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Illinois Fighting Illini (you'll see)

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I was looking at some conference Verbal lists on Recruiting Planet recently, and noticed that Illinois still only has the 2 verbals they got in Feb. from Hill and Buckner. With Mich and PSU having several, and Osu twice that many, this stood out. My question to the knowledgable Ill. visitor here is whether this is normal, or are you concerned? With the recruiting cycle seemingly speeding up, and Ill. supposedly having alot of in-state talent this year, I would have thought that with your programs momentum from the last few years you would have several committments by now. Any thoughts?
 
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MONTbigBuck;1169014; said:
I was looking at some conference Verbal lists on Recruiting Planet recently, and noticed that Illinois still only has the 2 verbals they got in Feb. from Hill and Buckner. With Mich and PSU having several, and Osu twice that many, this stood out. My question to the knowledgable Ill. visitor here is whether this is normal, or are you concerned? With the recruiting cycle seemingly speeding up, and Ill. supposedly having alot of in-state talent this year, I would have thought that with your programs momentum from the last few years you would have several committments by now. Any thoughts?
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I'm a bit concerned. We came flying out of the gate with commitments from Hill, Buckner, and Fellows, so I had the feeling that we were on our way to our top recruiting class in history (the three 4-stars was as many as Ron Turner pulled in in the '01, '02, and '03 classes combined). The loss of Fellows obviously hurt (although if there's a position where we could afford to lose a blue chipper, it's DL - if Fellows was a 5-star linebacker that we'd lost, I'd still be wearing sackcloth and throwing ashes on my head). Still, I'd hoped to see a little more momentum by now.

Last year 3-stars Palmer and Ramsey committed at the spring game for our first verbals. We didn't really start rolling until 4-stars Hardemann and Pocic picked the Illini in June. For the 2007 class, most of the big names were November (WRs Arrelious Benn, Anthony Morris) and December (DTs Josh Brent and D'Angelo McCray, LB Martez Wilson). As I recall from the 2006 class, Juice and 4-star WR Chris James picked the Illini on Memorial Day weekend, so that's when that class really started rolling. So historically (at least under Zook), we're on the right track.

But compared to tOSU and especially MSU, I'm a bit concerned. Verbals are going off earlier and earlier now, and I'd sure like to join the party. Especially with all the offers we have out on the table.

My biggest concern with the 2009 class, though, is positional recruiting. We're deeper than Saudi Arabia's oil reserves at DL and WR, just right at Secondary and OL, thin in the offensive backfield, and razor thin at Linebacker. I want this recruiting class to include at least 4 linebackers, and right now we're only in good with one. My Illini brethren are not as concerned as I am ("Dude, {insert secondary recruit here} will beef up and move to linebacker and we'll be fine"), but I'm not sold on that just yet.

My prediction, based both on what I've read and what I hope will happen, is that we'll get a commitment from Chicago Hubbard LB Darius Moffett some time within the next month. *crosses fingers*
 
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Thanks for the Update Roughy.

If you get that Chicago linebacker soon, that could jump start some other instate guys decisions. It looks like the Zooker is going to pull in another stellar class.
 
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wadc45;1176937; said:
I guess Illinois doesn't have a shot here...
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HEY! Illinois has a shot at everyone, and you know that! In fact, 90% of players in the United States really want to go there. There are players who have signed LOI's here and elsewhere that are all set to switch to Illinois. Just wait and see....I mean, they have already told the Illini staff as much....at least, that's what i've heard.

:wink2:
 
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