Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#307      
AirTran
So we've only got to beat out OSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee for this one, eh? Phew, at least he doesn't have Bama on there also because then we'd be cooked... That's a hell of a Top 8...
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Let me ask you something - 2 years ago would we have been in that mix?
 
#309      
Simeon Rice
After the underwhelming (at least, on defense) portal season, I know there was some chatter here about still adding players down the road regardless if the portal closed. Seems the NCAA is trying to take steps to penalize those actions

bsky.app

The Athletic (@theathletic.com)

NEWS: The NCAA is proposing major penalties — including head coach suspensions — to deter teams from circumventing the transfer portal for schools that add non-portal players this spring and beyond.
bsky.app bsky.app
 
#312      
illiniwil
The high school development definitely hasn’t been good. Miller has developed guys he has inherited and transfers. Hopefully Champ Smitch, Tuerk and a couple other guys can break through.

Realistically even if the prep recruits we brought in became starters we would have to increase their pay to meet the market. It’s not like we would have a bunch of guys on cheap deals so we could spread the money around.
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perhaps, but chances are a 4-5 year o line man who is growing into a starting spot
would be cheaper to hang onto that a starter from another team.
 
#314      
Pikeillinifan
It's very competitive but this will be a telling recruitment if the staff can replicate last year's success or not.
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IMHO, we're overestimating the need for great, great recruiters. Development and getting to the NFL is #1, but then it's $, plain and simple.

Plus, what are the tax implications in Illinois vs. others? I'd assume they are looking at that as well, but I have no clue if that's based on your home state or not.
 
#317      
mhuml32
Joel Goodson said:
disagree. using a sample size of 1 to make assertions is a very bad idea

just to be clear: am not suggesting that Parks' recruitment isn't important
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I should expand. Missing on Parks is telling because it will start to make the replication of last year's recruiting success easier or harder. It doesn't mean missing him closes the door, which is why I said telling. Illinois has continued to make headway into the top recruits (rankings, offers) within State of Illinois. You can decide your cut-off (top 5,10, 15), it's showing signs on continually improving; last year culminated in Hankins (#5) and Rankin (#7). There were also multiple others (Mack - #1, Anderson - #9, Tilson - #10, Riordan - #12) that Illinois was serious contenders. Ignoring the final results, it's a great sign that Illinois had serious jobs on 6 of the top 12 in-state prospects.

The 2027 class isn't looking as favorable. There is going to be prospect ranking movement, offers will be committable or not, etc., but the current environment has less players that are seriously interested in Illinois than last year. Right now it's looking like Illinois has chances at three, maybe four names. Therefore, you already need to have a higher conversion rate than last year. Parks, Wagner, and Justin Johnson could be argued as Illinois' best chances. If they miss on Parks, the math is only getting higher. If they secure Parks, then a coin flip on Johnson or Wagner (or thinking bigger, with MJC) makes it much easier to see in-state success being maintained or possibly better!

Illinois could recruit really well outside of Illinois, they might identify under-ranked in-state players that ultimately will be ranked higher, or other factors that overcome this.
 
#318      
IlliniWu
mhuml32 said:
I should expand. Missing on Parks is telling because it will start to make the replication of last year's recruiting success easier or harder. It doesn't mean missing him closes the door, which is why I said telling. Illinois has continued to make headway into the top recruits (rankings, offers) within State of Illinois. You can decide your cut-off (top 5,10, 15), it's showing signs on continually improving; last year culminated in Hankins (#5) and Rankin (#7). There were also multiple others (Mack - #1, Anderson - #9, Tilson - #10, Riordan - #12) that Illinois was serious contenders. Ignoring the final results, it's a great sign that Illinois had serious jobs on 6 of the top 12 in-state prospects.

The 2027 class isn't looking as favorable. There is going to be prospect ranking movement, offers will be committable or not, etc., but the current environment has less players that are seriously interested in Illinois than last year. Right now it's looking like Illinois has chances at three, maybe four names. Therefore, you already need to have a higher conversion rate than last year. Parks, Wagner, and Justin Johnson could be argued as Illinois' best chances. If they miss on Parks, the math is only getting higher. If they secure Parks, then a coin flip on Johnson or Wagner (or thinking bigger, with MJC) makes it much easier to see in-state success being maintained or possibly better!

Illinois could recruit really well outside of Illinois, they might identify under-ranked in-state players that ultimately will be ranked higher, or other factors that overcome this.
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I'm not sure how you can draw that this class isn't favorable right now. They've just locked in several visits with some real high impact talents. They have several targets who continue to move up to 4 stars (Some were already decently rated, some were lower rated).

The biggest thing is they have a QB who could wind up a 5 star when all is said and done. Lopati continues to move up across every rating platform with many camps and events coming. Already proved to be arguably the best QB in the Under Armour game as a junior. That's a ton of credibility.

The biggest unknown is how quickly this staff will lock in with recruiting. So far it looks alright. IMO they have a real shot to bring in a lot of these guys they're targeting due to a few factors. They were first or very early in a lot of their recruitment.

