This must be a down year overall in Illinois for 2017 recruits. In the B1G - OSU, Michigan, Penn St., Maryland, Rutgers, Nebraska, Indiana, Purdue and Minnesota have ZERO Illinois recruits so far. I find this very surprising.
Iowa has 3 - DB Harrell 3*, RB Kelly-Martin 3*, DE Epenesa 4*
MSU has 2 - DE Panasuik 3*, OL Jarvis 4* (Hardly remember this one for a 4 star)
Wisconsin has only 1 - DE Green-May 3*
Most surprisingly Northwestern only has 2 - WR JAmes 3* and DB Ruiz 3*
Illini have 6 - DE Oladipo 3*, OL Lowe 3*, LB Mondesir 3*, QB Thomas 3*, WR Smith 3* and WR Smalling 4*.
Just for grins the Domers only have 2 - Ath Robertson 4* and TE Kmet 4*.
This is a total of 16 Illinois athletes of which Illinois has 6 (37.5%). This is very different from recent results and the recruiting is not finished. Illini still recruiting at least 11 Illinois players:
QB Estes 3*, WR Thomas 4*, OL Palczewski 3*, DE Sampleton 3*, DL Green 4*, DL Mitchell 3*, DL May 3*, LB Knight 2* (will be 3*?), DB Treadwell 3*, DB Hayes 3* and DB Rowell 3*.
Some of these are plan B types but I expect Illinois to land 4 to 6 of these by signinig date. This will be the best Illinois haul since the early Zook days. I would bet next year will be even stronger with Illinois recruits. We still need to blend in national type recruits to balance the group but I like where this is heading. This staff still has a chance to have a top half of B1G class... not bad for a new staff and a really late start!
Iowa has 3 - DB Harrell 3*, RB Kelly-Martin 3*, DE Epenesa 4*
MSU has 2 - DE Panasuik 3*, OL Jarvis 4* (Hardly remember this one for a 4 star)
Wisconsin has only 1 - DE Green-May 3*
Most surprisingly Northwestern only has 2 - WR JAmes 3* and DB Ruiz 3*
Illini have 6 - DE Oladipo 3*, OL Lowe 3*, LB Mondesir 3*, QB Thomas 3*, WR Smith 3* and WR Smalling 4*.
Just for grins the Domers only have 2 - Ath Robertson 4* and TE Kmet 4*.
This is a total of 16 Illinois athletes of which Illinois has 6 (37.5%). This is very different from recent results and the recruiting is not finished. Illini still recruiting at least 11 Illinois players:
QB Estes 3*, WR Thomas 4*, OL Palczewski 3*, DE Sampleton 3*, DL Green 4*, DL Mitchell 3*, DL May 3*, LB Knight 2* (will be 3*?), DB Treadwell 3*, DB Hayes 3* and DB Rowell 3*.
Some of these are plan B types but I expect Illinois to land 4 to 6 of these by signinig date. This will be the best Illinois haul since the early Zook days. I would bet next year will be even stronger with Illinois recruits. We still need to blend in national type recruits to balance the group but I like where this is heading. This staff still has a chance to have a top half of B1G class... not bad for a new staff and a really late start!
