http://edgytim.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1561

Last top 30 list of the year for Illinois HS players. George and Otis no longer on it. Probably because they will be coming to NIU. Justin Hickman moved up.

Harnish is 12th in Indiana. Wedige is 9th in Wisconsin. Kiel and Hopkins are 22 and 24th in Missouri. Somewhere around that ranking.

http://rivals100.rivals.com/ranking.asp?...t=1&Type=2

http://rivals100.rivals.com/TeamRank.asp...e=0&Conf=6

klake87 Wrote:http://edgytim.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1561

Last top 30 list of the year for Illinois HS players. George and Otis no longer on it. Probably because they will be coming to NIU. Justin Hickman moved up.

Harnish is 12th in Indiana. Wedige is 9th in Wisconsin. Kiel and Hopkins are 22 and 24th in Missouri. Somewhere around that ranking.

This is probably the worst recruiting class in the past 3 years in relation to Rivals and Scout. The 2005 and 2006 classes were thought of as better than this class.

Demarcus Grady was dpopped from #27 in michigan to out of the top 30. Nathan Palmer was moved up to #14 in Indiana and went from 5.0 up to 5.2. Chandler Harnish went up to 5.3 from 5.2 Likewise Adam Kiel went fom 5.3 to 5.4 I am hoping that we still have a shot at #30 in mo.. Chris Owens TE.

epasnoopy Wrote:

klake87 Wrote:http://edgytim.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1561

Last top 30 list of the year for Illinois HS players. George and Otis no longer on it. Probably because they will be coming to NIU. Justin Hickman moved up.

Harnish is 12th in Indiana. Wedige is 9th in Wisconsin. Kiel and Hopkins are 22 and 24th in Missouri. Somewhere around that ranking.

This is probably the worst recruiting class in the past 3 years in relation to Rivals and Scout. The 2005 and 2006 classes were thought of as better than this class.

This fact makes me wonder...for those of you who have been fans for a long time (which is a lot of you), how were the recruiting classes that ended up forming the 2003 team looked at on signing day? Did you guys realize how great the team would be in a few years, or was the class full of pleasant surprises? Im just curious about that.

epasnoopy Wrote:

klake87 Wrote:http://edgytim.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1561

Last top 30 list of the year for Illinois HS players. George and Otis no longer on it. Probably because they will be coming to NIU. Justin Hickman moved up.

Harnish is 12th in Indiana. Wedige is 9th in Wisconsin. Kiel and Hopkins are 22 and 24th in Missouri. Somewhere around that ranking.

This is probably the worst recruiting class in the past 3 years in relation to Rivals and Scout. The 2005 and 2006 classes were thought of as better than this class.

This may be good news though. Those "better" classes have pretty much been worse on the field then the "worse" classes have been.

clcfball11 Wrote:

epasnoopy Wrote:

klake87 Wrote:http://edgytim.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1561

Last top 30 list of the year for Illinois HS players. George and Otis no longer on it. Probably because they will be coming to NIU. Justin Hickman moved up.

Harnish is 12th in Indiana. Wedige is 9th in Wisconsin. Kiel and Hopkins are 22 and 24th in Missouri. Somewhere around that ranking.

This is probably the worst recruiting class in the past 3 years in relation to Rivals and Scout. The 2005 and 2006 classes were thought of as better than this class.

This fact makes me wonder...for those of you who have been fans for a long time (which is a lot of you), how were the recruiting classes that ended up forming the 2003 team looked at on signing day? Did you guys realize how great the team would be in a few years, or was the class full of pleasant surprises? Im just curious about that.

You could see progress. You could see the program growing, but other than the one top 50 class we had back in 98 or whatever that year was, none of the classes really stood out.

This whole recruiting ranking stuff is absolutely meaningless. Like someone said before, once someone commits to NIU or any other mid major school, their rankings drop just by attending a mid major school so none of these ratings really mean anything.

