Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#426      
Boomauer
#431      
therealmiket86
GrayGhost77 said:
True enough on the recent history. Wasn't much D1 talent since I was in school there (early to mid 90s) until recently. Tim Stratton (Purdue TE) had probably been the last until a couple years ago and graduated in '96!
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The program has improved a ton recently but in that stretch they’ve still only produced 2 p4 players. Glenbard west is a program that’s produced a ton of talent
 
#433      
Ryllini
therealmiket86 said:
Rieff was their first p4 recruit in probably 30 years. Until recently York was a bad program

The 2 kids I mentioned with ic we offered and didn’t get. On the flip side KJ Parker camped at Illinois and we never offered. Now he’s at Iowa. 2027 recruit Josh Shaw and a couple P4 offers and no Illini offer

Driscoll was a good small school program but they didn’t produce p4 players.

Naz is a better example and a school we have never gotten a player from.

On the flip side look at a school like Montini. They’ve produced a lot of talent lately and we haven’t recruited their guys at all.

Our recruiting in the western suburbs in general has been historically bad. I know the coaches at these programs and they aren’t pushing kids from coming to Illinois. But if you’re only showing up to recruiting the kids the blue bloods are after it’ll be an uphill battle.
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I think the school in the western burbs we’ve had a hit rate with is DGN. Kyle Kleckner, Garrett Edwards, and now Vala. 🤣
Let’s see if Vala moves a needle.
I’m trying to understand the instate recruiting, but I'm coming up blank.
 
#437      
PopChampaign
Boomauer said:
The relationship we had before was insane," Lopati told ESPN in March. "They moved but they kept showing me their loyalty and all that. That really means something to me."

Lopati talking about Michigan's Whittingham and his offensive co-ordinator. Loyalty means something to him...hmm, interesting. 🤔
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He was never truly loyal to us, didn’t need to be either. He just came out of high school, and with NIL now, I’d chase the biggest bag too, especially when there’s M’s involved.

It hits different when a guy who actually plays for us decides to leave. We don’t know this kid! if he picks Michigan or whoever over us for more money, so be it, no complaining. Either we match the money or we move on. Would love to see Bret have success and make the playoffs so we can get more money to work with.
 
#438      
aaeismacgychel
therealmiket86 said:
That’s why we really fumbled the bag not making a bowl game in 23. It changes the perception of the program to say we’ve been to 4 consecutive bowl games. I’m sure if we have some high profile wins it’ll help get more money going to the program.

not winning the big ten west in 2022 was also another time we didn’t capitalize.
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I don't know. While I thought so at the time that we once again fumbled away momentum and failed to use '22 as a springboard, considering our response in '24 and '25 with a 10 and 9 win season and beating SEC teams back to back in bowl games, I just really don't think the 23 season has much of any bearing on what's going on now with recruiting. While you're clearly more attuned to our top-end donors complaints and worries, 3 years ago seems to me might as well be ancient history at this point. I just can't see many if any donors or recruits or even opposing coaches using '23 as something to keep our program in a negative light. Seems completely irrational that would have even the slightest bit of relevance compared to the past 2 seasons...

I agree that the B10 West in 2022 was there for the taking and we fell on our face, and that certainly was costly. But if the past 2 seasons hasn't resulted in a major perception change to the program, then I do wonder if playing in the 2022 B10 Title Game really would have been the groundbreaking thing we all thought it would be. Our performance these past 2 years should be monumentally groundbreaking, but if you're not sensing that as the perception from those we're trying to recruit and our donors, then honestly, that does give me a lot of consternation and pause, because the only thing Bret hasn't done these past 2 years is get us into the CFP, and if that's the "prove it" donors and recruits are looking for before we can get even close to financial support, that's a tough tough tough task.

It seems more logical in my eyes that the same high end donor pool is being asked to contribute by both football and basketball and they see basketball as the one closer to winning a Natty and easier to buy, and as such are putting a much higher share of their donations towards hoops, thereby causing us to simply not be able to give competitive offers to FB recruits due to the increase in market value for recruits and the increase in NIL FB war chests from other schools. That would also suck in many ways as that would mean our basketball success is the big obstacle to football recruiting success, but it seems far more rational to me that that is happening rather than recruits and donors looking at the last 2 years and saying "yeah, cool story bro, but you had a losing record 3 years ago"
 
#439      
AirTran
Does anyone have insight on how Kentucky is going to have this much to spend on both hoops and football? They are lining up to be the biggest spender in the country.
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Yeah, I can get it
 
#440      
Illiniguy74
The staff changes may have been more of a downgrade on the recruiting front than we’d like to think.

Not even a full year back — we did some serious work.
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We had a problem with defensive performance and an ability to attract talent to run the scheme. We chose a Xs and Os solution over a Jimmies and Joes. We'll see but call me skeptical.
 
#441      
pvaughn8
IlliniWu said:
I would wait until the season and towards signing day to be overly concerned. Even the last two post Murray and O'Neil are major impact players who have/are visiting. You keep stacking those players with this roster and that is an elite team.
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This time last year we saw what the beginnings of a good recruiting class look like and this ain't it
 
#442      
Lakes333
Good riddance kid. Of all the schools, you pick Michigan. He will probably transfer two more times before his career his over. Cant believe he is not a five star now due to committing to đź’©
 
#443      
bdutts
PopChampaign said:
He was never truly loyal to us, didn’t need to be either. He just came out of high school, and with NIL now, I’d chase the biggest bag too, especially when there’s M’s involved.

It hits different when a guy who actually plays for us decides to leave. We don’t know this kid! if he picks Michigan or whoever over us for more money, so be it, no complaining. Either we match the money or we move on. Would love to see Bret have success and make the playoffs so we can get more money to work with.
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It would be refreshing if a kid just came out and said that he went to X school because they paid the most. Then it might actually make some governing body set up Pay to Play rules that make sense.
 
#444      
Pikeillinifan
Until we can get to the next level with $, this is how it’s going to be, especially with the hoops run. A couple extra million $ is going to hoops, that perhaps could have gone to football.

This new world is 75% about building a roster with $, and we can’t compete at the highest level in football - at least not yet.

Maybe one day the university will stop alienating super rich alumni making things way harder than they should be.

That all said, we are light years ahead of where we used to be.
 
#445      
IlliniWu
pvaughn8 said:
This time last year we saw what the beginnings of a good recruiting class look like and this ain't it
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As we all know, the previous year has nothing to do with this year, especially with all the rule changes and such.
 
#447      
the juiceman cometh
To look on the bright side of things, I assume if we completely fumble on prep recruiting this class, that would just mean more money available to spend on transfers in the offseason? Given that we brought in a really big class '26 class, we probably wanted a smaller '27 class anyway, and I think the transfer portal provides an opportunity to correct recruiting whiffs on the back end.

That being said, hopefully we can gain some recruiting momentum soon.
 
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