Recruiting Thread

[IlliniKrush]

Note to self, don't talk about FSU unless they win the national championship.

[chimpy2121]

Note to self, don't talk about FSU unless they win the national championship.

 

Funny man.

[thedoctor]

Lemming is paid by ND? That sounds ridiculously untrue. Any solid source on that, or is that comment hold the same validity as a "zook pays his players" statement?

 

i don't know that he draws a check from notre dame, but i do know he draws a check from the south bend trib and it's irish insider property.

 

anyhow, mccray is a really nice get for illinois at a position of need. i say lets take wilson, brent, austin, cornell, and ray and call it a day.

[Fotop]

Ya just pretend like you don't care about losing him.

 

f*** ya McCray!

 

Right, because that's EXACTLY what I'm doing...

 

I distinctly remember saying that yes, losing Wilson can be considered a loss for ND. He's a quality player.

 

I can pander ND haters around here and whine about losing players to Illinois, but in the grand scheme of things the effect Zook and Illinois has on ND is negligable. ND doesn't play U of I, U of I is not an elite program, and ND is going to have a top 3-5 recruiting class regardless of the guys we've lost out on. Wilson and Benn dont want to play in South Bend, fine, there are players of their caliber that do.

 

I know you guys are excited about your program, and that's fine; you're just wrong in assuming you matter to ND. Maybe in a few years, but certainly not now.

Edited December 15, 2006 by Fotop

[whitesoxfan101]

So if Benn has committed, Tez would likely be playing DE?

 

Tez will start at OLB. The fact that the Illini are willing to let him start there and Notre Dame wasn't is a huge factor as to why he's almost assuredly going to announce for the Illini next week along with Brent. Tez keeps saying he wants to play on both sides of the ball, and he has the ability, but I doubt it.

 

The reason I'm a little surprised by this is because he is from Jacksonville and has strong ties with Odell.

 

Not as strong a tie as Dan Disch, who recruiting verbals and best friends Troy Pollard and D'Angelo McCray, is from Jacksonville, and is very close friends with the HS coach at that school.

[Nokona]

Iowa landed a 4 star DB today and seem to have Jordan Bernstine (4* DB) all wrapped up. Fixing our holes I like it.

[whitesoxfan101]

Iowa landed a 4 star DB today and seem to have Jordan Bernstine (4* DB) all wrapped up. Fixing our holes I like it.

 

Morrow is a GREAT pickup, a 4 star out of Ohio that had Indiana his leader for months. And Bernstine is equally as huge, another 4 star that you keep in state. Plus, D Back is your #2 need besides wide receiver right now IMO.

[southsider2k5]

Interesting article in today's Trib. I had no idea that the one kid Illinois got that was so big, had committed to ND twice. So are Illinois fans going to give this kid death threats and nasty emails?

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...college-utility

 

Zook's recruits raising eyebrows

Illini coach defends tactics of staff: No skeletons in our closet

December 15, 2006

 

 

Illinois coach Ron Zook dared to cross party lines when he voted Florida ahead of Big Ten foe Michigan in the final USA Today poll. Dozens of angry Michigan fans e-mailed him to complain.

 

"I took a lot of abuse," he said.

 

 

It might be a preview of what's to come if Zook and his staff beat perennial powers such as Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame on the recruiting trail.

 

The Illini are strong favorites to secure an oral commitment from Simeon's Martez Wilson, a two-way threat at receiver/defensive end and the top player in Illinois. Wilson canceled visits to Michigan and Ohio State and nixed a home visit from Irish coach Charlie Weis.

 

Bloomington (Ill.) Central Catholic defensive tackle Josh Brent visited Ohio State last weekend and reportedly plans to check out Wisconsin this weekend. But Brent, the fifth-ranked player in the state by rivals.com, also is expected to pledge his allegiance to Illinois.

 

Five-star recruit Arrelious Benn of Washington, D.C., stunned observers last month when he announced his intention to attend Illinois. This came after Benn had told Notre Dame coaches—twice—that he would play for the Irish, according to sources.

 

Zook says he can't worry about coaches at other schools who wonder about all the talent flowing to Illinois, which went 2-10 this season.

