Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

#201      
Second place is 1st loser
FloridaMan said:
Could we possibly interest him in some time at, say, linebacker?
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Telling a kid who has been a RB the majority of his life to go to the other side of the ball and read, react and tackle at the elite level needed as a LB is kind of ridiculous.

You just don't step in and play that position like it's the family Thanksgiving game.
 
#204      
JucoIllini10
Second place is 1st loser said:
This is the issue. They are low budget because we don't have a large budget to play with. You have to allocate the money as well as possible. We don't have enough to sufficiently feed both sides of the ball. We have a really good offense and a really bad defense. I shouldn't have to tell you where the dollars have gone.
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Iowa, Washington, and other successful teams have similar NIL limitations as Illinois. The allocation of limited NIL funds makes the GM role crucial to this team's success. BB obviously has final say with roster/$$$ decisions but is Embleton the right guy for the GM role?

BB and Embleton rightfully deserve heavy criticism for using a large chunk of limited funds on an in-the-box safety and a nickelback coming off a season ending injury while their Front 7 was lacking in talent. I'm greatful for Bailey and Scott but they ultimately play positions that do not have nearly the same impact as DL and Edge rushers.
 
#211      
therealmiket86
JucoIllini10 said:
Iowa, Washington, and other successful teams have similar NIL limitations as Illinois. The allocation of limited NIL funds makes the GM role crucial to this team's success. BB obviously has final say with roster/$$$ decisions but is Embleton the right guy for the GM role?

BB and Embleton rightfully deserve heavy criticism for using a large chunk of limited funds on an in-the-box safety and a nickelback coming off a season ending injury while their Front 7 was lacking in talent. I'm greatful for Bailey and Scott but they ultimately play positions that do not have nearly the same impact as DL and Edge rushers.
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We spent a lot to retain Bailey, juice and x. You would think a competent GM would probably a decision on what 2 to bring back and use the
Money saved on dline. The problem is we were way off on what the market was going to be. We also valued players like Coenen like he was a rotational player and he went out and got starter money. Tomiwa is the 8th ranked dt on pff. It would’ve been nice to spend the money there. We also spent a lot of money on a tackle who was horrible at Colorado state and had been bad here. Just like the TJ Taylor money could’ve been used for Coenen. Instead we paid a lot for him to be a 6th spring guard.
 
#212      
Scoregasm
therealmiket86 said:
We spent a lot to retain Bailey, juice and x. You would think a competent GM would probably a decision on what 2 to bring back and use the
Money saved on dline. The problem is we were way off on what the market was going to be. We also valued players like Coenen like he was a rotational player and he went out and got starter money. Tomiwa is the 8th ranked dt on pff. It would’ve been nice to spend the money there. We also spent a lot of money on a tackle who was horrible at Colorado state and had been bad here. Just like the TJ Taylor money could’ve been used for Coenen. Instead we paid a lot for him to be a 6th spring guard.
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I think we can definitely spend more wisely than we have. Hopefully the staff is learning from this and improves going forward.
 
#213      
therealmiket86
Scoregasm said:
I think we can definitely spend more wisely than we have. Hopefully the staff is learning from this and improves going forward.
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What’s interesting was before the big thing was retention. This past year it wasn’t and we had a horrible portal class. It’s easy to say it now but we would’ve been better keeping hood, hayden,warren, sanders, hollins..etc
 
#216      
mhuml32
I'd rather the coaching staff stay out of the defensive line portal. There's been some hits, but there's been plenty of misses. Plus, it's really expensive. A miss on a d-line portal addition is going to have a higher level of risk with the team's budget where it is comparable to B1G competition. I really loved the 2026 defensive line prep class (Tony B, Crim, Alexander, Liggins, Bennett). That's the path forward in scarcity model: prep recruiting + retention + transfer portal additions where you have recruiting strengths (e.g., QB).

The worry is the 2027 recruiting class has one d-line recruit (Newman, unless someone else from OL transitions there), which means the staff is thinking of spending big on d-line transfer portal additions. I understand that there are going to be immediate needs, so you'll have to add from the portal, but the one in 2027 just means the long-term need is only growing (and further fueling the needs to be addressed through the portal).
 
