Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#127      
altgeld88
Chase321 said:
You talk like only he could have made those 50, 43 and 38 yard field goals. A lot of kickers can. And while it’s true that there are some good teams that are struggling with kicking, the vast majority are not. Those teams struggling are the outliers and that’s because there are a lot of good kickers out there. Don’t misinterpret that. I’m not saying a lot of kickers that are as good as David but there are a lot of kickers that could make those kicks. So if you’re a team that’s operating on a budget do you really want to overspend on a kicker?
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I talk like that because few kickers consistently can under that pressure. Important qualifiers. I watch little college football anymore beyond the Illini and that's plain as day to me. I'd rather have a kicker who's two std dev's above the mean in that area than at the mean.

I agree that a 38- or 43-yard field goal for a D-1 kicker in isolation isn't highly taxing. One reason why these guys can crush them from 55 in warmups and a following wind. With under a minute left, and the game on the line, in front of 60k people, consistently? Different.

We'll agree to disagree. Watching Olano at Illinois hasn't been too far off watching Harrison Butker kick for the Chiefs. Meanwhile, I've watched kickers at OSU, PSU, and Indiana get the yips regularly. Olano is a stone cold killer.

Someone please crunch some stats and show how ordinary he is so I can apologize for my poor judgment here.
 
#128      
NashvILLe05
ForeverOrange said:
Retaining Valentine is a must imo.

Laughery is solid when healthy. Always seems to get 4+ per carry.

Feagin has been a let down. Just doesn’t quite have the vision or lateral movement necessary.

So if we keep Valentine and Laughery I call that a win. Then get a transfer who can rotate in for 10-15 carries. (Or maybe we have someone on the depth chart ready for that?)
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Yes, and a 3rd down/goal line bruiser who can block.
 
#131      
georgeuremovich
ForeverOrange said:
Retaining Valentine is a must imo.

Laughery is solid when healthy. Always seems to get 4+ per carry.

Feagin has been a let down. Just doesn’t quite have the vision or lateral movement necessary.

So if we keep Valentine and Laughery I call that a win. Then get a transfer who can rotate in for 10-15 carries. (Or maybe we have someone on the depth chart ready for that?)
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Jordan Anderson?
 
#133      
From the cheap seats
Olano is not just an ordinary kicker. He’s great. Not sure anyone would argue otherwise.
I’d guess it’s more a matter of where you want to invest big dollars. For teams just a kicker short of being a national contender, I get it.
For a team needing to get a top-notch QB, add to the WR room, rebuild both lines as well as improving the LBers and DBs, well I get those priorities, too.
 
#134      
BretMyBeachHouse
Thanks. I made a New Year's resolution to not ask stupid questions on this site that I could easily learn with a Google search.

Oh well. I guess I'll take another stab at it next year.
 
#136      
STLini25
ForeverOrange said:
Retaining Valentine is a must imo.

Laughery is solid when healthy. Always seems to get 4+ per carry.

Feagin has been a let down. Just doesn’t quite have the vision or lateral movement necessary.

So if we keep Valentine and Laughery I call that a win. Then get a transfer who can rotate in for 10-15 carries. (Or maybe we have someone on the depth chart ready for that?)
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10-15 carries? A game? That’s 130-200 carries a year. That would lead the team and make all three RB’s transfer if they did that.
 
#142      
Chase321
altgeld88 said:
I talk like that because few kickers consistently can under that pressure. Important qualifiers. I watch little college football anymore beyond the Illini and that's plain as day to me. I'd rather have a kicker who's two std dev's above the mean in that area than at the mean.

I agree that a 38- or 43-yard field goal for a D-1 kicker in isolation isn't highly taxing. One reason why these guys can crush them from 55 in warmups and a following wind. With under a minute left, and the game on the line, in front of 60k people, consistently? Different.

We'll agree to disagree. Watching Olano at Illinois hasn't been too far off watching Harrison Butker kick for the Chiefs. Meanwhile, I've watched kickers at OSU, PSU, and Indiana get the yips regularly. Olano is a stone cold killer.

Someone please crunch some stats and show how ordinary he is so I can apologize for my poor judgment here.
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After having a great season last year Butker was one of the worst in the NFL this season. His PFF rating is 27th among kickers in the NFL. Chiefs fans would love to get rid of him and unload the ridiculous salary he is being paid.

But setting that aside, the average college kicker makes 1.4 field goals per game. David makes 1.5 field goals per game. Do you want to spend your money on that versus say a defensive back that plays 50 snaps a game?

The mistake people tend to make here is they are comparing David to kickers on a few specific teams that are struggling. That’s the wrong comparison. You should be comparing him to an average kicker. And when you do you’ll find that the value isn’t there.
 
#148      
whatahack
altgeld88 said:
This seems so obvious that I'm confused about anyone shrugging at the loss of Olano. His two walkoffs are the delta between 9-4 and 7-6 this season (maybe 8-5 if a 7-5 regular season total gets us into a bowl against an opponent weaker than TN.)

Last season: his 50- and 43-yarders are the reason why we beat Kansas, and his 38-yarder at the gun pushes us to OT and a win over Purdue. We're 8-5 or 7-6 without those.

Close games are won at the margin. An accurate kicker with a cannon for a leg is a huge marginal benefit and, as of this afternoon, loss.

Doubt that? Imagine your confidence at the beginning of the final drive (into the wind) on Tuesday evening without Olano on our sideline. More than a smidge lower, I'd say.
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Maybe we can find a Croatian soccer player...

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#150      
ForeverOrange
STLini25 said:
10-15 carries? A game? That’s 130-200 carries a year. That would lead the team and make all three RB’s transfer if they did that.
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Okay I definitely was off on that. But would imagine Laughery continues to be in the 5-8 per game range so yes, one more guy that can top out at 10. As stated earlier maybe Jordan Andersen can be that guy.
 
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