Illinois Football: Quality continues to rise for Illini recruiting

I believe there are some people who live to complain about one thing or another. For example, there are some Illinois football “fans” who will rip into the program daily no matter what is happening.

Yes, I see the flaws in the program. We haven’t made a bowl game since the Heart of Dallas Bowl where we got pounded by Louisiana Tech. We haven’t finished a season with more wins than losses since Ron Zook was fired in 2011. Last season, we had, what I believe, is the biggest loss in program history to Iowa. There haven’t been a lot of positives for the program in quite some time.

But when there are positives, you must acknowledge them. Lovie doubled his total number of wins last season and was a blown fourth quarter away from having five wins. We were close with multiple teams heading into the fourth quarter as well. Offensive coordinator Rod Smith has improved this offense tremendously. I think we have one of the best offenses in the Big Ten now. On top of some of these positive things, I also want to point out recruiting.

I see some people saying that our recruiting is bad or that this staff isn’t good at recruiting. That just isn’t the truth at all. In fact, the quality of talent this coaching regime has pulled in continues to improve with every class.

The first full class for Lovie Smith was in 2017, and that average rating came out to .8371 according to 247Sports. The following year, the Illini pulled in a class with an average rating of .8381. It wasn’t much of an improvement but still something. Last year, the class had even more quality with their average rating jumping up to .8622. This class was led by Marquez Beason, Isaiah Williams and Shammond Cooper, among others.

And now we get to the class of 2020. Believe it or not, the class of 2020 for the Illini currently has a .8741 average rating, which is an improvement over 2019. If you would put this on a chart, you would see the trend for the Illini recruiting is going upward. We are improving the quality of player with each recruiting class.

So, when people say this coaching staff can’t recruit, it is a blatant lie. Do we have a full 25-man class signed already? No, but look what we did this past season. We pulled in graduate transfers. That is a huge boost to the program, and I expect that to happen in future seasons as well. This team is improving whether some complainers like it or not.