Ron Turner came to Robinson for an Illini Day golf outing in the Spring of 2001. I asked about someone he was recruiting, and he told me that he was already with the team and on campus. Then he said to keep it under my hat because the scholarship wasn't actually there yet, but would be soon because scholarships were always opening up in football. He was correct of course. That was before replay and we talked about the 2000 Michigan game where the Illini got screwed big time twice. Michigan fumbled, Illinois recovered, but the refs incorrectly said no fumble. Then Illinois didn't fumble but the referees said that they did. He said that he had no idea how bad the calls were until he got into the locker room. Both were obvious mistakes, not just mistakes in Illini fans' eyes.
Illinois Football Recruiting Thread
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Ole Miss Lands Transfer Portal WR Micah Davis From Utah State
The Ole Miss Rebels added another talented piece to their wide receiver room over the weekend.
www.si.com
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
dayumOle Miss Lands Transfer Portal WR Micah Davis From Utah State
The Ole Miss Rebels added another talented piece to their wide receiver room over the weekend.
money talks
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redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Oh.Ole Miss Lands Transfer Portal WR Micah Davis From Utah State
The Ole Miss Rebels added another talented piece to their wide receiver room over the weekend.
Ole Miss Lands Transfer Portal WR Micah Davis From Utah State
The Ole Miss Rebels added another talented piece to their wide receiver room over the weekend.
Coach may want to stop getting out ahead of himself on these recruiting pursuits. They seem to backfire more than they are predictive:
- He suggested landing a baseball/football player when Sam Horn was on campus (went to Mizzou)
- Said every team needs a Bear when Ryan Baer was deciding (went to Pitt I believe)
- Jabbed at Mizzou for waiting so long to offer Jonas Williams (committed to Oregon recently and barely considered UI)
- And now this.
I love the confidence, but if it barely results in success, it's not a great look. And frankly, we don't recruit well enough to be cocky
yeah...sadly...
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
We've seen some hiccups in the past 12 months with the current coaching staff believing a recruit was destined to commit but went elsewhere. I don't necessarily see that as the narrative changing, but more some "lessons learned" from a couple younger position coaches.
Good work on this. Might be more that Bielema is trying to leverage social media for active recruiting instead of an absolute of what's to come.
Good work on this. Might be more that Bielema is trying to leverage social media for active recruiting instead of an absolute of what's to come.
illinidarrin
- from parts unknown
It's all about the money now these days. If you have enough NIL money, players will come. Ole Miss outbid us.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
every school now has an NIL boosters/donors club.
our group , right now, is not as free to spend as many of the others are , when it comes to football .
basketball is a different story
I thought we had a speedy talented freshman RB coming in this year?
Did we lose that player to a higher offer?
Can't remember the kid's name, maybe I'm remembering this wrong.
Valentine from AZ? Still on roster. I've always been intrigued by Jordan Anderson, but not much buzz about him and he was out with an ACL I believe last season.
IlliniFan85
- Colorado Springs, CO
If I had to guess... 10%.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
he will pick a different school .
our chance with him comes when he realizes his mistake and transfers
Yeah, Valentine sounds familiar, glad we still have him and the other guy you mentioned, thanks for the info
Just looked on 247 and saw that we have the lowest ranked 2025 recruiting class in the B1G and zero 4 stars. We might be the lowest ranked P5 team. We were 15th in the B1G last year.
I don't see too much concern or doubt in Bret. I'm guessing that I am missing something but is his seat at all hot?
I don't see too much concern or doubt in Bret. I'm guessing that I am missing something but is his seat at all hot?
There's lots of recruiting concern, but I don't think his seat is hot not, so likely doesn't matter in the near term. Recruiting at these levels, in the revised B1G, is not sustainable. The lack of true game-changers is alarming
No. He's had more success than any recent coach.
If this year is a flop, it may become an issue but he's done very well in the portal. They seem to be putting the cash with proven players that come out of the portal or have developed at Illinois, not with incoming HS players. He's putting players in the NFL so as long as that continues, I see the portal working for him.
He also is the most "normal" coach Illinois has had in a long time. He represents Illinois well.
He's also rejiggered his assistant coaches. Hopefully that pays off. Fenelus (last year) was in a real tough spot. That wasn't a good hire and not really the fault of Fenelus, IMO. A new guy with no experience working with a 1st year DC with almost an entirely new backfield. Bielema did botch that hire so hopefully the others work out.
We don't have a lot of seniors this year and are recruiting a smaller class. If you take it by recruit ranking average we move up 3 or 4 spots the last time I checked.
I think the seat only gets hot if we only have like 3 wins this season, but could see the seat getting hot if Bret does not make a bowl in at least 1 of the next 2 seasons.
It's possible that Illinois is just one of those schools that will never have any level of sustained success in football. They haven't in my 52 years. Bret seems like a decent coach but clearly not lighting it up recruiting.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Keep in mind, outside of the top 200-300 recruits, recruits are simply ranked based on the school they choose to go to.
From a recent article by Robert on Illiniboard:
āThe national websites apparently no longer rate every recruit and just slot them based on the school they choose (with a sprinkle of inflation every year!). From my research in that article:
Individual player ratings from 247 for players in our 2014 class: 70, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 85, 88, 91, 96.
Individual player ratings from 247 for our 2024 class: 82, 85, 85, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 87, 87, 88, 88, 88, 88, 88ā
The 90 Illini #79: Brandon Hansen
Ah yes, I can finally do one of my "when a player commits to Illinois super early, there's no chance he will be rated and evaluated properly" rants. Hansen committed during the fall of his junior year. And no one (besides Illinois fans) pays attention to Illini recruits beyond that
www.illiniboard.com
In 2014, our recruiting ratings ranged from 70 to 96. In 2024, our ratings range from 82-88.
In another article from Robert in the past few days, he also makes the point that a kidās sophomore film will have 3,000+ views, whereas his senior film will have 20 views, even though senior film is infinitely more valuable to ranking recruits.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
No, his seat is not hot. He has the best record of any Illinois' football coach since Mackovic. By a comfortable margin.
There are warning signs, like the '25 HS recruiting class. I put up a data-filled post during the spring showing that Illinois' 2024 class was very, very underrated. When I put up that same data for the 2025 class based on where things stand, it's going to be a much colder reality. There were plenty of big misses, especially in-state. That said, the transfer portal is going to be an important component for this stuff going forward. This means that Bielema and his staff have some redemption opportunities come December through June.
It becomes the blurring of results and expectations but Bielema and staff need to find a way to get at least six wins this year. 6-6 with a bowl and you can spin a much more optimistic picture going into the 2026 class. Speaking to the positive PR and narrative that Illinois could craft with a .500 or better season, if Illinois goes 6-6 and win a bowl game:
(1) First time for three bowl games in five seasons (ignoring COVID year) since 2007-2011 (17 seasons)
(1) The best three-year stretch for Illinois football by total wins since 1999-2000-2001 (25 seasons)
(2) The first time that Illinois won at least three conference games over a three-season stretch since 1993-1994-1995 (31 seasons)
(3) Ignoring the shortened COVID season, this would be the first stretch of six consecutive seasons with four regular season wins (or more) since 1990-1995 (34 seasons)
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