It’ll be disappointing if Kreutz is our starter. Guess we feel good about Kante, Beerman, and Paris. Hoping for the best with offseason development.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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Word on the street is Bobby Boucher still has eligibility…
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William Holmes
OLB (as listed on the Utah State football website) = Edge Rusher
6’ 4”, 245 Lbs.
Drafted in 5th round of 2018 MLB Draft by Los Angeles Angels as a two-way player (RHP/OF).
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
5 cents duh.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
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Kid wants to fly away from home!!
I think it will be a rotation similar to last year. Kreutz did not grade well in most games (I believe second or third lowest of the LBs). I think he had the highest missed tackle rate on the team. But Malachi Hood was worse and he had a 51.1 pff on coverage. I think part of our problem is that Hayden and Hood can't play man and we were in deep drop zones in third and long. Similar Tomiwa Durojaiye had a high 70s Pff - good tackling, good against the run but same issue, weak pass rush.
What I am trying to figure out is if the low scores are coaching, player technique or both. Someone wrote last week that spring practice is all about QBs, running backs and receivers. That would be a dramatic change from how spring practices worked in the past. They are imperative for offensive and defensive linemen. There are only 12 or 13 contact practices permitted and its in the spring that coaches work with linemen on technique and then grade them. That is why we have had in the past O and D - linemen hit the portal after spring ball. I know the portal is supposedly closed. But can that keep a player from transferring?
I can smell the Sex Panther from here.
Interesting. Is it that staff sees Edmonson as potentially the starter? Or are they that high on Beerman? I'd be a bit surprised if they have that level of confidence in Kreutz alone as opening day starter.
Michigan Man trying to steal our 27 QB!!! Trying to lure him to Brokeback Mountain
I dont know how you can feel good about the transfer class so far. No matter your stance on portal rankings.. being higher is better.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
The staff is shifting their attention to 2027 preps, so let's take a look back at the 2026 class with the recruiting review. This class is uniformly viewed as the best Illinois prep class since at least 2009, but how good is it compared to previous prep recruiting? Let's take a look!
Lots of (reasonable) discussion about the value of recruiting rankings, so consider that as you consider some of these data points. Also, this is why there is a strong emphasis placed on (a) # of offers and (b) # of P5 offers for each recruit and each class. Here are the numbers:
A couple data descriptors to make:
- Special teamers are not included in here (rankings are useless there, offers are close to useless)
- Any players that are not evaluated at all (certain JuCos, late class adds) are not included unless/until they are rated
- Median rankings were used to avoid awkward weighting issues with class size (e.g., if you have a 12-person class and one is the 5th ranked prospect)
- One change I made for this class was I didn't change the rankings of prospects from the moment they committed to Illinois (for the Illinois commits tank their ranking group). Only person that changed was Barnett because he de-committed, but was re-locked when he re-committed.
You can see the sizable jumps in this chart that are reactive to the improvement of the on-field performance. The 2026 jump is especially noteworthy because jumping from an average of 5 offers (per recruit) to 10 is a huge improvement but an attainable one because there is a large pool of recruits that receive ~10 offers, but jumping up to 15-17 is a much smaller pool. A couple context points
- The average 2026 recruit has 11 other P5 offers (beyond Illinois). The entire 2022 Illinois recruiting class has 48 offers from other P5 programs.
- Other context, there are 65 other P5 programs. The program went from 0.5 other P5 offers for their recruits to 11.
- I'm still running the numbers for other B1G programs, but I want to compare Illinois' 2026 recruiting success to previous B1G success. Nebraska had the 22nd best class in 2025 with 14 (!) 4-stars. They had an average of 17 offers and 12 P5 offers for their class.
- All the more impressive with this class having 29 recruits. This isn't "greasing" the numbers through small volume. This is high volume and high quality.
Lots of (reasonable) discussion about the value of recruiting rankings, so consider that as you consider some of these data points. Also, this is why there is a strong emphasis placed on (a) # of offers and (b) # of P5 offers for each recruit and each class. Here are the numbers:
A couple data descriptors to make:
- Special teamers are not included in here (rankings are useless there, offers are close to useless)
- Any players that are not evaluated at all (certain JuCos, late class adds) are not included unless/until they are rated
- Median rankings were used to avoid awkward weighting issues with class size (e.g., if you have a 12-person class and one is the 5th ranked prospect)
- One change I made for this class was I didn't change the rankings of prospects from the moment they committed to Illinois (for the Illinois commits tank their ranking group). Only person that changed was Barnett because he de-committed, but was re-locked when he re-committed.
You can see the sizable jumps in this chart that are reactive to the improvement of the on-field performance. The 2026 jump is especially noteworthy because jumping from an average of 5 offers (per recruit) to 10 is a huge improvement but an attainable one because there is a large pool of recruits that receive ~10 offers, but jumping up to 15-17 is a much smaller pool. A couple context points
- The average 2026 recruit has 11 other P5 offers (beyond Illinois). The entire 2022 Illinois recruiting class has 48 offers from other P5 programs.
- Other context, there are 65 other P5 programs. The program went from 0.5 other P5 offers for their recruits to 11.
- I'm still running the numbers for other B1G programs, but I want to compare Illinois' 2026 recruiting success to previous B1G success. Nebraska had the 22nd best class in 2025 with 14 (!) 4-stars. They had an average of 17 offers and 12 P5 offers for their class.
- All the more impressive with this class having 29 recruits. This isn't "greasing" the numbers through small volume. This is high volume and high quality.
Beerman
We are not listed in these rankings at all, OTHER then one of our guys going to SC.
May mean nothing but wanted to share
www.cbssports.com
May mean nothing but wanted to share
College football's top 100 transfer portal players for 2026: Where they're headed and why they matter
There's a ton of talent on the move, and it has the potential to shift the balance of power across the college football landscape
www.cbssports.com
Parker twins have crystal balls for Maryland
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
yeah, i don't like that and i am getting nervous now because the deadline of getting transfers signed is just 4 days away and we still have some work to do. I don't like taking things down to the last minute and that's exactly what we are doing.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
great deep dive, thanks
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