All I know is, when Illinois locks up classes full of quality in-state talent early, they tend to do very, very well. When they try to shoot the moon, it has blown up in our face literally every single time over the past decade-plus.
Not meant as a challenge, but what's the most recent example of an early class of quality in-state talent?
2009 -- DJ, BP3 and JoeTales -- Good group on paper, turned out fine as a class.
2010 -- Richmond, Leonard and Head -- Great group on paper, but not good production.
2011 -- Egwu, Abrams, Shaw, Henry -- Good group on paper, but 50/50 production isn't great, either.
I guess my thinking is that even getting the "quality" guys early hasn't worked out that well for us either, in the last decade-plus.