I believe Joe said the '03 class was full of outstanding potential and 2 or 3 guys who would contribute freshman year (even more than he normally does). His other standard line is "lets wait 3 or 4 years before we grade this class." Because of injuries, academics and other causes this class has turned out to be one of the worst in probably ten years. I believe there will only be 5 seniors from that class playing next year. We have some very good classes behind it that will, hopefully, make up the difference. As with all of these rankings they are mostly good for fans to argue and discuss. However, while not all 5 and 4 * players pan out, the ones who tend to live up to their ratings are 4 and 5 * players and become all americans.

There will always be the Wolfe's and Free's of the world who get overlooked and become stars but they tend to be the exception. That is one of the reasons why the 03 season was so great. Beating the big boys with their highly ranked recruits ( maybe everyone except ISU).

NIUSAE Wrote:I believe Joe said the '03 class was full of outstanding potential and 2 or 3 guys who would contribute freshman year (even more than he normally does). His other standard line is "lets wait 3 or 4 years before we grade this class." Because of injuries, academics and other causes this class has turned out to be one of the worst in probably ten years. I believe there will only be 5 seniors from that class playing next year. We have some very good classes behind it that will, hopefully, make up the difference. As with all of these rankings they are mostly good for fans to argue and discuss. However, while not all 5 and 4 * players pan out, the ones who tend to live up to their ratings are 4 and 5 * players and become all americans.

There will always be the Wolfe's and Free's of the world who get overlooked and become stars but they tend to be the exception. That is one of the reasons why the 03 season was so great. Beating the big boys with their highly ranked recruits ( maybe everyone except ISU).

The 2003 season was simply awesome and really unbelievable. The amount of contribution from walk-ons on a team that acheieved a great level of success is something I still cannot believe to this day. After 2003 the bar was raised, and NIU had this brand new image to market to potential recruits and in the process doesn't it almost seem we lost that X factor. When you go out and market your program like that you are giving the impression "Look at what our great program has to offer you". I kind of miss the days when it was the players saying "Look what we can do for your program".

It is not surprising to see the NIU commit rankings fall. That is what the recruiting services do. Even if my son was a 4-star recruit and wanted to attend NIU for their business school, these rating services would drop the rankings of the player. Hardly a surprise. They must pander to the BCS schools and their alumni who buy their services and web subscriptions.

Seriously, if you were the rating services getting thousands of dollars from their fans and not much from (for example a MAC school) other cheap supporting fans, what would you do if you were in the business of providing information in exchange for money to support your salaries???

NIUJDK Wrote:It is not surprising to see the NIU commit rankings fall. That is what the recruiting services do. Even if my son was a 4-star recruit and wanted to attend NIU for their business school, these rating services would drop the rankings of the player. Hardly a surprise. They must pander to the BCS schools and their alumni who buy their services and web subscriptions.

Seriously, if you were the rating services getting thousands of dollars from their fans and not much from (for example a MAC school) other cheap supporting fans, what would you do if you were in the business of providing information in exchange for money to support your salaries???

I'm really not buying this rankings drop once you commit to a MAC school stuff anymore. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's not a sure thing that a 3-star player drops to 2-stars after committing to a MAC school. Many MAC recruits this year have been upgraded from a 2-star to a 3-star recruit after having already committed to a MAC school. In general, NIU should be recruiting a lot better than Akron, Ball State, Kent State, etc but this really does not seem to be the case with this class. Overall, even the bottom MAC programs are recruiting well with their 2007 classes. I'm glad to see those programs and the MAC as a whole recruit better but we should be ahead of most.

Forget that star stuff...Was Turner a 3 or 4 star? Was Diem? Was Wolfe? Not....Except for a few obvious picks the rest are guesses. Check the NFL rosters and see how many players are from "small schools" that were not 3 stars or more when they entered college.

recruiting is not a sure thing but I want my class to be selected by our coaches not rivals. Rivals is good entertainment but thats it. I think this class is shaping up to be solid, we will see how good they are

Each year that goes by it is harder and harder to find diamonds in the rough. Players send video all over the country. Websites are accessible for viewing the game tapes. Less face time is required. One of our biggest benefit is our proximity to Wisconsin and Minnesota. It is easier for our recruiters to drive the state.

