Brian Hightower
- Thread starter Headcard
- Start date
dam, I was kind of hoping we’d jump on him. And wow, Illinois has been living in that portal the past several years. Lovie just taking shots on anyone and everyone he can regardless if they been busts so far or not.
I was hoping we wold go after him too. But as long as Manning and Betts make it, I will feel good about our WR upgrades.
Their last two recruiting classes have ranked: 88th and 73rd and they haven't been close to filling the class. I would say that is a pretty big stone that is being left unturned.
Not sure where you are getting your data but the info I have says his last 3 classes are #46 ('17) #54('18) and #53 (19). With few exceptions prior to lovie getting there (and the zook years) they recruit in the 60s to 70s. His first cycle was 73 but he didn't have time to recruit and his class blew up from what I remember.
Edit: I have never seen such a disparity between class rankings like Illinois gets from rivals vs TOS. Nevertheless, if you know anything about Lovie taking kids that had transferred from other places the guy is definitely digging deep to bring in more talent.
I am getting it from the Rivals team rankings.
2020 (88th):
https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2020/all-teams/football
2019 (73rd):
https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2019/all-teams/football
Go check out how TOS rates those classes. I get a 3-5 place discrepancy but for one of the years it was like a 25 rank jump. Idk if rivals doesn't account for transfers or what. Nevertheless, if you have paid attention to what lovie has done for recruitting there have been several examples of him bringing in guys who flamed out at othrr programs to upgrade the talent.