 

"All I know is what we're doing," he says. "There are no skeletons in our closet. We have a great product and everyone feels strongly about where we're headed. If you look at our team from first year to second year, the wins weren't there, but there's no doubt we made progress."

 

Zook says his school gives him an abundance to sell, including excellent academics and an athletic program that is succeeding in nearly every sport other than football.

 

"Are we going to win the Big Ten every year? No," he says. "But there's no reason why we shouldn't compete every year."

 

Zook also praises his players as "great ambassadors" and says his willingness to start first-year quarterback Juice Williams, a Chicago Public Leaguer, "shows we're not afraid to play freshmen."

 

Rivals.com recruiting analyst Tim O'Halloran says Illini freshman Chris James, a receiver from Morgan Park, has been influential in attracting fellow Chicagoans.

 

"There definitely seems to be a groundswell of Public League kids wanting to go to Illinois together and make something happen," he says. "I can imagine some of the other schools aren't real happy."

 

CSTV recruiting analyst Tom Lemming says rival coaches have "taken notice of the aggressiveness of Illinois' coaches. They're starting to wonder: With Illinois' [won-lost] record, how are they doing it? Zook has put together an outstanding recruiting staff, but in my 26 years I haven't seen a staff do this well without doing well on the field."

 

Another point: The oral commitments are great, but …

 

"It still doesn't mean anything until they sign the paper," O'Halloran says.

 

National signing day is Feb. 7.

[thedoctor]

So are Illinois fans going to give this kid death threats and nasty emails?

 

eric gordon himself was quoted in the sun-times a month ago saying there were no death threats.

 

Last week, Gordon told the North Central school newspaper there were no death threats.

 

''It was threatening in that they didn't want me to be successful,'' Gordon said.

 

sun-times

Edited December 15, 2006 by thedoctor

[southsider2k5]

eric gordon himself was quoted in the sun-times a month ago saying there were no death threats.

sun-times

 

The main point still remains that they recruited this kid after he committed to another school TWICE after the stink that got done about Gordon.

[whitesoxfan99]

Interesting article in today's Trib. I had no idea that the one kid Illinois got that was so big, had committed to ND twice. So are Illinois fans going to give this kid death threats and nasty emails?

 

1. Gordon never got death threats. I'm sure he did get nasty emails, you basically screw a team over and the fans are going to be pissed.

2. Benn never publicly committed, not the same at all. Kids give silent verbals all the time and then change their minds.

3. Basketball and football recruiting are very different. Every coach in college football goes after committed recruits all the time. Illinois has lost tons of verbal recruits in football over the last few years.

 

And speaking for myself, I have stated that I don't think Sampson did anything wrong in this case. I think the man is basically a worthless human being, but thats not important. My anger was towards the Gordon family for lying to and leading on the coaching staff during the entire recruitment.

[Soxbadger]

I cant believe Zook voted UF over UM.

 

UM may be rivals as a Big 10 member, but when it comes to everything outside of the Big 10, they are one of us. I believe Zook is the only Big 10 coach to vote UF over UM.

 

The only thing that makes sense is that guys like Leaf were his recruits so he wanted to give them a chance at the NC. But on the other hand UF ran him out of town, you would think that the last thing he would want is Meyer to get a chance at a NC.

 

Or you would think that Zook would not want to piss off UM, because if they start really setting up shop in Illinois I have a feeling this may be one of the last great classes Illinois gets.

[thedoctor]

The main point still remains that they recruited this kid after he committed to another school TWICE after the stink that got done about Gordon.

 

he did not publicly commit to notre dame. now i'm not saying he didn't tell the irish coaches that he was going there, but there was never anything public about it.

 

gordon held a press conference at his high school and announced for illinois. when reports about him hedging surfaced, he himself posted on illinois's message boards saying he was still solid. up until a week before he switched to indiana he told weber flat out that he was solid in his commitment. he reportedly even gave weber a list of 10 reasons why it wasn't a good fit for him at indiana.

 

imo, there are absolutely no similarities between benn and gordon and the way their recruitments progressed.

 

I cant believe Zook voted UF over UM.

