Damn.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
This is a fairly significant loss. Doubly painful if he ends up at Iowa.
What is going on with Alec Bryant? Was he cleared?
I wouldn’t? In a strength program, kid can get up 235-240 with speed. 3-4 Defense he’d be ideal.
Saw werners twitter mentioning about bb in 4 different states looking at oline help and a mention about juco market. Any specific players? Tyron Webber was the first juco olineman that came to my mind but that’s looking unlikely.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
This has been hinted at elsewhere (especially Robert) that we could be seeing a lot of fourth-year players (true seniors + redshirt juniors) that will be not be asked to come back next year to give Bielema a chance to do heavy construction on personnel/roster management. I wonder if this was always the plan for BB or more of fallout from team performance. Could we see the staff plan on taking on more players from HS in this class than we projected in August? Or does this mean we are going to be a large contingent of transfer players? Maybe a little bit of both?
BB addressed this in one of his pressers, I think on Monday. He invited everyone back because he didn't know what he had. He's definitely not inviting everyone back next year. He also mentioned that the NCAA is allowing an additional 7 scholarships for transfers to the existing 25, which of course can come from high school or transfers (juco, portal, grad).
Good points. Covid allowed decisions to be delayed until after season. Bring everyone back.
I think Kirby Joseph is a good example (but 3rd year player). Not in plans, but has blossomed this year.
Use rest of season to rotate in players, get a look for future.
I cannot even name in my head the 28 or so seniors/super seniors. Would not be surprised to see any of them return (although I am confused who might be a 4th senior as well.)
illini80
- Forgottonia
I think that extra 7 is key. The hard limit will still be 85 players. No way to take 32 new players and keep everyone else. Of course some will leave on their own and a few won’t be asked back if there are 32 new guys that will help the team more. I’d expect BB to hit the portal hard. If he can’t find enough quality guys there (who want to come) probably a few extra HS players will fill the spots.
As I expected, without an expansion of the 85 limit, there are a lot of guys around the country that were denied their shot by allowing all the 5th year seniors back. IMO they should have scaled the limit back over 4 years to be fair to everyone. I’m sure that was the reason for the extra 7, but the math doesn’t work.
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The extra 7 is because a lot of teams have lost too many players early, whether through the portal, retirement from football, grad transfer, or whatever. It was discussed before covid-19.
BB claimed that they couldn't get to 85 without the extra 7, which I found to be a very interesting comment, because I'm pretty sure that they are currently well above 85 and have "only" 17 super seniors.
Fully expect a big influx of transfer talent. We need developed bodies on the DL and OL. Being able to hold the line of scrimmage or even create some push will help hide some of our skill position deficiencies especially at QB.
We need a qb that can run when necessary. Pick up one yard when it should be a sack, 5 yards when it should have been 2, 10 yards when it should have been 5 etc.
It’s very surprising to me that BB seems to have minimal interest in a mobile qb (not dual threat or running qb, just mobile enough) for as much as he values field position and how tight our offense needs to function to stay on schedule.
It’s very surprising to me that BB seems to have minimal interest in a mobile qb (not dual threat or running qb, just mobile enough) for as much as he values field position and how tight our offense needs to function to stay on schedule.
Exactly
I agree. BB needs a QB that is quick enough to run or scramble/complete passes. A statue as a QB has been very difficult to watch.
Especially with an underachieving O-line.
Some '23 in-state recruits attracting a lot of attention. We know about Feagin, McVay, Elzy, Patterson, etc.
- Grant Stec (TE, Hampshire) just picked up a PSU offer
- Jyaire Hill (DB, Kankakee) has Michigan after him
- Charles Jagusah (OL, Rock Island) has everyone in the midwest after him
- Grant Stec (TE, Hampshire) just picked up a PSU offer
- Jyaire Hill (DB, Kankakee) has Michigan after him
- Charles Jagusah (OL, Rock Island) has everyone in the midwest after him
Along with this, the evolution of in-state '22 LB Rolder from Marist has been pretty incredible. He's a UI legacy and current baseball commit, but has recently gotten a 4th star on Rivals and has picked up offers from Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota, etc. (along with UI)
I'm trying to be optimistic here, but weren't a lot of people (correctly I think) critical of Lovie for an overreliance on the transfer portal, instead of recruiting prep prospects? Is this different in some way I'm missing?
He can play both like Kyle Hudson
I believe its because Lovies type of recruiting vs bb’s are drastically different in styles of play. Just my guess tho
Rolder looks like a nice ILB prospect.
Hope we get a four star linebacker from the home state. Looks like a Wisc type linebacker.
The difference is immediate eligibility, class notwithstanding.
I think it was an issue for Lovie because he also wasn't building relationships with HS coaches and the portal was becoming our only way to get talent. I think BB will likely have a year of heavy transfer, but he also is making a show of building relationships that looks like we could eventually have consistent recruiting.
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