Oso planning to go pro
So? Really, Sultan, what does that have to do with anything?
I'd call the Illinois football program a dumpster fire, but that would be being too kind to dumpster fires everywhere.It's stunning with the amount of high school football talent in the state just how awful Illinois has been for a long time now. They are basically the equivalent of DePaul basketball.
Oddly, I recently was surprised by how little football talent Illinois produces relative to its size.The state's Class of 2016 had just one top 200 player (per 247).Class of 2017 had three.Class of 2018 had one.Class of 2019 has two (the highest rated being #138).Not that it's an excuse for how bad the Illini have been (we can blame that on terrible coaching hires since John Mackvic), but the state hasn't been a hotbed for college football talent since Donovan McNabb and Simeon Rice were teammates at Mount Carmel.
Of the seven players listed above, did Illinois get any of them though?One of the reasons Wisconsin has been good for the last 25 years is that it's very rare for top prospects to leave the state. And those prospects have been the core of the offensive line, defensive line, occasional linebacker, etc. They just have to go out of state and get the skill positions elsewhere.Wisconsin can also do this because it is undoubtedly the state's football school. Not only is it literally the only D1 program in the state, by and large the people of Wisconsin will default to the Badgers as "their" team.I don't think you can say the same about the people from Illinois.
Illinois also has to fight off Northwestern whil Wisconsin doesn't have any other school instate.
Hiring Lovie was beyond ridiculous - and that's what Pakuni is getting at. They have constantly hired the wrong guys. Here's what they should do. Hire a successful coach from another G5 school, THAT ISN'T THE MAC!!! For some reason, Big Ten teams LOVE their MAC coaches, and they almost always suck. Look at the "paddle the boat" guy up in Minnesota. I mean really.So who would that be? Luke Fickell, Cincinnati, Former OSU DC.
Well, the MAC did produce Saban and Meyer, so it's not all bad.Really, Illinois needs to think much bigger than it ever has and make a large offer to someone who's had success at a P5 school. Maybe Dana Holgorsen, who's from the Midwest, isn't in the 25 highest paid coaches in college football and would generate a lot of excitement in Chambana.Or Kyle Whittingham who's got to be tired of Utah by now and, likewise, isn't in the top 25 when it comes to salary.
Well...glow labelled it the "who gives a d@mn" bowl. Apparently plenty of people do.
Illinois will never succeed by out Big Tenning the Big Ten. They've got to make a real effort to get weird. Maybe hire a spread guy? A couple options would be Mike Norvell from Memphis, Jay Norvell from Nevada. Maybe Ken Niumatalolo would be willing to leave Navy? That could be fun and strange.
Yep. The worst bowl game still draw over a million viewers.
I don't disagree. But the Norvells really haven't done anything though.
Really, Illinois needs to think much bigger than it ever has and make a large offer to someone who's had success at a P5 school.
What's the feeling among Illinois alumni/donors? Are they realistic about the current state of the program or do they expect a new guy to be competing for conference championship within 2-3 seasons?Because if they're anything like some (most?) Bears fans (meatballs) then nothing will satisfy then and they'll never allow anyone to build a program the right way
The Illini alums/fans I know don't have outsized expectations for the football program (hoops on the other hand ...). There's no belief they should be competing with Ohio State, Michigan, etc., on a regular basis. They just want to be respectable and appear in a major bowl now and again. I think they look at programs like Iowa, Michigan State and even Wisconsin and, understandably, ask 'Why not us?'
I immediately thought of Iowa and Mich St as what Illinois should aspire to be. I think that's right on the money.
I think their recruiting base is so much worse, though. Wisconsin and Iowa have entire states full of cornfed OL in training who aspire to be Badgers and Hawkeyes from birth. Even Michigan is a much better recruiting ground than IL, and MSU gets a lot of the guys that don't go to UM or tOSU. Illinois is pretty bare for football talent, and what is there is either Chicago suburbs (private school or public schools with a private school mentality who collectively view Champaigne as a wasteland) or southern IL where U of I is going to run into northern SEC/eastern Big 12 country. I still contend Illinois only path to success is to get weird and form an identity along the lines of a Mike Leach, Paul Johnson, or other small cult of personality.
So, I know I talked down the Illinois recruiting base earlier in this thread, but there's definitely far more talent to be had in the state than in Wisconsin and Iowa. And I don't think city/suburban kids view Champaign as a wasteland ... the campus, after all, teems with city/suburban kids.But you're correct that, barring some family connection, nobody in the Chicago area grows up dreaming of playing for the state school. That's what generations of mediocrity combined with a long-term lack of program identity will do for you.
And that's why Illinois doesn't need to "get weird." Just get a good coach.Iowa hired Hayden Fry in 1979 and hired Kirk Ferentz when he retired. Everyone knows what Iowa football is. Wisconsin hired Barry Alvarez in 1990, and outside of a two year stint with Gary Andersen, has been run pretty much the same way since then with two of his assistants. Everyone knows what Wisconsin football is. Both Fry and Alvarez knew that how you build long-term success is by looking at what the high schools are producing in their main recruiting areas. It's not some spread option stuff. It is run of the mill, power football. All of that feeds their programs. Someone said earlier that Illinois cannot "out Big Ten the Big Ten." But that's exactly what Iowa and Wisconsin have done! (Michigan State too.)Getting weird may bring Illinois some wins early. But I just don't think it's sustainable. Purdue did that with Joe Tiller. It worked pretty good for awhile - until Joe was pushed out and the program has sucked since then.