The Illinois Football Coaching Search

Status
Not open for further replies.
#1,527      

Deleted member 380722

D
Guest
Deleted member 380722
GrayGhost77 said:
My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Luke Fickell pass out at Black Dog last night. I guess it's pretty serious.
Click to expand...
AE3A56F0-C609-4137-B5A4-BACC83E34F7E.jpeg
 
#1,528      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
WINTer said:
I guess my weird problem with LL is that there's nothing special or exciting about the hire. And I admit that should not matter, results should. I guess I just had it in my mind that Josh would try for something bigger. LL is really just the classic, "This B1G job is open, let's fill it with the best MAC coach," move that any random AD can fall backward into. Like there's nothing really exciting about it. And that's why I look at it as just kinda ho hum. The other thing is that his resume is just so different from most MAC coaches that make the jump. He's not young. He's not a former P5 assistant. He has no P5 recruiting experience and minimal P5 coaching connections. There's a lot of easy check boxes that are missing. But of course it would be unfair to write off his insanely successful HC career. It's just kind of a weird resume, and an easy move. I think that's why I see it as more risky and less exciting that most.
Click to expand...
LL might not have “P5 recruiting experience” but if you look at who he offered while at Buffalo, there are a fair amount of players who ended up at P5 schools. So it isn’t like he’s never recruited P5 talent, he just wasn’t able to bring that much of it to Buffalo. Not too surprising. I find it hard to believe that some of those misses won’t become hits when he is at a P5 school. And if he adds some coaches to staff that have some P5 recruiting experience and success, and emphasizes IL/region, I think the learning curve won’t be unmanageable and results might not take as long as some people think Throw in what seems like will be a robust transfer market and his ability to coach kids up, and I think he can avoid a trough (really how much deeper can the trough be compared to Lovie’s) and get arrow pointing up quickly.
 
#1,529      

Deleted member 747671

D
Guest
Deleted member 747671
Let's not forget the transfer thing works both ways, and lots of teams will be using it. I think it's more of a risk for a lesser known coach like LL to not only pull in guys, but also keep the guys here that he wants, than it would be for an experienced P5 guy like BB.
 
#1,530      

TooHot4Tots

T
TooHot4Tots
Hmmm....so any truth to LL and Buffalo being in agreement with a new contract running through 2026 with a substantial pay increase? If so, seems like maybe JW does like the triple option
 
#1,532      

TriangleIL

T
TriangleIL
I was at my son's little league game yesterday evening. Anyways, one of his teammates dad's just happens to be a hot dog vendor. Of course, with no games going on, he still has to make money. He pushes a hot dog cart around Champaign. You may have seen him out there recently.

Anyways, he was pushing his cart last night and lo and behold, JW shows up to grab some food. Hot dog vendor dad see's JW with a few other folks, and chat's up JW to find out more about the coaching search.

JW divulges that he's interviewing some candidates for the job, and he has someone lined up. He is currently talking to a few unexpected names, and thinks we may still get a chance at one of them. JW wouldn't mention names, but he did say he was headed to Ohio Friday and then Charlotte on Saturday. Not sure what to make of it.
 
#1,533      

Ubermensch

Ubermensch
BOOM! Feed my ego.
Ubermensch
TriangleIL said:
I was at my son's little league game yesterday evening. Anyways, one of his teammates dad's just happens to be a hot dog vendor. Of course, with no games going on, he still has to make money. He pushes a hot dog cart around Champaign. You may have seen him out there recently.

Anyways, he was pushing his cart last night and lo and behold, JW shows up to grab some food. Hot dog vendor dad see's JW with a few other folks, and chat's up JW to find out more about the coaching search.

JW divulges that he's interviewing some candidates for the job, and he has someone lined up. He is currently talking to a few unexpected names, and thinks we may still get a chance at one of them. JW wouldn't mention names, but he did say he was headed to Ohio Friday and then Charlotte on Saturday. Not sure what to make of it.
Click to expand...
I relish these anecdotes.
 
