bigruss

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 05:41 PM) Illinois landing 0 4 stars is f***ing criminal. Next year they have to hit it big. Concentrate on the midwest kids who are usually targeted by MSU, Kentucky, etc and get those relationships. I honestly believe it can be done at Illinois. We beat out MSU and many other P5 programs for many of these kids. It's a huge change in targets and hits for us compared to Beckman and Cubit. As B>W pointed out, there are 4 stars there, just depends on the recruiting services you look at. Smalling, Phillips, Green should all be 4 star recruits, then you have a big base of mid to high end 3 star recruits with tons of P5 offers, and that's what we needed; legitimate Big Ten recruits especially in the line. If you look at the 10 lineman we got: OL Alex Palczewski - 3 star OT, offered by Syracuse, Vanderbilt Larry Boyd - 3 star OG, offered by Miznoz, Arkansas, ISU, KSU, Minn, Ok St, Purdue, Wisky Vedarian Lowe - 3 star OG, Illinois only offer (camp find) Howard Watkins - 3 star OT, offered by Cinci, IU, Rutgers, UL DL Kendrick Green - 4 star DT, offered by Iowa, Arkansas, Minn, Miznoz, Ole Miss, Syracuse Owen Carney - 3 star DE, offered by Arkansas, Cal, Duke, FSU, ISU, GT, KSU, UK, UL, Maryland, Miami, Miss St, Tenn, WFU, Utah Olalere Oladipo - 3 star DE, offered by PSU, Cal, Duke, IU, Maryland, Minn, Miznoz, Syracuse Jamal Woods - 2 star DE, offered by GT, KU Deon Pate - 2 star DE, offered by Rutgers Bobby Roundtree - 3 star DE, offered by BC, Cal, Cinci, IU, ISU, KSU, UL, UK, Mich St, Miss St, Minn, NC S, Ore St, Rutgers, Syracuse, Vandy, VT That is such a HUGE difference from what we were getting before.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 04:06 PM) People I am associated with that travel to Europe on a regular basis believe that it is a real issue, especially in southern Europe (Italy and Greece). I have a friend that works in governmental security that tells everyone to avoid Europe at all cost and another that travels to Germany every other month for business that feels the same way. I am not certain if this is an over reaction on their part but they have been doing this travelling for the last 15 years. I've got friends living in Lux and they go to France, Germany, Belgium, etc all the time. They don't really worry about it that much, they were supposed to go to Paris right after the Paris attacks and cancelled that trip obviously but for the most part they and most of the people they are around aren't afraid of travelling around.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 02:39 PM) See thats asinine to me. How did nobody think of having a dedicated recruiting staff? Bama has like 20 people that do JUST that. Illinois has a lot of room for improvement in the evaluation process and I think thats the start of the return of the program. 2 reasons why that happened: 1) Beckman had no idea how to run a big boy program. He didn't have this vision, I personally think he knew he was in over his head from day 1. 2) The assistant budget was not nearly as big as it is now, Whitman not only provided vision but budget allowing the vision to become reality. Illinois dedicated itself to be close to the top of the Big Ten for it's assistant/staff pool. That should be a sound investment. Mike Thomas (former AD) did a lot of good things for the Athletic department, he modernized it, got rid of a lot of donor-only mentality, came up with good facility designs, etc. But he didn't have the personality or vision to sell to top coaches. Whitman so far seems to have it, we shall see when replacing Groce just how much he does outside of football but he's earned a lot of trust thus far.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 02:22 PM) True, but even outside of some of the elite recruits Zook got, Illinois just hasnt made the correct targets a priority IMO. There are players in Ohio that are going to Mac schools or even kentucky that I think teams like illinois could land and they would be stars in the big ten. Beckman totally didnt even try. Lovie has the money and smarts to have a dedicated recruiting staff, we never had a database of recruits (or it was very limited) and most of the data collection was done by the assistants. Now we have personnel doing the dirty work and coaches doing the evals, just a way better setup than before. It allows us to find those guys, recruits like Nate Hobbs that we just got, and then we have the HC to seal the deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 10:48 AM) I love signing day on the other end. It is so cool seeing kids that would have never had a chance at college get the chance to go because of football. Illinois signed a kid named Larry Boyd, and he had a little blurb awhile back on getting to go to college and it was so cool to see, you kind of lose it in the football hype and everything but these are kids getting great opportunities academically and can be not just life changing but generation changing.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 01:08 PM) I heard Jeff Thomas couldn't get in there. Which is strange because he was eligible at Missouri Test scores were fine, but GPA was a major concern. Like all A's were needed to have a chance, and sounds like Illinois did everything they could to get the right support around him but it wasn't enough. And a lot of that is on Thomas, he skipped a TON of classes/days. I do hope he gets in at Miami, kid is going to be a stud.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Feb 1, 2017 -> 12:05 PM) Illinois lands Roundtree. Wow. I was a little worried there that Lovie made him a personal priority and wasn't prying him from Indiana but man Lovie and staff have been almost perfect thus far recruiting wise. We've lost out on Thomas, Roberson and a few others but for the most part we've hit on all of our priorities.

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Jan 26, 2017 -> 04:27 PM) GM and Toyota are in big trouble. Ford and Honda will have a big advantage in this situation. Ford has a ton of production in Mexico still, most of their small car production either is there or will be there.

