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Illinois' Talent Upgrade

BleedingPurple15

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2017
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Currently, the Illini has three 4 star recruits in their 2019 class.

They recently received announced transfers from WR Jeff Thomas (#40 - 2017) of Miami and TE Luke Ford (#51 - 2018) of Georgia.

Thoughts?
 
Currently, the Illini has three 4 star recruits in their 2019 class.

They recently received announced transfers from WR Jeff Thomas (#40 - 2017) of Miami and TE Luke Ford (#51 - 2018) of Georgia.

Thoughts?

They'll still suck. Football is a team game and a game of attrition which requires depth. A few individuals does not a team make, particularly if the individuals are undisciplined players who don't take to coaching like Jeff Thomas.
 
Currently, the Illini has three 4 star recruits in their 2019 class.

They recently received announced transfers from WR Jeff Thomas (#40 - 2017) of Miami and TE Luke Ford (#51 - 2018) of Georgia.

Thoughts?
They'll find a way to implode. They always do. Last offseason they lost something like 15 players to legal issues and transfers.

I don't think this offseason will be as brutal for that program as last offseason, and I do expect the Illini to be better next year. They have an insanely easy non-con, and I'd say their ceiling is 6-6 with a trip to a bowl game. More realistically, I'd say 4-8 is likely. My question is: do they fire Lovie for another 4-8 season? If they do, most of these talented players they're bringing in will transfer.
 
They'll find a way to implode. They always do. Last offseason they lost something like 15 players to legal issues and transfers.

I don't think this offseason will be as brutal for that program as last offseason, and I do expect the Illini to be better next year. They have an insanely easy non-con, and I'd say their ceiling is 6-6 with a trip to a bowl game. More realistically, I'd say 4-8 is likely. My question is: do they fire Lovie for another 4-8 season? If they do, most of these talented players they're bringing in will transfer.

They’ve had a couple transfers in, but have also lost a significant number of players since the 2018 season kicked off — Carmoni Green, Zeke Martin, Adam Solomon, Bennett Williams, Lou Dorsey, Reuben Unije, and Cam Thomas have all elected to transfer or otherwise leave the program. Wouldn’t be shocked if there weren’t a handful more who will exit.

For the first time we are seeing “Lovie guys” also departing the program, not just holdovers from the previous regime. This robs the program of the competitive depth necessary to compete in the B1G. From the NU perspective, depth is even more important in that we always face Illinois at the end of the season.

Until proven otherwise, there’s no reason to think Illinois won’t continue to suck.
 
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The Fighting Lovie fans are absolutely giddy over what they are bringing in. Can’t blame them as their program is similar to NU in the 80’s. These players are good and will help, but they still have more holes than Swiss cheese and less depth than a kiddie pool. Let’s see who actually makes it on the field before we expect anything other than a bottom of the West finish. No one is getting worse in the West. They will need to string at least 3 classes of top talent together and actually hire some decent coaches before they are a factor.
 
The Fighting Lovie fans are absolutely giddy over what they are bringing in. Can’t blame them as their program is similar to NU in the 80’s. These players are good and will help, but they still have more holes than Swiss cheese and less depth than a kiddie pool. Let’s see who actually makes it on the field before we expect anything other than a bottom of the West finish. No one is getting worse in the West. They will need to string at least 3 classes of top talent together and actually hire some decent coaches before they are a factor.

They’re still not bringing in “top talent.”
 
They’ve had a couple transfers in, but have also lost a significant number of players since the 2018 season kicked off — Carmoni Green, Zeke Martin, Adam Solomon, Bennett Williams, Lou Dorsey, Reuben Unije, and Cam Thomas have all elected to transfer or otherwise leave the program. Wouldn’t be shocked if there weren’t a handful more who will exit.

For the first time we are seeing “Lovie guys” also departing the program, not just holdovers from the previous regime. This robs the program of the competitive depth necessary to compete in the B1G. From the NU perspective, depth is even more important in that we always face Illinois at the end of the season.

Until proven otherwise, there’s no reason to think Illinois won’t continue to suck.
Totally agree. Do you think they keep Lovie into 2020 if they go 4-8 again?
 
They’re still not bringing in “top talent.”
Sorry, but it is hard to say Beason, Thomas, Williams are not top talent. They certainly aren’t bringing in enough talent and we both have agreed on the 4 star OL they brought in last year were vastly overrated. They lower rated talent is exactly that, MAC talent.

I am not making a case that I expect the Fighting Lovies to challenge for the West anytime soon. I don’t even think all of these guys will be impact players for a variety of different reasons, but they do have talent. Someone ( maybe you) mentioned they have a developmental problem there. I concur. I haven’t seen the ability of this staff to make that raw talent better. These guys aren’t Brown or Unjie (sp).
 
Sorry, but it is hard to say Beason, Thomas, Williams are not top talent. They certainly aren’t bringing in enough talent and we both have agreed on the 4 star OL they brought in last year were vastly overrated. They lower rated talent is exactly that, MAC talent.

I am not making a case that I expect the Fighting Lovies to challenge for the West anytime soon. I don’t even think all of these guys will be impact players for a variety of different reasons, but they do have talent. Someone ( maybe you) mentioned they have a developmental problem there. I concur. I haven’t seen the ability of this staff to make that raw talent better. These guys aren’t Brown or Unjie (sp).

