Remember when a number of people wanted to run Collins out of town because of not being able to win one like last night?

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Not likely. Admissions isn’t exactly friendly to undergrad transfers.

As in, if you are about to be a junior, you are not allowed to transfer into Northwestern, unless you don't have 2 years of credits.

Its definitely a hurdle, but protects the academics.

We should keep a keen eye out for late bloomers, like Martinelli. Not really recruited much based on high school junior season, makes massive jump as a senior, after everybody has committed to their respective colleges. That sort of player is out there every year. Justin Mullins was similar. Big year at Oak Park HS after committing to Denver University. Then solid freshman year against lesser teams.

And of course grad transfers will be important.

 

[hdhntr1]

The portal could at least theoretically help offset the recruiting for those classes. I believe 5 of the top 8 rotation players for Illinois are there via the portal

Reality is that it is much harder for us to reload through the portal than it is for other programs. Same issues as FB. Admissions make it harder to get someone in that has not graduated and so when you get them it is often only for a single year. Can get a guy perhaps but we are talking a lot more than that

 

[hdhntr1]

The real test of CC will come post Boo. He’s going to need to show he can continue to build the program and maintain versus just have a couple good years when he has a crunch time performer.

That is where Gragg's actions will hurt the most.,

 

[Baz=Heisman]

Gragg gets zero credit dude. Wasn’t his call and then hung Collins out to dry publicly, which was a mistake for recruiting purposes.

I’m not sure he had a choice given the hordes, myself included, that wanted Collins out. He had to show accountability. Plus, maybe it worked? Sometimes you gotta light a fire under people to get their attention.

 

[UpsetAlert]

I’m not sure he had a choice given the hordes, myself included, that wanted Collins out. He had to show accountability. Plus, maybe it worked? Sometimes you gotta light a fire under people to get their attention.

Yeah, again, under no circumstances does Gragg (or any angry section of the fan base) get any credit whatsoever for Collins’ success because the AD wrote a poorly conceived open letter. In fact, it set recruiting back which hurt the program. Let’s not make excuses for stupidity please.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Yeah, again, under no circumstances does Gragg (or any angry section of the fan base) get any credit whatsoever for Collins’ success because the AD wrote a poorly conceived open letter. In fact, it set recruiting back which hurt the program. Let’s not make excuses for stupidity please.

Doing it the way Gragg did strongly suggests that he put Collins "on public notice" so that Gragg could then fire Collins after the team had a bad year (as most expected) and Collins "didn't live up to their public agreement."
In other words, the goal was to fire Collins but make it look good.

I don't know of any other explanation.

So it was negative on the program, negative on Collins, negative on the players who stayed and negative for the immediate recruiting. Fortunately the players and coaches resented that and had a very good year.

Sounds familiar - only in the case of football, Gragg learned from his mistake (giving the coach a chance) and fired the coach first!

 

[hdhntr1]

I’m not sure he had a choice given the hordes, myself included, that wanted Collins out. He had to show accountability. Plus, maybe it worked? Sometimes you gotta light a fire under people to get their attention.

His actions were scorched earth. He could have done something behind closed doors and he would not have done the damage to recruiting that has been done. Again in the class of 23 and class of 24 there are 5 guys and they don't have that many P5 offers between them. Hopefully a couple will turn out to be diamonds but hard to say that there will be enough talent to fill the holes when this class of upper classmen move on

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I’m not sure he had a choice given the hordes, myself included, that wanted Collins out. He had to show accountability. Plus, maybe it worked? Sometimes you gotta light a fire under people to get their attention.

NU communicates next to nothing to those “hordes”. Gragg is the equivalent of Rip Van Winkle with fan interaction. It was simply a CYA so if we sucked like most expected he would alibi that his hands were tied. Gragg had CCC all teed up and that just another in a list of mis-steps. No fire was lit.