#217      
therealmiket86
mhuml32 said:
I'd rather the coaching staff stay out of the defensive line portal. There's been some hits, but there's been plenty of misses. Plus, it's really expensive. A miss on a d-line portal addition is going to have a higher level of risk with the team's budget where it is comparable to B1G competition. I really loved the 2026 defensive line prep class (Tony B, Crim, Alexander, Liggins, Bennett). That's the path forward in scarcity model: prep recruiting + retention + transfer portal additions where you have recruiting strengths (e.g., QB).

The worry is the 2027 recruiting class has one d-line recruit (Newman, unless someone else from OL transitions there), which means the staff is thinking of spending big on d-line transfer portal additions. I understand that there are going to be immediate needs, so you'll have to add from the portal, but the one in 2027 just means the long-term need is only growing (and further fueling the needs to be addressed through the portal).
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I would’ve rather we retained Coenen for 800k than pay for Christian Martin. The TJ Taylor money also could’ve been used to keep guys. We wasted a lot of money at other positions. With what we paid Champ Smith he was going to have to get on the field. Morris was paid a lot and he can’t get on the field
 
#218      
STLflyinIllini
therealmiket86 said:
I would’ve rather we retained Coenen for 800k than pay for Christian Martin. The TJ Taylor money also could’ve been used to keep guys. We wasted a lot of money at other positions. With what we paid Champ Smith he was going to have to get on the field. Morris was paid a lot and he can’t get on the field
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I didn't realize TJ Taylor was paid a lot. I would agree that was a mistake. Even without the 20/20 hindsight, where were they expecting him to play? We paid for Martin, kept Knapkik and Henderson, brought in Renfro and Matelau. Seems like a poor decision to pay up for a backup OL when the DL is in the state it's in.
 
#219      
IlliniWu
therealmiket86 said:
I would’ve rather we retained Coenen for 800k than pay for Christian Martin. The TJ Taylor money also could’ve been used to keep guys. We wasted a lot of money at other positions. With what we paid Champ Smith he was going to have to get on the field. Morris was paid a lot and he can’t get on the field
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I dont have a problem with those moves. Martin has been decent. Taylor's tape was very good and I'd rather have these guys than not. There just needs to be more money that's all.
 
#220      
therealmiket86
IlliniWu said:
I dont have a problem with those moves. Martin has been decent. Taylor's tape was very good and I'd rather have these guys than not. There just needs to be more money that's all.
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Martin has graded out very bad this year and was getting manhandled against SIU. We didn’t need to pay him a lot. I would rather the TJ Taylor money be used on someone who could get on the field. We’ve had played 6 different guards this year and he still can’t get on the field. That shows you how far down the depth chart he is
 
#221      
therealmiket86
STLflyinIllini said:
I didn't realize TJ Taylor was paid a lot. I would agree that was a mistake. Even without the 20/20 hindsight, where were they expecting him to play? We paid for Martin, kept Knapkik and Henderson, brought in Renfro and Matelau. Seems like a poor decision to pay up for a backup OL when the DL is in the state it's in.
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We also paid Champ a lot of money. They were going to have to get him on the field. You also had TJ and Hanson coming back for Guard depth. You really didn’t need to add Taylor or Washington the other juco tackle.
 
#222      
mhuml32
It's a precarious game to go into each individual transaction now that (some) results have rolled in. Coenen is having an awesome year and he's providing more than $800k in value to Michigan State, but no one was howling about his specific loss beyond the defensive line depth in the offseason. Or at least to the point of how he's performing now.

This is why I'd rather stick to strategy: is the plan next year to go heavy into the transfer portal for offensive and defensive lines? Because that's how the roster outlook is trending. They also need to get a starting QB. It's a wish list with a very heavy acquisition cost. It's possible that someone like Gies or Khan are going to dig deeper and solve at least some of the financial math, but it still feels like the wrong strategy to be this dependent on the transfer portal and believe you can be on the lower end of funding model for B1G football. I'd rather look at the programs that are succeeding with similar budgets (Iowa, Minnesota) and have a similar roster development path than the ones struggling (Maryland, Nebraska, Wisconsin). Even Wisconsin and Nebraska are trending back towards development and retention with their increased spending on preps.
 
