That’s a good theory. Robert has an article going over his and it isn’t all that different:
If I put together a depth chart for a 5-man secondary right now, I'd go with Juice Clarke, Xavier Scott, Tanner Heckel, Matt Bailey, and Mac Resetich. Their backups are much harder to list (especially since we might have one guy who is the backup for, say, both corner positions). But beyond those five, when looking for the 3-or-4 other guys who will be part of the rotation this fall, the defensive coaches will choose from this list:
RJ Jones
Nick Hankins Jr.
Jakwon Morris
Lavon Williams
Isaiah Williams
Xanai Scott
Andre Lovett Jr.
Jacob Eberhart
Almirian Thomas
Ben Clawson
Deuce Fillmore
Des Stroughton
Tywan Cox
Kaedyn Cobbs
Caden Considine
James Finley
That is INSANE.
I'm just listing the backups. It's absolute insanity. Even with a five-man secondary, I can assemble a FOUR DEEP and still have players left over.
Maybe this is the best way to frame that for you:
- 2016 roster: 14 defensive backs
- 2026 roster: 21 defensive backs
This is a max-out. Plain and simple.
And it's not just defensive backs. Look at defensive line. There are only three DL positions for this defense (the guys working on the outside edges will all be linebackers) and our roster currently has a FIVE DEEP at those three positions. But that apparently wasn't enough so in the last month we added a DE from Division II (Ean Rhea) and another Juco defensive tackle (Deon Freeman). So now we're just one player away from a six-deep.
Yes, other schools are adding 20 more scholarship players as well. But I feel like a lot of those other schools are more top-heavy, if you will. I don't know if this will make any sense but it feels like others have a strategy of spending resources on 8's and 9's at key spots and then players #86 through #105 are a bunch of 3's and 2's (project freshmen and former walk-ons) while our strategy is to depth our way to eight wins (6's and 7's everywhere but even spot #105 is filled with a 5).
If we're middle-of-the-pack in NIL – maybe 9th out of 18 in the Big Ten in terms of "real" NIL we can distribute (I'm guessing) – then we need to be smart about how we spend our resources.
And here's how I see us spending our resources: Spend on a QB (Altmyer, now Hauser), spend to retain (Bailey, Scott, Valentine, etc), and then add five "he might fit" defensive linemen instead of one superstar DL. You're not going to hit on every eval so max out the numbers. Don't be one of these schools that spends their revshare and NIL budget on 44 players for the two-deep; spread it out fairly evenly across 114 players.
I understand the "that's just because they can't land the top stars in the portal" response you're queuing up, but I really don't see it that way. I think about these things all the time, and since January, I haven't been able to shake the thought that our portal and high school recruiting focus is extreme depth and not buying proven starters.
USC added only one wide receiver this offseason but they got maybe the top WR in the portal (Terrell Anderson from NC State). I'm sure they paid a pretty penny. Illinois went out and added four transfer wide receivers - Jayshon Platt from FAU, Alex Perry from FIU, Ty Robinson from Ball State, and Eddie Kasper from Illinois State. I'm guessing the investment was... similar?
Assembling the 88 Illini list has me thinking one single thought the last 72 hours. I can't get said thought out of my head which means I need to write about it. The thought: I'm not sure everyone understands the current football roster building methodology. So I'm
www.illiniboard.com
^^^ the article goes much more in depth, I just pasted in a few of the highlights. Worth a subscription for sure.
