Not sure I’ve ever met anyone that likes PJ Fleck but obviously a lot of kids do. I can’t imagine he’s going to be at Minnesota much longer. He has been cleaning up in the state of Illinois which isn’t ideal.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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This is kind of off topic but I think he's gonna be a thorn in our side for a long time, especially with in state recruiting. He's from Illinois and has only left B1G country for a year to be an NFL position coach. I think if he leaves Minnesota it'll be for the NFL.
altenberger22
- South Carolina
I actually like/respect PJ Fleck. He reminds me a bit of Dabo Swinney with his (relatively) youthful exuberance and rah rah approach. I think many young athletes find that appealing, as charismatic personalities can be magnetic. As an alumnus and adult super fan of the program, I myself find both winning and running a clean program extremely appealing!
Another Georgia Tech CB for Blackburn. Barf
illinihawk16
- Chicago
Agreed. I grew up a town or two over from where he played in high school and watched him play at NIU, so admittedly I'm a bit of a sucker for the local kid going on to do great things story, but I'm a fan of his and really wanted him when we fired Beckman.
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I have no inside information to this point but the whole "lock them in a room with a timer" can be spun multiple ways. What if he came off as very sincere to the player and his parents and said "look, I really want you to be a gopher, but my dedication is to the current players on this roster now. I promised them I would do the best I could to prepare them for life moving forward. If that is going to be the case, I cant spend my entire year trying to recruit players. I want you here. I know it is tough of what I am asking but I am going to give you and your family an hour to think it over. If you want to be here, great. Lets make it official and we can all move on to better ourselves. If you are still unsure, no problem, I understand. We are going to move on."
Whether he is actually sincere or not isn't the point. Just saying that a point of view like that would sway a lot of people.
IMO Fleck absolutely has higher ambitions than the Minnesota job and likely will get there soon if he has another season like his last one.
And yes, I think his shtick is uber annoying, but I would have preferred him over any of our coaches since Zook. He gets results both in recruiting and on the field (the two are usually correlated).
And yes, I think his shtick is uber annoying, but I would have preferred him over any of our coaches since Zook. He gets results both in recruiting and on the field (the two are usually correlated).
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He reminds me of Beckman. Although I can see the Dabo comparison. I am not big on Dabo. I cant stand listening to Beckman or Fleck. I know Fleck is successful. But I cannot take listening.
I can’t express how sick I am of the in state recruiting argument. We recruit them and they don’t wanna come. It’s been like this for 3 coaching staffs, so I’m not blaming the staff anymore. We have one of the best weeks of recruiting in awhile and all I hear about is “but what about the instate kids”. But give me a Georgia 3 star over a Illinois 3 star any day of the week.
I wholeheartedly agree with you - I want the kids that will continue to raise the program no matter where they come from. Of course I want the local kids to choose the beloved; you feel a sense of kinship with people from the same area. That being said, this past week was a huge success and landing someone like Wisecarver should close the book on the "they can't recruit narrative" (frankly, that should have stopped after landing Beason, Williams and Cooper two years ago).
Are we expected to keep the good times rolling this week?
I was scrolling through the 2020 offers and see where there are still some offers that have not committed anywhere yet. I may be way behind the times here and its been talked about, but what are the statuses of JaQuari Wiggles and Denver Warren? I couldn't find anywhere that they got in trouble. Maybe grades or something and having to go the JUCO route? I think we were pretty high on both for a period.
Warren was prep school
Wiggles ended up at Tennessee Chattanooga. Grades were going to be a issue with him. And Denver warren will most likely never play power 5 football.
Thank you, guys.
Albert Regis just decommitted from Minnesota. He is an Illini target and is a 4 star DT.
Deleted member 746648
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I like our chances against those teams and I appreciate the chief making an appearance.
This is what I’ve been trying to say for weeks. Early Signing period is 6 months away and we will never see more decommits than this class. Teams like Tennessee and Minnesota that have close to 20 commits are going to start making room for kids that have huge senior years. Also the rankings are all messed up. Allen trieu admitted he ranked a couple Minnesota kids as 4 stars based on high school basketball film.
Decommits also can happen to the Illini. Considering that we need this to be a strong class of over 20 kids, and in-person recruiting ain't happening for awhile, having only 6 commits heading into June remains very worrisome (understatement).
I believe Regis and Cooper are friends. That would be a solid combo to bring our class up to par.
Speaking of minny...
Deleted member 654622
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Bro that is a BA edit
For people concerned about our recruiting right now, keep in mind that we are currently out-recruiting (per 247): one ACC team (NC State), three Big 12 teams (K-State, OK State, TCU), eight (!) Pac-12 teams (UCLA, Wazzu, Arizona State, Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Arizona, Colorado) and three SEC teams (South Carolina, Ole Miss, Vandy). If we were in any other conference, I believe that many of our concerns would be alleviated.
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All I'm reading is that we need to move to the Pac 12 for football. I knew they've been slowly losing ground but I didn't realize it's gotten that bad.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I'm not about telling people what we should or should not mention. This is is a blog, the whole point is discussion.
Again, we can discuss this type of statement all you want, but I think this statement is an inaccurate depiction because these are not mutually exclusive! You can get both Georgia 3-stars and Illinois 3-stars. In fact, the coaching staff is going to be need to get both to fill their recruiting classes. Comparing their success level is pointless. I've expressed my feelings about the rift between the high school coaches in Illinois and University of Illinois coaching staffs (both parties are at fault), but it doesn't matter who is at fault because the staff will always need to make things work within the state. Being frustrated by the constant sniping across all of the staffs is understandable (hence my stance), but the pressure is on Lovie to find a solution because his job is on the line (HS coaches will gladly send their best players elsewhere). Recruiting this badly within the state is unacceptable and is absolutely unsustainable.
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