#1,535      

DaChief4ever

D
Urbana
DaChief4ever
WINTer said:
I guess my weird problem with LL is that there's nothing special or exciting about the hire. And I admit that should not matter, results should. I guess I just had it in my mind that Josh would try for something bigger. LL is really just the classic, "This B1G job is open, let's fill it with the best MAC coach," move that any random AD can fall backward into. Like there's nothing really exciting about it. And that's why I look at it as just kinda ho hum. The other thing is that his resume is just so different from most MAC coaches that make the jump. He's not young. He's not a former P5 assistant. He has no P5 recruiting experience and minimal P5 coaching connections. There's a lot of easy check boxes that are missing. But of course it would be unfair to write off his insanely successful HC career. It's just kind of a weird resume, and an easy move. I think that's why I see it as more risky and less exciting that most.
Click to expand...
Good point...just don't like the idea of another " up n comer" from small school. Prefer someone established in the P5 as either HC, OC, DC or similar. Can't take a safe chance pick, clock is ticking, we are so far, far behind...we need to think aggressive
 
#1,537      

GrayGhost77

GrayGhost77
Centennial, CO
GrayGhost77
TooHot4Tots said:
Hmmm....so any truth to LL and Buffalo being in agreement with a new contract running through 2026 with a substantial pay increase? If so, seems like maybe JW does like the triple option
Click to expand...
Highest paid coach in the MAC makes a little over $1 million. I don't think that is going to be a deterrent if JW has talked to him given we'd likely pay triple that at least.
 
#1,538      

Illwinsagain

Illwinsagain
Cary, IL
Illwinsagain
bluemountain said:
Not sure I see that huge a risk. All evidence is the guy is a heck of a X's/O's and program building type coach. The next couple years will suck no matter what as the cupboard is pretty bare right now. HS coaches and players aren't dumb, if they see a coach that develops players, that is good with fundamentals and that treats the players well, the talent will find its way here. I actually view LL as being lower risk than BB and Fickell - we don't know that BB can win without the tail wind provided by a successful predecessor and we don't know how much of Fickell's success is due to him vs his coordinators, plus the expectations and price tag will be much higher
Click to expand...
My question, with open transfer rules and bonus 5th year for everyone that played this year, it will be madness this Spring with players changing spots. Isn't this a great opportunity to rebuild the roster? Not just with 5th yr seniors, but all classes. If a coach can identify what works in his system, and find that player that got recruited over, that could shorten our timeline. Now, of course, that would be much easier with a "name" coach coming in.

So, let's open up the alumni vault and get Bob or Gus to come on over!
 
#1,539      

Deleted member 747671

D
Guest
Deleted member 747671
TooHot4Tots said:
Hmmm....so any truth to LL and Buffalo being in agreement with a new contract running through 2026 with a substantial pay increase? If so, seems like maybe JW does like the triple option
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter. B1G pay is a whole different level.
 
#1,542      

Deleted member 29907

D
Guest
Deleted member 29907
TriangleIL said:
I was at my son's little league game yesterday evening. Anyways, one of his teammates dad's just happens to be a hot dog vendor. Of course, with no games going on, he still has to make money. He pushes a hot dog cart around Champaign. You may have seen him out there recently.

Anyways, he was pushing his cart last night and lo and behold, JW shows up to grab some food. Hot dog vendor dad see's JW with a few other folks, and chat's up JW to find out more about the coaching search.

JW divulges that he's interviewing some candidates for the job, and he has someone lined up. He is currently talking to a few unexpected names, and thinks we may still get a chance at one of them. JW wouldn't mention names, but he did say he was headed to Ohio Friday and then Charlotte on Saturday. Not sure what to make of it.
Click to expand...
I am not certain, but I think that pretty much means it is Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Revolver.
 
#1,550      

Illinois_2_AZ

Illinois_2_AZ
Illinois_2_AZ
OrangeSoda said:
That's why I'm starting to like the idea of LL. He could at the very least take the current roster and coach them up to be more competitive until he gets his guys in. And coach them up much more than anything our current staff has done.
Click to expand...
I agree. The other thing to consider is the transfer portal. Our opening day 2-Deep in 2021 could look completely different than it does right now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.