#223      
fuddrules
mhuml32 said:
It's a precarious game to go into each individual transaction now that (some) results have rolled in. Coenen is having an awesome year and he's providing more than $800k in value to Michigan State, but no one was howling about his specific loss beyond the defensive line depth in the offseason. Or at least to the point of how he's performing now.

This is why I'd rather stick to strategy: is the plan next year to go heavy into the transfer portal for offensive and defensive lines? Because that's how the roster outlook is trending. They also need to get a starting QB. It's a wish list with a very heavy acquisition cost. It's possible that someone like Gies or Khan are going to dig deeper and solve at least some of the financial math, but it still feels like the wrong strategy to be this dependent on the transfer portal and believe you can be on the lower end of funding model for B1G football. I'd rather look at the programs that are succeeding with similar budgets (Iowa, Minnesota) and have a similar roster development path than the ones struggling (Maryland, Nebraska, Wisconsin). Even Wisconsin and Nebraska are trending back towards development and retention with their increased spending on preps.
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The only OL loss would be Renfro. Retention should be the goal.

I don't think they need a large group of players on D. Get the defense alignments and assignments squared away. Add a couple of top DL, a few LB's and a safety or two. 5 or 6 key guys would make a huge difference, IMO. Retain and train the rest.

Illinois isn't that far away despite lacking overall talent compared to the top P2 teams.
 
#224      
aaeismacgychel
therealmiket86 said:
We spent a lot to retain Bailey, juice and x. You would think a competent GM would probably a decision on what 2 to bring back and use the
Money saved on dline. The problem is we were way off on what the market was going to be. We also valued players like Coenen like he was a rotational player and he went out and got starter money. Tomiwa is the 8th ranked dt on pff. It would’ve been nice to spend the money there. We also spent a lot of money on a tackle who was horrible at Colorado state and had been bad here. Just like the TJ Taylor money could’ve been used for Coenen. Instead we paid a lot for him to be a 6th spring guard.
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So alternate theory since it's difficult for me to fathom we were that far off in our assessment of what DL players would cost despite it being fairly well known at the time that DL was by far the highest market value position on the defensive side. Maybe there was over-optimism that we would be bringing in more NIL than we were actually able to procure? Or they thought they could sell some of the boosters on donating more midway through portal season and it just didn't come to fruition possibly because they were already tapped out from basketball spending?

Aside from that, yeah, the Colorado State players are doing pretty much what their projections and numbers suggested. Just some flat out misses there.
 
#225      
217sports
mhuml32 said:
It's a precarious game to go into each individual transaction now that (some) results have rolled in. Coenen is having an awesome year and he's providing more than $800k in value to Michigan State, but no one was howling about his specific loss beyond the defensive line depth in the offseason. Or at least to the point of how he's performing now.

This is why I'd rather stick to strategy: is the plan next year to go heavy into the transfer portal for offensive and defensive lines? Because that's how the roster outlook is trending. They also need to get a starting QB. It's a wish list with a very heavy acquisition cost. It's possible that someone like Gies or Khan are going to dig deeper and solve at least some of the financial math, but it still feels like the wrong strategy to be this dependent on the transfer portal and believe you can be on the lower end of funding model for B1G football. I'd rather look at the programs that are succeeding with similar budgets (Iowa, Minnesota) and have a similar roster development path than the ones struggling (Maryland, Nebraska, Wisconsin). Even Wisconsin and Nebraska are trending back towards development and retention with their increased spending on preps.
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Offensive line everyone but Renfro has atleast another year. Hopefully McMillian can take his spot and Champ Smith takes a spot if someone transfers.

Defensive line yes it will be mostly transfers for impact starters (especially at edge). The freshman look nice - Liggins, Crim, Tony B - but probably not ready to start so bring in competition. Hopefully they are not counting on the JUCO guys they got as starters next year, but maybe they really improve. I expect defense we will have a lot of transfers too with the scheme change coming so late in the offseason so that won't be great. LB room will need to be completely revamped of course just talent wise.

If we want to compete we will need to be around 25-30m NIL wise to be in the top half of the Big Ten next year and that will be inclusive of a new QB. Hopefully we can atleast get to 7 wins to say that we continued momentum through a year that was expected to be closer to rebuilding year.
 
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