illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
between 20-25 Mil
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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And in the portal era, you have to just accept that this is the reality...dudes are gonna leave b/c there's a lot of money out there. If they were to lose sleep over young men looking to make more money, they'd lose their minds. Seems the strategy is clear: 1) Keep the right players as best you can; 2) If guys don't work out, move on; and 3) When those who you hoped to keep or you thought were staying end up leaving, you move on and find better players. It's a wild ride for sure, but this is the world we're in. Don't understand why so many are hand-wringing.
The Indiana quick rise to the top has set very unrealistic expectations for some college football fans.
Man of the hour....
I'm thinking the more important metric is how our total budget compares to the rest of the conference.
People really need to either understand 95% of P4 teams are experiencing attrition as bad or worse than we are or stop following football until spring ball.
We were an outlier the past couple years with our retention. It was one of the best in the country.
The most wins in a two year stretch doesn’t buy any faith? How about all of you HOWLING at how awful our defense was this past year, you’re really that disappointed to see a retooling? The hypocrisy and ignorance amazes me.
Let the dominoes fall and be happy we have a competent staff.
We were an outlier the past couple years with our retention. It was one of the best in the country.
The most wins in a two year stretch doesn’t buy any faith? How about all of you HOWLING at how awful our defense was this past year, you’re really that disappointed to see a retooling? The hypocrisy and ignorance amazes me.
Let the dominoes fall and be happy we have a competent staff.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Out of curiosity, are there any websites or other sources folks would recommend to track that kind of information?
247 should really do an outgoing portal "rankings" using the same methodology as their incoming class rankings, but they don't.
Actually what they had wasn't enough for the staff. They are the ones letting these players, walk, not the loyalty board.
It's been said fans shouldn't compare Illinois to Indiana because they are an anomaly. That's true, they are, but I have a feeling that the Indiana game and the defense against Washington really stunned the staff. Moreso than the fans. Those teams were on different levels than the Illinois defense.
This is the first year Illinois has lost this many 2-deep players on defense. Prior to this year, Illinois was selling FamILLy and retention. Bragged about it for good reason. Illinois fans claimed it as an Identity. This year it's turned into a Foster FamILLy (TM) real quick. When you change your philosophy you shouldn't be surprised the fans are on edge, it's a change.
Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn't. This staff has been fairly good, but not great, at recruiting/portal talent identification.
And to me it's how Illinois competes against the top 30 teams, primarily on the field. I'll be there watching.
This is all primarily driven by the HC along with a lot of other factors (boosters, AD, facilities, etc.). Cignetti was a 10/10 hire. BB was a 9.9/10 hire (in my opinion only not a 10 because Cignetti has done what he has done). There have been dozens of hires in the last 5-10 years that have not been Cignetti. Obviously, we all have different opinions, but I have 0 nits to pick w/BB. He has brought us to unprecedented level of sustained success. I hope he's our coach for the next 10+ years.
Which is absolutely crazy … You’d think after the last 2 years Bret would get the benefit of the doubt …
If Bret says hey I ain’t worried about it … No reason for me to worry about it …
I told everyone I spend zero minutes worrying about the WR room as long as we have the Shark … Now look at that room …
It’ll all work out …
Can’t we just give Shad Khan a call and say “Bro, we need you for one year - we want to build a juggernaut. Can you fund $50M?”. That’s less than .50% of his net worth. We go all out for one year and get what we all want…
THIS … Let’s also not forget that Cig has Cuban writing FAT checks now …
Larry is my guy but Cuban is out spending him … That’s just what it boils down to …
If we get X back I'm happy. Rest will take care of itself.Man of the hour....
I don’t wanna put a % on it but not having an NFL announcement yet is certainly not nothing …
And it’s not going to be a $$ issue …
Unrealistic.....got lightning in a bottle with Cigs, JMU transfers, Donors all lining up at the same time.
Ive said it once, I'll say it again. I dont really care how many defensive players leave. The defense needs overhauled. Im no defensive coach, but im pretty sure even I can comb through the MAC conference for defense and put together a better unit than last season. I just hope the scheme and players are tougher and more aggressive.
and 69 others
“Timeout South Carolina”
Wasn’t our budget $5 million just 2 years ago? Ohio state and Texas were around $20-$25 million. Now we’re around $25 million just 2 years later (thanks in part to rev sharing). donors have stepped up to get us to the top third of the big ten in budget.
Remember what BB said, he doesn’t need to have the same budget as the big guys, he just wants to be shopping at the same store.
I’m more than happy where our budget is given the context.
Remember what BB said, he doesn’t need to have the same budget as the big guys, he just wants to be shopping at the same store.
I’m more than happy where our budget is given the context.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
To give the worry its due, our success in the Bielema era from literally day 1 has been built on a lower outflow of talent into the portal than our competition and a greater ability to develop and progress players year-by-year than our competition. We have paid to bet on our own and won, that's how we got here. Plus our portal inflow in that time has been disproportionately focused on adding size and depth along the lines, there has been a laser focus on ensuring we always have a rotating cast of big bodies on the defensive line in particular.
So to be sitting here on January 9th with a basically empty defensive front seven is a dramatic change from what has previously been seen under Bielema, it's a major discontinuity with the method by which we have achieved all that success.
That said, it's completely senseless to be rendering judgment on what the roster looks like on January 9th, especially as the entire sport is reinventing itself day-by-day on the fly. It's too early for any conclusions.
Hmmm...
only 6 days ago we had no one signed up,
and we had a couple "we're not going to get anyone"
as of now, we have 11 signed, most of which are going to compete to start,
or certainly be in the 2-deep.
Not bad.
only 6 days ago we had no one signed up,
and we had a couple "we're not going to get anyone"
as of now, we have 11 signed, most of which are going to compete to start,
or certainly be in the 2-deep.
Not bad.
It did for SEC teams, not us Illinois fans
It would help if we can give him his honorary degree or some acknowledgement of his contributions to the University. It's much worse that it's gone to the faculty committee vote twice and been rejected in a very public way, which burns more bridges than if they never put it to a vote.
But to your point - Kahn could be our Cuban very easily if he wanted to see Illinois win a National Championship
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