Illinois Football Recruiting Thread

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#351      
the juiceman cometh
EyeoftheIllini said:
I just saw an article by Rivals Transfer Portal about Lyles and it said should be plenty of interest in him. Article said he was the starting center in 2020 before going down with season ending knee injury (didn’t mention during what game). This year he was mainly backup with one start against Michigan. He has also played guard. Rivals gave him a 7.2 out of 10 on impact meter, which equates to high impact player that while not a program changer will be a very good contributor and starter (6.1 to 9.0). Article lists a bunch of teams that will likely show interest (Illinois among them). His dad played at Wisconsin in mid-1990s. Obviously, BB wasn’t there yet, but did see an article that mentions the kid visiting Wisconsin when he was in 4th grade and talking to BB and meeting some players.
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Good info, certainly paints a more positive picture than my initial thoughts, and now I think it may be worth a shot as a one-year stopgap (he only has 1 year eligibility anyway). Found the article and linked below.

I'm still a tad skeptical of transfers who come to Illinois after failing to find playing time elsewhere. Sometimes it works out (Bhebhe) but usually we see there was a reason they needed to leave to find playing time (our QBs) and often they can't even find the field here (all those WRs we transferred in this year).

Edit: does anyone have reliable info on how many games he actually played at Wisconsin? Sports reference has it at 4, all freshman year (2018) on defense, but this article says he started in 2020 at center.

portal.rivals.com

Rivals Transfer Portal - Transfer Tracker: Veteran Wisconsin OL enters portal

Wisconsin transfer OL Kayden Lyles, who played in 34 games with the Badgers, is receiving a ton of early interest
portal.rivals.com portal.rivals.com
 
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#353      
EyeoftheIllini
the juiceman cometh said:
Good info, certainly paints a more positive picture than my initial thoughts, and now I think it may be worth a shot as a one-year stopgap (he only has 1 year eligibility anyway). Found the article and linked below.

I'm still a tad skeptical of transfers who come to Illinois after failing to find playing time elsewhere. Sometimes it works out (Bhebhe) but usually we see there was a reason they needed to leave to find playing time (our QBs) and often they can't even find the field here (all those WRs we transferred in this year).

Edit: does anyone have reliable info on how many games he actually played at Wisconsin? Sports reference has it at 4, all freshman year (2018) on defense, but this article says he started in 2020 at center.

portal.rivals.com

Rivals Transfer Portal - Transfer Tracker: Veteran Wisconsin OL enters portal

Wisconsin transfer OL Kayden Lyles, who played in 34 games with the Badgers, is receiving a ton of early interest
portal.rivals.com portal.rivals.com
Click to expand...
Found article that said he was starting center last year until hurt in 4th game against Indiana. Same article said he was starting guard in 2019 BIG title game. Also found another Rivals article from pre-season that said he’d had 4 starts at left guard and 4 at center.

I get your trepidation about taking transfers that couldn’t find playing time elsewhere, but the large percentage of transfers are moving on for just that reason. So while not all of those players will light it up at Illinois, if they’re better than what we have and will start or play a key role then probably need to take them — of course, while keeping in mind class distribution and negatively impacting progress of players already on roster that have potential. In the case of Lyles, he was a starter at WI who lost his job because of injury. If he’s healthy and wants to come here, not sure you can pass on a 6-3, 323 O-lineman who has started in BIG.
 
#354      
ChicagoKid
How is Mizzou recruiting at a Top 15 level? Have a Top 10 QB, RB, WR already verballed. That Drinkwitz must be selling something.
 
#355      
Homecoming 2019
ChicagoKid said:
How is Mizzou recruiting at a Top 15 level? Have a Top 10 QB, RB, WR already verballed. That Drinkwitz must be selling something.
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SEC schools probably have a bit more money to go around for NIL purposes, I'd expect that conference to further distance themselves from the rest of the pack.
 
#356      
Simeon Rice
ChicagoKid said:
How is Mizzou recruiting at a Top 15 level? Have a Top 10 QB, RB, WR already verballed. That Drinkwitz must be selling something.
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A few things here:
1) Drink is (unfortunately) a very good, energetic recruiter
2) He signaled from Day 1 that they were going to put a ton of effort into the state, and STL specifically and they've done that
3) He's got plenty of local support to help build momentum. It's why he can get Luther Burden on campus several times even after his OU commitment
4) He understands that players/recruits are his best recruiters. He got Tyler Macon right away and leveraged that to create relationships with ESL and other STL high schools

Unfortunately, Lovie embodied none of those things and BB is trying to repair years of lazy recruiting
 
#357      
pvaughn8
EyeoftheIllini said:
His dad played at Wisconsin in mid-1990s. Obviously, BB wasn’t there yet, but did see an article that mentions the kid visiting Wisconsin when he was in 4th grade and talking to BB and meeting some players.
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This reminds me, what happened to that little kid Lovie offered? Has he accepted his offer yet?
 
#359      
soupy17
WeWillWhen said:
LSU back up QB Myles Brennan entering the transfer portal.
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For those curious like I was, he was the #152 recruit overall in class of 2017 (#6 Pro-Style QB) in the 247 Composite. Would be a one-year fill in type of transfer. Old enough that Bielema's staff would have recruited him. His 247 profile shows Arkansas interest but no offer.
 
#360      
EyeoftheIllini
WeWillWhen said:
LSU back up QB Myles Brennan entering the transfer portal.
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Yeah, saw that too. Unfortunately, have to think he’s going to find better landing spots than Illinois. I can’t say I really remember seeing him play, but based on his 2020 stats looks like he’d be a very good get if healthy.
 
#361      
Illinivek23
soupy17 said:
For those curious like I was, he was the #152 recruit overall in class of 2017 (#6 Pro-Style QB) in the 247 Composite. Would be a one-year fill in type of transfer. Old enough that Bielema's staff would have recruited him. His 247 profile shows Arkansas interest but no offer.
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And Walters would have coached against him
 
#365      
mhuml32
WeWillWhen said:
LSU back up QB Myles Brennan entering the transfer portal.
Click to expand...

There will be substantially better programs going after him. Wisconsin fans are wondering if they'll have a chance.
 
#366      
Chilliniwek
ChicagoKid said:
How is Mizzou recruiting at a Top 15 level? Have a Top 10 QB, RB, WR already verballed. That Drinkwitz must be selling something.
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He seems like he's selling Drink Witz dinner, which is always a good thing Kid! To mom and dad obviously, not to recruits because they're underage and not allowed to drink alcohol. Although I'm not up to speed on the Miznoz drinking laws. I'll let myself out now. 🥃
 
#375      
OffseasonFanatic
LOTS of talent and former highly recruited prospects hitting the transfer portal.

Terrance Cooks (Texas)
Chubba Purdy (FSU)
Myles Brennan (LSU)
Marcus Bradley (Vandebilt)
Devell Washington (West Virginia)

Hoping we pursue some of the ones that are hitting the market. I did see we are offering lots of Juco OLinemen scholarship offers.
 
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