Illinois Football: The era of bad recruiting is over for the Illini

The Illinois football class of 2019 is forming into something we haven’t seen in over a decade.

Illini recruiting history is fascinating to look at. The program has been up there with the most competitive teams in the country vying for top-tier players at one point over the last 15 years. But, something changed at some point in there, and the Illinois football program dropped down to MAC level recruiting.

Let me first start off by saying, Ron Zook was not a good coach. He was average at best, but he was one hell of a recruiter. His first two seasons as the head coach of the Illini produced a combined record of 4-19. That isn’t too far off of Lovie Smith’s first two seasons which was 5-19. The same thing that is happening with Lovie now happened with Zook back then. He started to get his own players coming in and started to get a better quality of athlete.

The first big class was 2006 when Zook snagged the No. 30 class in the nation with five four-star recruits. This set the ball rolling the following three classes which were all top 40 including the pinnacle which was the class of 2007. Zook brought in two five-star recruits and five four-star recruits to the program from this class.

I think it is painfully obvious how and why the recruiting trail cooled down for the Illini after the 2011 season. Let’s rehash it why don’t we. Mike Thomas stepped in as the athletic director of this fine institution. After a bad end to the 2011 campaign, Zook was fired and Illinois recruiting was never the same.

Zook had four top 40 classes in his time with the Illini and three of those classes were top 30. The following five recruiting classes under the Tim Beckman and Bill Cubit era produced zero top 40 classes and had three classes that were sub top 60. The product you have seen on the field the last few seasons is a result of a disastrous tenure of one of the worst athletic directors in the history of college football. But, wait, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Lovie stepped in and has done some amazing work on the recruiting trail. Like mentioned before, his record is 5-19, but the recruiting classes are improving greatly every year. Lovie stepped into a mess and his first two classes have been solid. They both have been top 50 with the class of 2017 checking in at No. 48 and the class of 2018 coming in at No. 50. These two classes will be the foundation to the superstars coming in from the class of 2019.

The class of 2019 is already on pace to be one of the best in recent memory, if not the best. They have two four-star recruits already signed up and their class if No. 23 in the nation as of right now. There are other talented players on the horizon as well. Coming in with a top 30 class for 2019 would be huge for the Illinois football program.

Next: Illini class of 2019 gets stronger with Bryce Childress

The era of bad Illinois football is coming to an end. The era of embarrassing recruiting classes is finally over. We are a team that competes for good recruits. We are a team that will be top 50 in recruiting every season. We are winning off the field and that will translate to winning on the field.