Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

#101      
ChiefGritty
therealmiket86 said:
Obviously a guy like Sullivan from wsu doesn’t cost much.
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I don't think that's obvious at all.

The market is exploding, and the market for size is exploding most of all.

College is different than the NFL where between 32 teams and a wider age cohort there's kind of enough athletic big guys to go around. Athletic big guys are THE resource of college football and always have been. QB is still the most important and valuable position on the field (and probably increasingly so in college) but you can get away with game-manager QB play in college if you're superior in the trenches, it's very different than the pros.

Our staff planned for this offseason calculating a market value for our eligible to return defensive front seven guys that was unrealistically low. They thought they had the money to improve in those areas and they didn't.

That's not a "program over, fire everybody" mistake, let's not be ridiculous. But it's going to be a costly one in 2026.
 
#105      
therealmiket86
ChiefGritty said:
I don't think that's obvious at all.

The market is exploding, and the market for size is exploding most of all.

College is different than the NFL where between 32 teams and a wider age cohort there's kind of enough athletic big guys to go around. Athletic big guys are THE resource of college football and always have been. QB is still the most important and valuable position on the field (and probably increasingly so in college) but you can get away with game-manager QB play in college if you're superior in the trenches, it's very different than the pros.

Our staff planned for this offseason calculating a market value for our eligible to return defensive front seven guys that was unrealistically low. They thought they had the money to improve in those areas and they didn't.

That's not a "program over, fire everybody" mistake, let's not be ridiculous. But it's going to be a costly one in 2026.
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Realistically how much do you think a guy like that would cost. He was lightly recruited as a prep and played 13 snaps last year
 
#107      
mhuml32
Fly Illini Fly! said:
The difference is the market has just flown by. "Choices" made by the coaching staff, in general, is probably not the issue.
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The staff cleaned up on the recruiting trail last year and NIL was a big part of that. The situation flipping the following offseason simply because of a lack of resources seems unlikely. Also, the staff had committed big money to Lopati. Now those resources are available. The question is why recruiting is still lagging behind. I'm warming to the idea that the new (defensive) coaching staff is facing a steep learning curve on the recruiting trail and it's harming prep recruiting, but I don't have any specific evidence to support that theory.
 
#108      
ChiefGritty
therealmiket86 said:
Realistically how much do you think a guy like that would cost. He was lightly recruited as a prep and played 13 snaps last year
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I don't know the going prices in football well enough to give you a number.

What I can say is that WE think he's promising, and while there's not a lot of tape he can still stand on a scale, and he was listed at 255 coming out of high school and on our roster page he's at 290. Those weren't hidden facts to others, and to have played interior DL as a true freshman at Wazzu speaks to a player already exceeding expectations. Illinois was not his only suitor, there was a market for his services.

I guess what I'm saying is, Connor Sullivan's price is what we THOUGHT Angelo McCullom's price would be, but Angelo McCullom got way, way more than that.

The whole defensive front 7 is like that. Durojayie, Coenen, Jojo Hayden, Malachi Hood, it's not that our staff misjudged those players, it's that their accurate judgment of those players value was worth more in the market than they realized, and so money we thought could bring upgrades instead brought fewer and more speculative bodies.
 
#109      
therealmiket86
ChiefGritty said:
I don't know the going prices in football well enough to give you a number.

What I can say is that WE think he's promising, and while there's not a lot of tape he can still stand on a scale, and he was listed at 255 coming out of high school and on our roster page he's at 290. Those weren't hidden facts to others, and to have played interior DL as a true freshman at Wazzu speaks to a player already exceeding expectations. Illinois was not his only suitor, there was a market for his services.

I guess what I'm saying is, Connor Sullivan's price is what we THOUGHT Angelo McCullom's price would be, but Angelo McCullom got way, way more than that.