Now, players can forward tapes to every coach in the US.

I think we s/b able to find diamonds in the rough. So much of this recruiting is done way too early before the first snap of a players senior season.There are players who devolp late and end up being the real thing. We have to hunt those type of players down. The Chicago Public League s/b a valuable source of players who are under exposed and under coached. We have some good luck with the CPL.

High School premadonnas often turn out to be ego's who flop!
Rankings do not take into account, attitude, ability to put in an extra 10 hours a week, love of the game and most of all team spirit!
It's great to hear highly touted recruits choosing NIU, however how many NIU NFL players have been three star recruits?
The Illness has recruited top 100 talent for the past few years and look where they are?
It is all about team fit and chemistry.
Rankings mean jack!

Quote:The Illness has recruited top 100 talent for the past few years and look where they are?

Actually no they haven't. Turner's last couple recruiting classes were horrendous by Big Ten standards and the Top 100 kids Zook has gotten are still underclassmen. I think of the upperclassmen a grand total of 2 came out of HS in the Top 100, and one is an OL that wasn't recruited for the spread offense.

Turner's last full class didn't have a single kid ranked in the Top 250 in the country and the class before that had 1 kid from the Top 100 and another 1 in the Top 250. That's only two kids in Turner's last two classes, combined, in the Top 250. And for good measure, the 2002 class didn't have a single Top 100 kid. From a Big Ten standpoint, that ain't good.

The majority of the Top 100 kids UI has recruited under Zook were true freshmen last year or are still in HS. You don't win in the Big Ten when you have freshmen, in key positions, all over the place.

Recruiting isn't an exact science, but there is a correlation to a team's ability to recruit (recruiting rankings) and their ability to win football games. There is a reason USC, Texas, Ohio State, LSU, etc win 10 games virtually every year. They recruit better players than eveybody else does, and that bears itself out every year in the recruiting rankings.

NIU has done a TERRIFIC job recruiting the Chicago area and the Midwest and has been able to find the under-the-radar kids with ability who grow into terrific college players. They also receive excellent coaching by the NIU staff.

UIHuskie Wrote:

Quote:The Illness has recruited top 100 talent for the past few years and look where they are?

Actually no they haven't. Turner's last couple recruiting classes were horrendous by Big Ten standards and the Top 100 kids Zook has gotten are still underclassmen. I think of the upperclassmen a grand total of 2 came out of HS in the Top 100, and one is an OL that wasn't recruited for the spread offense.

Turner's last full class didn't have a single kid ranked in the Top 250 in the country and the class before that had 1 kid from the Top 100 and another 1 in the Top 250. That's only two kids in Turner's last two classes, combined, in the Top 250. And for good measure, the 2002 class didn't have a single Top 100 kid. From a Big Ten standpoint, that ain't good.

The majority of the Top 100 kids UI has recruited under Zook were true freshmen last year or are still in HS. You don't win in the Big Ten when you have freshmen, in key positions, all over the place.

Recruiting isn't an exact science, but there is a correlation to a team's ability to recruit (recruiting rankings) and their ability to win football games. There is a reason USC, Texas, Ohio State, LSU, etc win 10 games virtually every year. They recruit better players than eveybody else does, and that bears itself out every year in the recruiting rankings.

NIU has done a TERRIFIC job recruiting the Chicago area and the Midwest and has been able to find the under-the-radar kids with ability who grow into terrific college players. They also receive excellent coaching by the NIU staff.

You don't need tons of top 100 talent or even top 250 talent to compete in the Big Ten. Illinois has recruited better than Northwestern even during the Turner years yet Northwestern still seems to be competing better than Illinois in the Big Ten. Like you said, if NIU has proven anything its that good coaching means a lot more. I could only imagine where NIU would be with NIU's coaching combined with Illinois' recruiting (even during Turner's "down" recruiting years) .