 star that just miss the cutoff but are functionally the same for overall team rating. If we make that breakthrough leap into being a Iowa/Wisconsin level consistent 7-8 win team I don't think its crazy to think we can get to a point where we can get 3-5 of those level players every year. Getting to that baseline level of instate recruiting and then being able to get 3-5 from other states with an occasional 5 star and 1-3 4 stars in the portal gets us to that top 5-6 in Big10 talent threshold which combined with our talent development(and above average scouting of lower rated players) then alllows us to dream of that next level of consistent B10/playoff contender. Obviously a ton of progress that still needs to be made but wow it's so exciting to at least see a somewhat achievable path forward to that kind of success.
 
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#168      
Illini92and96
Could be good news for him if that means he hasn’t hit puberty and has a growth spurt and body transformation coming. FWIW he’s 158th in the 2028 composite. Not sure how much of that is projection based on his brother.
 
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