The whole defensive front 7 is like that. Durojayie, Coenen, Jojo Hayden, Malachi Hood, it's not that our staff misjudged those players, it's that their accurate judgment of those players value was worth more in the market than they realized, and so money we thought could bring upgrades instead brought fewer and more speculative bodies.
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He is getting no where near the money McCollum was offered. Angelo would’ve played a lot Sullivan won’t get on the field. We don’t have the money to pay a prospect like that hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit. Guys like him make very little
 
#110      
therealmiket86
mhuml32 said:
The staff cleaned up on the recruiting trail last year and NIL was a big part of that. The situation flipping the following offseason simply because of a lack of resources seems unlikely. Also, the staff had committed big money to Lopati. Now those resources are available. The question is why recruiting is still lagging behind. I'm warming to the idea that the new (defensive) coaching staff is facing a steep learning curve on the recruiting trail and it's harming prep recruiting, but I don't have any specific evidence to support that theory.
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One thing that’s a little different is they paid guys like Hankins and Eberhart to come in and play right away. As good as Wagner is it’ll be several years until he can start at tackle
 
#113      
Chukwuwumba
Scoregasm said:
I thought that would be Knapik?
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Werner podcast mentioned possible starters while also stating they have no idea because practice isn’t open, and no depth chart. Won’t know til fall or likely game 1.

But Martin is their guess for LT, Knapik (Aiden?) at RT and other one NK? is hurt/ not mentioned I think.

LG some guy whose first/last name starts with M. Renfro at C with TJ pushing. Henderson at RG fwit.
 
#114      
mhuml32
therealmiket86 said:
One thing that’s a little different is they paid guys like Hankins and Eberhart to come in and play right away. As good as Wagner is it’ll be several years until he can start at tackle
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That's the (economic) conundrum for programs like Illinois: The hardest guys to acquire from a cost-to-playing time are going to be offensive and defensive linemen. There are countless freshman defensive backs and wide receivers that play as true freshman. That means their cost stays low because supply is high. It's a financial mistake to ignore paying o-line/d-line guys because they only get more expensive later from the portal, but the risk is much higher. The program is going to have to take on some of those risks to have good linemen. Bielema and staff are paid a lot of money to take those calculated risks.
 
#115      
Fly Illini Fly!
Everyone thought in the winter it would be Knapnik and TJ Taylor at LT and RT.

But sounds like Martin is ahead of Taylor.

What I like this year as opposed to last year is we have true tackle bodies. Davis was extremely value, but Priestly would've functioned better at guard and was undersized for a tackle.

All of our guys this year are 6"6 or above.
 
#117      
therealmiket86
mhuml32 said:
That's the (economic) conundrum for programs like Illinois: The hardest guys to acquire from a cost-to-playing time are going to be offensive and defensive linemen. There are countless freshman defensive backs and wide receivers that play as true freshman. That means their cost stays low because supply is high. It's a financial mistake to ignore paying o-line/d-line guys because they only get more expensive later from the portal, but the risk is much higher. The program is going to have to take on some of those risks to have good linemen. Bielema and staff are paid a lot of money to take those calculated risks.
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They did pay for champ smith
 
#118      
IlliniWu
therealmiket86 said:
One thing that’s a little different is they paid guys like Hankins and Eberhart to come in and play right away. As good as Wagner is it’ll be several years until he can start at tackle
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Pay them all. One good thing with the Hankins signing is he'll contribute if not help win outright this year. Special player.
 
#120      
NashvILLe05
mhuml32 said:
I'm warming to the idea that the new (defensive) coaching staff is facing a steep learning curve on the recruiting trail and it's harming prep recruiting, but I don't have any specific evidence to support that theory.
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That’s a great point. The Montana folks are going from recruiting 0-2 star players to 3-5 star talents. Different game with bigger egos, agents, handlers, etc. the rapid evolution of the past 4-5 years is already a major learning curve for those with decades of P4 experience let alone folks coming from a lower level.
 
#122      
therealmiket86
IlliniWu said:
Pay them all. One good thing with the Hankins signing is he'll contribute if not help win outright this year. Special player.
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I wish we can make it rain and bring in all the top recruits. Where we are as a program it’s hard to have that kind of money sitting on the sidelines. It hurts in the long run because going on the open market to find linemen isn’t cheap. It looks like we got a diamond in the rough with Knapik but you can’t consistently do that.
 
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