 

UM may be rivals as a Big 10 member, but when it comes to everything outside of the Big 10, they are one of us. I believe Zook is the only Big 10 coach to vote UF over UM.

 

The only thing that makes sense is that guys like Leaf were his recruits so he wanted to give them a chance at the NC. But on the other hand UF ran him out of town, you would think that the last thing he would want is Meyer to get a chance at a NC.

 

Or you would think that Zook would not want to piss off UM, because if they start really setting up shop in Illinois I have a feeling this may be one of the last great classes Illinois gets.

 

you really think lloyd carr's going to change his recruiting philosophy because he's mad at zook? c'mon.

 

and besides, zook has just gotten verbals from kids who were also considering schools like florida, florida state, notre dame, ohio state, and others. zook can hold his own with anyone when it comes to recruiting, so that wouldn't worry me at all.

 

as for not voting for michigan, i have no problem with it. i want coaches voting for who they think is the best team, not just holding up some old boy network.

[southsider2k5]

he did not publicly commit to notre dame. now i'm not saying he didn't tell the irish coaches that he was going there, but there was never anything public about it.

 

So UofI never had any idea at any point that this kid had committed to ND? Please.

[thedoctor]

So UofI never had any idea at any point that this kid had committed to ND? Please.

 

i don't know if they did or didn't. but there is a huge difference between a kid committing and there being a rumor of the kid committing.

 

eric gordon held a press conference and told the world and everyone he was going to illinois. if you can't see the difference between what he and benn did, then we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

[whitesoxfan101]

First of all, ignore all Teddy Greenstein articles, he's the Tom Lemming of sportswriters. However, I will say this: the ONLY problem I had with Eric Gordon was he continued to lie to the staff and tell them he was going to Illinois until 2 weeks prior to LOI day. Thus, the staff assumed they still had him, and was screwed when he left since it was too late with others. If Gordon had just told the staff he was looking, and then committed to IU afterwards because he liked Sampson, that's fine, but you shouldn't just lie to the staff up until 2 weeks before LOI day. That's my only issue, and it's the same way I feel about football recruiting, if your going to decommit, just give the staff your leaving more than a week or two when everybody else is off the board to fill your spot.

 

Also, Marvin Austin removed Illinois from his list today. It sucks, but he was a longshot anyways, and Illinois has more guys intersted than scholarships anyways, so they'll get somebody else that can play with Austin's spot, perhaps Sagesse from Canada.

Edited December 15, 2006 by whitesoxfan101

[He_Gawn]

Just saw on Rivals that Mcknight has ND, LSU, and UM in his top 3. Wow Charlie sure is impressing. If we can lure him away that would be huge.

[Fotop]

Top three is nice, but still consider ND a longshot on that one...I've heard LSU is where he'll end up going. Granted, it's better to still be in the picture rather than not at all; McKnight is very talented.

 

This situation is much like Everson Griffin (5 Star DE w/USC, ND, one other school that slips my mind in the final 3). ND is in on him, but it's a longshot since most believe he's going to USC.

[whitesoxfan101]

Armando Allen is the best player in their class other than Claussen. His sub 4.3 speed is a perfect fit for an offense that spreads it out a lot with 3 and 4 WR sets. He will make things a whole lot easier for Claussen as he goes through his growing pains. I know ND also has gotten I believe 2 defensive backs with good speed so far, plus Tate could be a candidate to play there, so their #1 weakness (defensive backfield speed) seems to be being addressed.

[Soxbadger]

you really think lloyd carr's going to change his recruiting philosophy because he's mad at zook? c'mon.

 

and besides, zook has just gotten verbals from kids who were also considering schools like florida, florida state, notre dame, ohio state, and others. zook can hold his own with anyone when it comes to recruiting, so that wouldn't worry me at all.

 

as for not voting for michigan, i have no problem with it. i want coaches voting for who they think is the best team, not just holding up some old boy network.

 

Michigan barely recruits in Illinois. If you look at the guys Zook recruited he beat out teams like UF, FSU, and ND. He almost never went head to head against UM and OSU.

 

And if you dont think being dicked by a fellow conference member will change UM's philosophy, I think you are wrong as well. UM, OSU, did not care about Illnois this year.