Fascinating read, a perspective I don't I ever expected to see.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 24, 2017 -> 03:38 PM) I don't know if he's even 50/50. Like you said, kid is blowing up and I'm not that confident in landing him anymore. Williams and DeBose I'm fairly confident in that we will get. If so, Illinois will have a top 25-30 recruiting class. And they say Lovie can't recruit. Just wait until he wins..... Lovie cancelled an in-home with DeBose, so not as confident as you on that one. Williams seems solid to us. A top 35 class at the end of the day would be huge for this staff, 10 months to recruit and they are doing it at key positions as well. Really excited for what this means going forward, especially as next year is going to be ROUGH.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 24, 2017 -> 03:22 PM) I know one that they are high on right now is DE Zion BeBose out of North Carolina. He could be the next one. Bobby Roundtree, Bennett Williams, Reggie Roberson. Allstot decommitted and is consider Illinois too. They have a few DEs visiting this weekend as well, DeBose seems to be the best though. Roundtree for some reason is fascinated with Indiana. Really want Roberson but he's blowing up right now, I thought a month ago he was a for sure commit but now I'm thinking it's closer to 50/50.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 23, 2017 -> 10:23 PM) I know its only recruiting, but Lovie is doing some work in his first real class. Picked up another in state OL commit tonight and is now up to #33 on scout. They've been great, only a few minor slip ups thus far but for the most part they are hitting on their top targets and building up the trenches. Need 2 more DE before I'm comfortable with the future D-line but man, we should finally have a Big Ten caliber OL.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Jan 24, 2017 -> 08:41 AM) Tom Lemming predicted that JT will pick to go to Illinois. Even mentioned that he knows Illinois isn't in his top 3, so weird to see him pick that. It's just not happening, no idea where Lemming is getting his info but the Thomas train left the station. It's too bad, from what I've heard Illinois went above and beyond to help him out.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jan 24, 2017 -> 06:21 AM) Was surprised Illinois isn't in Jeff Thomas' final 3. Sounds like he couldn't get admitted, not surprising with the reports of his grades.

QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Jan 16, 2017 -> 02:31 PM) Right. And it's becoming clear that two factor must be done the right way. A lot of time we rely too often on things thieves can take (i.e. something you know or something you have) when the reality is something you are is the most secure (fingerprint). Passwords, especially weak ones, can be figured out fairly easily and you phone can easily be stolen, so most two factor stuff is fairly weak. If your phone is stolen and you aren't shutting it off immediately then sure, it's a risk. People who do stupid things like that will open themselves up to risk, but those who do most common sense steps will minimize risk fairly well with MFA. The bigger problem is that people are stupid and do stupid things.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jan 13, 2017 -> 10:50 AM) You are complaining about the wrong thing with respect to Beilein. He is a fantastic offensive coach and Michigan is damn good offensively this year despite not being loaded with talent. Defensively they are a complete disaster and they have pretty much never been good on that end during Beilein's tenure. I was thinking the same thing, their defense vs Illinois was about as bad as I've seen.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 6, 2017 -> 04:14 PM) Finally gave up on Always Sunny after watching a few eps of season 11 on Netflix. Felt like a chore to get through with too few laughs. Should have ended the series a while ago. I still like it for what it is, but yea many of their jokes are based on previous jokes. I think they pretty much are telling everyone that they are mailing it in with how they are writing new material.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 6, 2017 -> 02:34 PM) http://thehill.com/policy/technology/31307...s-personal-data WikiLeaks continues to be trash. WikiLeaks Task Force ✔ @WLTaskForce We are thinking of making an online database with all "verified" twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships What the f***? Why?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 2, 2017 -> 04:33 PM) I didn't see any of it, but if he is half as cocky off of the floor as he is on it, I could see it being true. From what I've read he had really bad influences around him, and made some bad decisions (drugs and such, nothing super bad though). Illinois pulled away though, great talent but a risk they can't take after the off court incidents of last year plus they got good players in the 1/2 positions anyways.

QUOTE (BRIRO2017 @ Dec 27, 2016 -> 01:50 PM) Good deal. Obviously this board is his life, so he has much more to lose. No? Can you not? Just be a decent person for once.

Working today, but leaving early to go have dinner with the family. I get Monday off at least.

QUOTE (SoxPride18 @ Dec 22, 2016 -> 08:50 PM) Illinois beats out Iowa for Kendrick Green. Huge get for Illinois. Now rank 42nd in recruiting rankings according to scout. Huge get, nice recovery by Illinois after being late to the party.

Watch list: Atlanta Stranger Things Westworld (only got 3 episodes deep before) Narcos S2 Recently watched: You're the Worst (I think Brian rec'd that one? Whomever did thank you!) Rick and Morty (Binged it all again) Justified (rewatch, honestly one of my favorite shows of all time) Rome (feel like this show got forgotten but was sooo good)

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 21, 2016 -> 10:34 PM) Thanks Russ. I've got a lot of research to do still to figure out how to fill all our days, but I'm sure that won't be too difficult. We can always leave the French Riviera for few days if need be. Edit: So you convinced me...I decided to switch things up and only stay 3 nights in Monte Carlo. Then we'll heading through Italy and Switzerland for a few nights, before heading back to Nice. Thanks for the insight, Russ! Where in Switzerland and Italy? I've been to Italy a lot and also Zurich in Switzerland, may be able to offer some advice there.

Talked to my friend, he said definitely go in the casino but make sure you wear something nice, a lot of tourists don't realize they have a strict dress code to get into the nicer parts of the casino. Other than that, he said check out the palace, walk around the yachts, and do a short trip to Monaco. Some people found it cool to get their passport stamped there, but that probably depends on your interests. FYI, Monaco is kind of boring as no one really lives there, but it is really beautiful.