QB Pete DiNovo transfers to Illinois, eligible immediately

SescIllini · Sep 18, 2017

Not convinced Cam Thomas is QB of future, possibly give us one year. Think the 2018 QB commits are the future.

CARPET · Sep 18, 2017

9 passes in 4 years ?

Oh Lordy

I like any young man who wants to be an Illini- This kid is not our answer at QB as a walk on.

Hard to see all the hype with this new player. http://www.espn.com/college-football/player/stats/_/id/551185/pete-dinovo

basementcheetos · Sep 18, 2017

VAIllini35 said:
This seems as somewhat of a Hail Mary - no?

This is a depth move only. Literally we have the worst QB depth in the country. Between the Fitzgerald transfer and Lawson not making it to campus we have two, TWO qbs on the roster to play this year and one of them is a gray shirt. This just ensures if both Crouch and George get hurt we don't burn the Thomas redshirt this year.

basementcheetos · Sep 18, 2017

SescIllini said:
Not convinced Cam Thomas is QB of future, possibly give us one year. Think the 2018 QB commits are the future.

Yes. I believe they will open up the QB competition in 2019 to Thomas and hopefully the Three commits. We desperately need to build depth at this position.

Neidermeyer · Sep 18, 2017

So this is it for Pete? Seems very odd - I agree it's for depth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhvNU8_QS0U

BRucks · Sep 18, 2017

FT35 said:
Not to answer for SFC but the staff doesn't think he's ready to run a college offense as of yet. He's still learning the playbook and they really don't want to waste a year of eligibility when he would have, more than likely, a negative impact.

Overall, you could argue that a move like this shows that they have more confidence in Thomas in the long-term. They genuinely feel like he is their QB of the future and no one would argue that 2021 Thomas is > 2017 Thomas. If they didn't have that much confidence in him then they probably wouldn't care about the lost year of eligibility. Just look at how many true Freshmen they have played, including a couple of guys who have only played on Special Teams so far (Smith and Mondesir).

Anything can happen between now and 2021 but that's the rational behind adding someone like this.

If they felt like he was the heir apparent why would they sign three QBs for next year?

Regarding the new transfer - how do you register for classes five weeks into the semester?

basementcheetos · Sep 18, 2017

BRucks said:
If they felt like he was the heir apparent why would they sign three QBs for next year?

Regarding the new transfer - how do you register for classes five weeks into the semester?

He has been enrolled the whole semester, just not cleared to play football.

FT35 · Sep 18, 2017

BRucks said:
If they felt like he was the heir apparent why would they sign three QBs for next year?

For depth and class balance. They only got one QB in the last class after losing three QBs (Peters, Fitzgerald and Lunt). They attempted to get Estes and Alstott in the last class as well but these guys ended up at Minnesota and Purdue. We all know what happened with Lawson.

They have to play the numbers game as well when it comes to QBs since injuries do happen. There are also QBs who don't pan out and end up transferring if they are buried on the depth chart or are reluctant to move to a different position.

I am biased towards Coran but none of these guys really stand out at the moment. Thomas is at least there practicing and learning the offense.

jmwillini · Sep 18, 2017

Could this be as simple as a kid knowing he wasn't going to play and seeing an opportunity to further his education knowing he was going to be the emergency quarterback?

EfremWinters84 · Sep 18, 2017

jmwillini said:
Could this be as simple as a kid knowing he wasn't going to play and seeing an opportunity to further his education knowing he was going to be the emergency quarterback?

You nailed it. EMERGENCY is the operative word.

There's no way he's playing ahead of J. George. Among other things, just look at their comparative college experience at QB.

We are soooooo weak at Quarterback. Worst in (at least) the past 40 years.

jmwillini · Sep 18, 2017

icengineer said:
No scholarship. That's why he is immediately eligible. But a degree from UI is a degree from UI. Paid for or not it still carries some weight. Anyone know what graduate degree he is working on?

Sorry, thought grad transfers got scholarships

blmillini · Sep 18, 2017

icengineer said:
No scholarship. That's why he is immediately eligible. But a degree from UI is a degree from UI. Paid for or not it still carries some weight. Anyone know what graduate degree he is working on?

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Illiini · Sep 19, 2017

How long must this have been in the works, seeing that he's been at the university and in class since the beginning of the school year? One would think that you don't just walk up a couple of days after class starts and get registered in grad classes.

This ain't no community college. Even with the athletic department greasing the skids, they still had to be talking with him for more than a week.

Just wondering, what was he doing between graduation and enrolling at Illinois?