 

Look at U of I's top recruits:

 

Mccray, No OSU or UM.

 

Benn, No OSU or UM.

 

Only Morris so far has been recruited by either UM or OSU.

 

Now that may change with Martez and Brent who both were recruited by UM and OSU, but for the overall class that would mean Zook only took 3 players who either OSU or UM wanted and every single one of those players were from Illinois, meaning Zook was only retaining in-state talent

 

So it is unseen whether or not Zook can hold his own against UM and OSU. He has beaten Urban Myer and Charlie Weiss, 2 coaches who are pretty new to the recruiting scene at major Universities. It will be interesting what happens next year when OSU and UM start to challange Illinois for its own recruits.

 

As for voting UF over OSU, I really dont see how you can defend it. If it happened to Illinois you would have a thread about how it was bulls*** that another Big 10 team screwed them, etc etc. Its hard for me to believe that Zook finds UF the better team, unless he believes that the SEC is a better conference (which would be a slight to the entire big 10).

 

On the other side every single SEC team voted for UF #2.

 

I hope Illinois is never in the position of needing help from its conference in terms of voting, because I have a feeling Zook burnt a few bridges.

 

Also Zook's reason for moving Florida from 3 to 2 the last vote was that UM didnt play a 13th game. I dont understand how if you watched the ARK-UF game you could honestly say that UF deserved to be ranked higher for winning that game. If Zook had voted UF 2 constantly then I could see an argument, but docking UM for the fact the Big 10 doesnt have a championship is ridiculous, especially coming from a Big 10 coach.

Edited December 15, 2006 by Soxbadger

[thedoctor]

Michigan barely recruits in Illinois. If you look at the guys Zook recruited he beat out teams like UF, FSU, and ND. He almost never went head to head against UM and OSU.

 

And if you dont think being dicked by a fellow conference member will change UM's philosophy, I think you are wrong as well. UM, OSU, did not care about Illnois this year.

 

Look at U of I's top recruits:

 

Mccray, No OSU or UM.

 

Benn, No OSU or UM.

 

Only Morris so far has been recruited by either UM or OSU.

 

Now that may change with Martez and Brent who both were recruited by UM and OSU, but for the overall class that would mean Zook only took 3 players who either OSU or UM wanted and every single one of those players were from Illinois, meaning Zook was only retaining in-state talent

 

So it is unseen whether or not Zook can hold his own against UM and OSU. He has beaten Urban Myer and Charlie Weiss, 2 coaches who are pretty new to the recruiting scene at major Universities. It will be interesting what happens next year when OSU and UM start to challange Illinois for its own recruits.

 

As for voting UF over OSU, I really dont see how you can defend it. If it happened to Illinois you would have a thread about how it was bulls*** that another Big 10 team screwed them, etc etc. Its hard for me to believe that Zook finds UF the better team, unless he believes that the SEC is a better conference (which would be a slight to the entire big 10).

 

On the other side every single SEC team voted for UF #2.

 

I hope Illinois is never in the position of needing help from its conference in terms of voting, because I have a feeling Zook burnt a few bridges.

 

Also Zook's reason for moving Florida from 3 to 2 the last vote was that UM didnt play a 13th game. I dont understand how if you watched the ARK-UF game you could honestly say that UF deserved to be ranked higher for winning that game. If Zook had voted UF 2 constantly then I could see an argument, but docking UM for the fact the Big 10 doesnt have a championship is ridiculous, especially coming from a Big 10 coach.

 

i wouldn't say a word about it if someone lloyd carr didn't vote for illinois in the poll and i sure as hell wouldn't start a thread on it. besides, i think this was a unique situation. zook recruited just about every significant player on that team and he has relationships built with those kids. i have no problem with him honoring those relationships ahead of conference ties.

 

as for the rest of what you said, i never said he was going to be outrecruiting michigan and ohio state for players with regularity. that will never happen, because they are ohio state and michigan and we aren't. my quarrel is with the very thought that since zook "pissed off" michigan, that all-of-a-sudden lloyd carr is going to start making sure to target illinois kids or kids they are recruiting.