These players have now grown up seeing a lot of success and accolades at Illinois. Plenty of big time moments. Coach B has one of the best situations as far as stability. They've shown the ability to develop players into not only pretty good NFL prospects, but top of their position type of good, which is outstanding.

Everybody is also saying they have the resources, so there's no reason to think this class will be anything other than good. I have a specific class or similar that i want to see and that will shape my opinion on if the Illini are ready to step up as real CFP winning contenders for the foreseeable future. They're very close. If they can hit on the recruits I think they can, I think they'll be there.
 
#319      
mhuml32
IlliniWu said:
I'm not sure how you can draw that this class isn't favorable right now. They've just locked in several visits with some real high impact talents. They have several targets who continue to move up to 4 stars (Some were already decently rated, some were lower rated).

The biggest thing is they have a QB who could wind up a 5 star when all is said and done. Lopati continues to move up across every rating platform with many camps and events coming. Already proved to be arguably the best QB in the Under Armour game as a junior. That's a ton of credibility.

The biggest unknown is how quickly this staff will lock in with recruiting. So far it looks alright. IMO they have a real shot to bring in a lot of these guys they're targeting due to a few factors. They were first or very early in a lot of their recruitment.

These players have now grown up seeing a lot of success and accolades at Illinois. Plenty of big time moments. Coach B has one of the best situations as far as stability. They've shown the ability to develop players into not only pretty good NFL prospects, but top of their position type of good, which is outstanding.

Everybody is also saying they have the resources, so there's no reason to think this class will be anything other than good. I have a specific class or similar that i want to see and that will shape my opinion on if the Illini are ready to step up as real CFP winning contenders for the foreseeable future. They're very close. If they can hit on the recruits I think they can, I think they'll be there.
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The statement was about in-state recruiting. Almost all of the players they have locked in for official visits are out-of-state.
 
#320      
217sports
mhuml32 said:
The statement was about in-state recruiting. Almost all of the players they have locked in for official visits are out-of-state.
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Also the guys we hired mainly have out of state connections so that is not going to help the potential lack of top in state guys. It seems like it is almost too top heavy where those guys are looking to get bigger NIL than what we are going to offer freshman (outside of Lopati) and we won't have the playing time to give them early as well now that we are a better team. Definitely annoying to see from that crop of kids, but we will see where the chips fall. At the end of the day just get me the talent, wherever they may be from
 
#321      
therealmiket86
217sports said:
Also the guys we hired mainly have out of state connections so that is not going to help the potential lack of top in state guys. It seems like it is almost too top heavy where those guys are looking to get bigger NIL than what we are going to offer freshman (outside of Lopati) and we won't have the playing time to give them early as well now that we are a better team. Definitely annoying to see from that crop of kids, but we will see where the chips fall. At the end of the day just get me the talent, wherever they may be from
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Cash is king. If we want to get the top guys it’ll cost a lot of money
 
#322      
aaeismacgychel
mhuml32 said:
I should expand. Missing on Parks is telling because it will start to make the replication of last year's recruiting success easier or harder. It doesn't mean missing him closes the door, which is why I said telling. Illinois has continued to make headway into the top recruits (rankings, offers) within State of Illinois. You can decide your cut-off (top 5,10, 15), it's showing signs on continually improving; last year culminated in Hankins (#5) and Rankin (#7). There were also multiple others (Mack - #1, Anderson - #9, Tilson - #10, Riordan - #12) that Illinois was serious contenders. Ignoring the final results, it's a great sign that Illinois had serious jobs on 6 of the top 12 in-state prospects.

The 2027 class isn't looking as favorable. There is going to be prospect ranking movement, offers will be committable or not, etc., but the current environment has less players that are seriously interested in Illinois than last year. Right now it's looking like Illinois has chances at three, maybe four names. Therefore, you already need to have a higher conversion rate than last year. Parks, Wagner, and Justin Johnson could be argued as Illinois' best chances. If they miss on Parks, the math is only getting higher. If they secure Parks, then a coin flip on Johnson or Wagner (or thinking bigger, with MJC) makes it much easier to see in-state success being maintained or possibly better!

Illinois could recruit really well outside of Illinois, they might identify under-ranked in-state players that ultimately will be ranked higher, or other factors that overcome this.
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mhuml32 said:
It's very competitive but this will be a telling recruitment if the staff can replicate last year's success or not.
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I certainly see where you're coming from, but based on the number of elite schools after Parks, this seems like a significant jump up in recruiting battle than last year (where Bret and the staff had phenomenal wins over some elite schools). If it makes sense, last year seemed we could win some battles where 1 or 2 elites showed some form of interest, whereas the Parks recruiting seems like one of those big time big boy recruiting battles.

So I'd almost say the opposite- that if we win this one it would be extremely telling, and that we can now win the elite recruiting battles (a sign that we've started taking the leap forward to upper tier program), while losing it wouldn't tell much aside from simply suggesting we're at elite big boy program tier yet and the requisite cash flow that entails. Very difficult to win these type of battles otherwise.
 
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