Sal Iacuzzo · Sep 19, 2017

Jon Octeus started class in the middle of October when he transferred to Purdue.

Joel Goodson · Sep 19, 2017

basementcheetos said:
This is a depth move only. Literally we have the worst QB depth in the country. Between the Fitzgerald transfer and Lawson not making it to campus we have two, TWO qbs on the roster to play this year and one of them is a gray shirt. This just ensures if both Crouch and George get hurt we don't burn the Thomas redshirt this year.

Exactly. Avoiding burning Thomas' redshirt should be the entire context of this debate. And in that context, this is an absolute no-brainer.

We're in triage mode at QB. Desperation makes one do strange things.

WesterveltVictoryCigar · Sep 19, 2017

icengineer said:
No scholarship. That's why he is immediately eligible.

No, he is immediately eligible due to the grad transfer waiver. Scholarship or no has nothing to do with that.

HR217 · Sep 19, 2017

He provides depth but I believe his plan is also to be a grad assistant next year?

Illwinsagain · Sep 19, 2017

Mike55 said:
Not that it'll make him the starter, but he's had our playbook for close to a month.

Has he been enrolled in college the whole time too?

Edit: Answered above

mhuml32 · Sep 19, 2017

EfremWinters84 said:
You nailed it. EMERGENCY is the operative word.

There's no way he's playing ahead of J. George. Among other things, just look at their comparative college experience at QB.

We are soooooo weak at Quarterback. Worst in (at least) the past 40 years.

Would be interesting to compare them to the 2005 group (Brasic, Flakes, Garza, Venegoni, Pasan, Blalock).

SampsonRelpenk · Sep 19, 2017

mhuml32 said:
Would be interesting to compare them to the 2005 group (Brasic, Flakes, Garza, Venegoni, Pasan, Blalock).

:hurl:

FT35 · Sep 19, 2017

It's interesting that he's coming here as a walk on. I remember someone in last year's recruiting thread was saying that we couldn't add graduate transfers because NCAA rules only allow you to extend 25 scholarships each calendar year and graduate transfers are included in that group. This isn't an issue with Dinovo since we didn't extend a scholarship to him.

Just looking at the Class of 2017, this makes sense since we are at exactly 25 extended scholarships for the calendar year if we count the early enrollees as getting scholarships this year as they started taking classes in January. This gets convoluted with the "back dating" of scholarships and "oversigning by three".

Watkins getting kicked off the team may have opened up the scholarship for Hayes but if we are at the limit then I guess we never expected Lawson to come here? That would also explain the lack of graduate transfers even though we currently only have 76 scholarship players and are 9 under the limit. An OL transfer like Logan Tuley-Tillman would have helped add depth this year as well.

Is this what happened here Mike55? Is that why Dinovo didn't get a scholarship?

BRucks · Sep 19, 2017

jmwillini said:
Could this be as simple as a kid knowing he wasn't going to play and seeing an opportunity to further his education knowing he was going to be the emergency quarterback?

Looking to go into coaching. Figured the Lovie network might help.

BRucks · Sep 19, 2017

FT35 said:
It's interesting that he's coming here as a walk on. I remember someone in last year's recruiting thread was saying that we couldn't add graduate transfers because NCAA rules only allow you to extend 25 scholarships each calendar year and graduate transfers are included in that group. This isn't an issue with Dinovo since we didn't extend a scholarship to him.

Just looking at the Class of 2017, this makes sense since we are at exactly 25 extended scholarships for the calendar year if we count the early enrollees as getting scholarships this year as they started taking classes in January. This gets convoluted with the "back dating" of scholarships and "oversigning by three".

Watkins getting kicked off the team may have opened up the scholarship for Hayes but if we are at the limit then I guess we never expected Lawson to come here? That would also explain the lack of graduate transfers even though we currently only have 76 scholarship players and are 9 under the limit. An OL transfer like Logan Tuley-Tillman would have helped add depth this year as well.

Is this what happened here Mike55? Is that why Dinovo didn't get a scholarship?

I don't think Hayes got a scholarship.

FT35 · Sep 19, 2017

BRucks said:
I don't think Hayes got a scholarship.

http://scout.com/college/illinois/A...s-a-late-addition-to-Illinois-footba-74900724

Hayes, who will be on scholarship, enrolled at Illinois for the summer session II, has been on campus for two weeks and will be on the roster for the 2017 season.

squeezegame · Sep 19, 2017

mhuml32 said:
Would be interesting to compare them to the 2005 group (Brasic, Flakes, Garza, Venegoni, Pasan, Blalock).

What about Scott Weaver... Johnny Johnson... and was it Jeff Hecklinski?