 

i don't think lloyd carr or michigan are ever going to set their recruiting agenda by anything illinois does. they'll target the players they want in areas where assistant coaches have strong connections. that's what shapes a recruiting philosophy, not getting "pissed off" because someone didn't vote for you. this is college football not junior high school.

[Soxbadger]

You can spin it however you want, but I have seen Illinois fans get more upset over far less slights.

 

Its also my opinion that when you slight a college football team/coach, that there are going to be ramifications in the future. Now perhaps Carr wont set his whole agenda (I dont see where I said that), but you know in the back of his mind when hes going up against Zook in the future he will think back to the time when Zook moved UF over UM for no reason.

 

Perhaps it wont mean anything, or maybe it will be the little extra motivation Carr needs to make sure that he lands the Martez and Josh Brent's of the world.

 

i wouldn't say a word about it if someone lloyd carr didn't vote for illinois in the poll and i sure as hell wouldn't start a thread on it. besides, i think this was a unique situation. zook recruited just about every significant player on that team and he has relationships built with those kids. i have no problem with him honoring those relationships ahead of conference ties.

 

And I have no problem with that as well.

 

But Ron Zook himself said that it was the fact UM did not play a 13th game that made him chose UF.

 

So either he is 1) a liar or 2) he completely disrespected the Big 10.

[thedoctor]

You can spin it however you want, but I have seen Illinois fans get more upset over far less slights.

 

well that's fine, but i try to judge folks as individual posters not by whatever team they root for. if you think some illinois fans would react that way, that's fine. i know i wouldn't. i call it as i see it, illinois grad or not.

 

for example:

-i think bruce weber really should work on his recruiting or change his strategy. he clearly has shortcomings.

-i think zook's game day coaching is bad to horrid.

-i'm no big fan of chief illiniwek.

-i think rich mcbride should have received a stiffer penalty than he did.

 

so yes, i love illinois, but i think i'm far from a homer who's just going to tote the party line. no doubt i'm more inclined to defend my team, but oh well. i'm sure the same goes for you about wisconsin.

 

as for carr in illinois you said yourself that michigan hardly recruits there. why is that? because there aren't great players? no. it's because they don't have great connections there now. maybe in the future they will, but now they don't.

 

now, i'd agree that carr didn't like zook's vote. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if he runs it up on them next year if given the chance. but i don't see it affecting his recruiting approach whatsoever.

[whitesox61382]

whitesoxfan99, if you call someone a worthless human being I would like to know the justification. I can understand being mad at Sampson about the Gordon situation, or not liking the fact that he made a few too many calls recruiting, but that certainly doesn't make a person a worthless human being. He is one of the most respected coaches in the game, routinely does community service/programs to help kids(especially in poor communities), and has a reputation of being one of the good guys in the game. I think calling him a worthless human being is a little harsh, especially if you are not going to provide justification for your feelings.

 

In regards to ND, I think they have all but locked up the #3 recruiting class behind USC and Texas, and if they can somehow pull a surprise or two(ie: landing McKnight and/or Griffen) they might even knock on the door for the top recruiting class. Griffen made some pretty interesting comments on Scout today making some feel that ND is in better shape than most think, although he did say that he already has his mind made up and I would be completely shocked if he went anywhere but USC. Look for ND to get commitments from O-lineman Devers and Little(only in name) within the next week. Both are 3 star prospects on Rivals, but Little is ranked much higher on both Scout(4-star) and ESPN(top 150). I have to admit that I was a little worried about Weis's ability to recruit at the college level when he first started, but he has easied doubts with likely back-to-back top 5 recruiting classes(last years class was #6 according to Rivals). I love the speed that Weis is adding especially. That has been the knock on ND over the past decade, but they have landed some speedsters in the past two classes(especially this years class).

 

On a side note, I find nothing wrong with what Benn did and tip my cap to Zook for putting in the work needed to get Benn to change his mind. Things like this happen all the time in the college football recruiting game, and it really isn't frowned upon. Even Weis did something similar by continuing to recruit Gray after he committed to South Carolina, and he eventually got him to decommit and commit to the Irish.

[Heads22]

Everything I've seen in regards to Bernstein is that UCLA is rising for him, as he was at UCLA-USC, and that it will come down to them and Iowa.