I legitimately don’t think Williams is a “top talent,” at least for the position at which they intend to play him. He had a very long offer list as a WR/ATH, but only one as a QB. There’s a reason for that. Don’t care how run-heavy the offensive system might be.

Beason is a fast, undersized guy who will have to adjust to a much more physical position. He’s also almost hilariously overconfident.

Cooper has about 2-3 years at the training table before I think he can really impact a B1G game.

They may have “talent,” but it isn’t going to be splashy “early talent” no matter the number of stars next to their name. And that “early talent” is what Lovie needs to win games, because there isn’t exactly a surplus of talent on the current roster.
 
The fact that the buyout didn’t change in his “extension” is not a good sign.
Yeah, I felt like the extension was just a smokescreen to calm the “when is Lovie going to be fired” talk.
It bought U of I a year of quiet until his buyout comes down to a more reasonable amount.
Although, I guess reasonable is all relative.
 
Yeah, I felt like the extension was just a smokescreen to calm the “when is Lovie going to be fired” talk.
It bought U of I a year of quiet until his buyout comes down to a more reasonable amount.
Although, I guess reasonable is all relative.

Essentially, yeah. Intended to help in recruiting without tying him further to the school financially.
 
Currently, the Illini has three 4 star recruits in their 2019 class.

They recently received announced transfers from WR Jeff Thomas (#40 - 2017) of Miami and TE Luke Ford (#51 - 2018) of Georgia.

Thoughts?

Most of the teams we beat this year had more 4 stars than we did (including as Ute89 was so kind to point out, Utah).

The one school on our schedule that definitely did not have more 4 star talent than us actually beat us, go figure. (Not sure about the 4 star counts at Rutgers and Illinois this year).

I'm not as worried about Illinois picking up a few 4 stars as I am about getting better talent in for ourselves, so that we can go beat most of the ones we couldn't (UM, dOSU, and Notre Dame).
 
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Jeff Thomas might no longer be going to the Illini.

Appears to have removed all mentions of them on his Twitter
 
Miami would regret loosing his talents on the field. He is very explosive. Not sure what his off field issues are, but they don’t appear to be legal ones.

The guy is a head case. I highly doubt he accomplishes much on the field at Illinois or Miami.
 
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Also really explosive as a returner. He will be a big contributor wherever he is... if he can stay on the field.

The last part, if he stays on the field, is the key operative phrase. My bet is he won’t make it on the field very often even at “forgiving” programs like Illinois and Miami. If he does, he has plenty of talent to put up big numbers.
 
Currently, the Illini has three 4 star recruits in their 2019 class.

They recently received announced transfers from WR Jeff Thomas (#40 - 2017) of Miami and TE Luke Ford (#51 - 2018) of Georgia.

Thoughts?

I think they just landed a four star WR too.
 
Not only did they not land Thomas but their backup plan decided to not transfer to Illinois either. They settled for their third choice, a transfer from Richmond who was hurt almost all of last season. So pretty much another disaster here.
 
The Fighting Lovie fans are absolutely giddy over what they are bringing in. Can’t blame them as their program is similar to NU in the 80’s. These players are good and will help, but they still have more holes than Swiss cheese and less depth than a kiddie pool. Let’s see who actually makes it on the field before we expect anything other than a bottom of the West finish. No one is getting worse in the West. They will need to string at least 3 classes of top talent together and actually hire some decent coaches before they are a factor.
By then thy are likely to be starting over again
 
I think in college football coaching and alignment between scheme and players is just as important as recruiting. It doesn't matter that they have a few four star players if Lovie can't function as an effective DC
 
I think in college football coaching and alignment between scheme and players is just as important as recruiting. It doesn't matter that they have a few four star players if Lovie can't function as an effective DC

Most of their “four star” players aren’t any good anyway.
 
Not only did they not land Thomas but their backup plan decided to not transfer to Illinois either. They settled for their third choice, a transfer from Richmond who was hurt almost all of last season. So pretty much another disaster here.
Not that I disagree with it being bad, but he didn't decide. He didn't make it past admissions. He won't get much pt back at Oklahoma.
 
Makes perfect sense to announce the transfer before he was actually admitted to school.
Yeah, that's pretty much how effed up our admissions office is. Isn't the first time this sort of scenario played out, but it usually doesn't go that far. Not a good look.
 
Yeah, that's pretty much how effed up our admissions office is. Isn't the first time this sort of scenario played out, but it usually doesn't go that far. Not a good look.

1) You don’t have to tell us about difficult admissions offices. Illinois’ admission “problems” will get no sympathy around here.

2) The f-up is on Lovie either way.
 
1) Not looking for sympathy. 2) yep.

What is the issue with Illinois' admissions anyway?

I spent time working in the NU recruiting office and, best I can tell, the only requirement Illinois had beyond the NCAA minimums was a single core course above the NCAA minimums. Even that wasn't crystal clear. Not exactly a huge deal.
 
What is the issue with Illinois' admissions anyway?

I spent time working in the NU recruiting office and, best I can tell, the only requirement Illinois had beyond the NCAA minimums was a single core course above the NCAA minimums. Even that wasn't crystal clear. Not exactly a huge deal.
Suuposedly, the Illini had "no room" in the greaduate program to which A.D. wanted to transfer, if you can believe that...
 
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