illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
Chandler gone.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
Then you concern yourself less with winning the high school recruiting battles (see above) and win the portal recruiting battles. If Illinois football continues to churn out NFL picks, there will be very good portal players for the taking.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Portal battles require $$$. Not sure Illinois football is equipped for that type of strategy change. There will still be portal adds, if not more, but missing on solid HS recruits and planning to add through the portal is like professional teams whiffing on the draft and using free agency to fix their issues: it can be successful but it certainly will be expensive.
I'm going to piggyback off my post
You have a limited amount of NIL. I'll use this example as it's current. What if (I have no idea if true), Indiana beat Illinois on Chandler because of NIL money? Giving NIL money to HS players has to be looked at more closely than proven current or portal players. I don't know these number are accurate but would you rather have 2.5 Chandlers or 1 Zakhari Franklin? Give me Franklin and the current WR group on the team ( I know they won't play together but that level of player).
You need to be very sure a HS player will ultimately contribute before throwing out a lot of NIL and that can be dicey.
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I don't think it's a change. I think it's Bielema's plan. They have to get NIL up, for sure, but he's never thrown a lot of money at HS players. If he ever does, he's very sure Illinois is getting a player.
I like Bret and think he is a good coach. In order to take advantage of that we have to be able to land multiple 4* and an occasional 5* to compete with the upper level of the big10. Bret is one of the best around at developing talent but in today's world that means most likely they will transfer to another team with more bowl or playoff potential. That method of building a program is pretty much done with. If we can't get top recruits here on a regular basis we are doomed to the middle tier of the big at best.
High school recruiting is becoming less and less valuable for program building with largely unregulated NIL and the Transfer Portal. As someone mentioned, BB has been a developmental coach, and that’s still matters, but it’s not the only way to find success in the current climate of college football. Recruiting now matters a lot for the longer term relationship development for when guys hit the portal, and not as much it did for getting guys in and developing them for 3-4 years, because the likelihood of guys grinding through that process is declining. It’s worse than professional sports because guys are not obligated to stay for any length of time. They’re gone to what they see to be the next best thing, whether that’s $, PT, or change of scenery. We still have to recruit, and it feels good to get high rated players, but I wonder if the program recruiting philosophy is changing for a lot of schools.
Illini Football Loses Talented Commit to Big Ten Opponent
Illini Football Loses Talented Commit to Big Ten Opponent Illini Football has lost a talented commitment in their class of 2025. Wide receiver Davion Chandler announced that he will be flipping his commitment from the Illini to the Indiana Hoosiers. Chandler was an impressive commitment to the...
armchairillini.com
To the Hoosiers too smh
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
Part of this is we are tied for 17th in number of recruits. Looking at the average per recruit we are currently 12th, ahead of Minny, NW, Indinia, Maryland, MSU and Purdont.
So if teams fill out the remainder of the class at the same average as today, normalizing for class size I think we are doing ok. Would love to be higher than 12th, but that's not disastrous in the new BIG. A good staff can coach that talent level into an upper half finish.
Knew this was coming ... But we just can't afford to continue to have losses like this ...
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Based on how basketball recruiting has been going, we clearly have the donors to support being contenders in the NIL world. The problem is getting some of those donors to move to football. The issue is that donors want to see success, and right now, donating to basketball is likely more likely show some success than donating to football. Success begets more success.
Yep, we are unfortunately able to get ourselves into relatively few recruiting battles for even top-ish talents. Tough to lose those that you have a shot to win.
Losing white would hurt more. We desperately need dline recruits. I like chandler but it’s much easier to find a wr
TheFlyingIllini1317
- Chicago, IL
Yeah I'm nervous too about White and Trimble
OKay, I'm gonna ask a maybe dumb question, followed by an even dumber scenario.
How much of this recruiting is really all about money, specifically NIL money?
Let's say... for fun... Illinois goes like 9-3 or 10-2 this year. Good enough to be awesome, but maybe just misses the playoffs. Then, let's say they win a major bowl game. Does that change anything if NIL money stays the same? Or are recruits looking for instant payouts vs. clear progress?
How much of this recruiting is really all about money, specifically NIL money?
Let's say... for fun... Illinois goes like 9-3 or 10-2 this year. Good enough to be awesome, but maybe just misses the playoffs. Then, let's say they win a major bowl game. Does that change anything if NIL money stays the same? Or are recruits looking for instant payouts vs. clear progress?
I really like Bret as both a coach and a person. I would love for him to be the one to turn this program around, and the AD's office with the exemplary Mr Whitman have backed him with his deal through 2028.
However, outside of the bowl game with our NFL talent it's been "almost but not quite". We were 3 games away from 3 consecutive bowl games and a Big Ten Championship game. I can't help but feel that our window to build an upper-tier program was right there. I doubt we ever compete with Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan, but a streak of success like that would have put us out of bottom-dweller status and given major boosts to recruiting and NIL. It doesn't get easier with 4 teams inbound who finished last year as 2nd, 6th & receiving votes x2 in the top 25.
Bielema supported outreach to the state's high schools, and the team is competitive in most of the games they play. But without winning, we'll lose recruits to a team that's averaged 3-9 over the last 3 years. How does the team find sustained success going forward?
However, outside of the bowl game with our NFL talent it's been "almost but not quite". We were 3 games away from 3 consecutive bowl games and a Big Ten Championship game. I can't help but feel that our window to build an upper-tier program was right there. I doubt we ever compete with Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan, but a streak of success like that would have put us out of bottom-dweller status and given major boosts to recruiting and NIL. It doesn't get easier with 4 teams inbound who finished last year as 2nd, 6th & receiving votes x2 in the top 25.
Bielema supported outreach to the state's high schools, and the team is competitive in most of the games they play. But without winning, we'll lose recruits to a team that's averaged 3-9 over the last 3 years. How does the team find sustained success going forward?
