Recruiting: Where the Illini rank
Chat with Asmussen all day Wednesday here
With the start of National Signing Day for football 24 hours away, here are the current national rankings according to two scouting services, plus where Illinois and the rest of the Big Ten stand:
RIVALS.COM
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. Auburn
5. Oklahoma
6. LSU
7. Tennessee
8. Penn State
9. Georgia
10. Texas A&M
19. Michigan
22. Ohio State
25. Michigan State
38. Iowa
48. Minnesota
52. Purdue
70. Illinois
75. Northwestern
83. Wisconsin
87. Indiana
SCOUT.COM
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. Alabama
5. Auburn
6. Penn State
7. LSU
8. Washington
9. Michigan
10. Oklahoma State
17. Ohio State
28. Michigan State
30. Wisconsin
42. Iowa
48. Purdue
53. Illinois
54. Indiana
55. Northwestern
66. Minnesota
Here are the top 10 players and the highest-rated Illini according to the national scouting services:
RIVALS.COM
PLAYER POS. COLLEGE
1. Ronald Powell DE Florida
2. Seantrel Henderson OL Undecided
3. Kyle Prater WR Southern Cal
4. Sharrif Floyd DT Florida
5. Keenan Allen DB Alabama
6. Robert Woods WR Southern Cal
7. Dominique Easley DT Florida
8. Owamagbe Odighizuwa DE Undecided
9. Da'Rick Rogers WR Georgia
10. Marcus Lattimore RB Undecided
*Chandler Whitmer QB Illinois
#Corey Cooper DB Illinois
* = No. 19 among pro-style quarterbacks
# = No. 20 among safeties
SCOUT.COM
1. Seantrel Henderson OL Undecided
2. Ronald Powell DE Florida
3. Robert Woods WR Southern Cal
4. Kyle Prater WR Southern Cal
5. Keenan Allen DB Undecided
6. Sharrif Floyd DT Florida
7. Jackson Jeffcoat DE Texas
8. Andrew Norwell OT Ohio State
9. Marcus Lattimore RB Undecided
10. Chris Martin LB California
118. Corey Cooper DB Illinois
What Asmussen's thinking ...
Look at Wisconsin's team ranking and you'll realize how random the recruiting guesses can be. Bret Bielema's Badgers (above) are No. 30 according to one service and No. 83 according to the other. Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State are considered to have the three best classes in the Big Ten. Except for Penn State, the Big Ten is below its usual recruiting standards. Maybe that's part of the fallout from a dismal bowl performance after the 2008 season. Remember, recruiting works about a year ahead. So, the bulk of the players who sign in 2010 are doing so off of what happened at a school in 2008. If it really does work like that, then the Big Ten should get a boost in 2011 thanks to a 4-3 bowl season (2-0 in BCS games).
Illinois needs to get into the recruting trials of Western PA and the entire state; see below:
Penn State takes charge on recruiting trails
Buzz up!By Pat Mitsch, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Pat Mitsch is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-380-5697 or via via e-mail.
Rivals.com recruiting analyst Mike Farrell compared it to theft.
Six of Pennsylvania's top 10 football recruits — as ranked by Rivals.com — are from WPIAL WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA schools. Four of those six, including two with ties to Pitt, are verbally committed to play at Penn State.
With National Signing Day set for Wednesday, Penn State's recruiting class is ranked No. 9 in the country by Rivals — well above No. 26 West Virginia and No. 29 Pitt.
Five of the Nittany Lions' 20 verbal commitments are from the WPIAL, and four — Canon-McMillan linebacker Mike Hull, Sto-Rox quarterback Paul Jones, North Allegheny lineman Tom Ricketts and Fox Chapel lineman Miles Dieffenbach — are among the state's top eight prospects.
On top of that, Dieffenbach's father, George, is Pitt's women's tennis coach. Ricketts' dad, Tom, played tackle at Pitt in the late 1980s.
And Joe Paterno turned 83 in December.
"They don't seem to have a problem," Farrell said, referring to Penn State's recruiting despite Paterno's age. "Their big thing this year is going into Western Pa. and stealing a bunch of guys. The weird thing is, Dieffenbach has ties to Pitt. Ricketts' dad played at Pitt. I didn't expect it to happen that way."
Penn State also hopes to sign top-100 prospects Silas Redd (No. 44) and Khairi Fortt (No. 49) on Wednesday.
West Virginia, meanwhile, could sign the highest-rated recruit of the big three schools in the region. Cleveland defensive back Latwan Anderson, the No. 15 prospect in the country, verbally committed to the Mountaineers, although he is still looking at other schools. A 5-foot-11, 185-pound athlete who committed to West Virginia during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in early January, Anderson visited USC this weekend and is still hearing from Ohio State.
The Mountaineers also have a commitment from Memphis' Barry Brunetti, who is ranked the third-best dual-threat quarterback in the nation.
Before getting Brunetti's pledge, the Mountaineers had seen several of their recruits follow former defensive coordinator Doc Holliday to Marshall, where he is the new head coach.
"West Virginia had an excellent year, but they can't afford to lose these guys at the end," recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said.
Farrell said on-the-field results typically take an extra year to translate to a team's recruiting, so Pitt's class next year might reflect its 2009 performance, which included the school's first 10-win season since 1982.
In the meantime, the Panthers expect to sign 24 players, including four-star New Jersey defensive ends T.J. Clemmings and Bryan Murphy, Cleveland quarterback Mark Myers and former Beaver Falls receiver Todd Thomas, who is spending this year at Milford Academy prep school in New Berlin, N.Y.
"All three teams are doing well — Penn State the best — but Pitt, once again, is coming up with a quality class," Lemming said. "The perception out there is that Pitt is the juggernaut in the Big East. If they keep everyone happy coach-wise, there's nobody in the Big East that's going to stop them in the next few years."
Comments
IlliniHQ.com embraces discussion of Illini sports. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. we reserve the right to remove any comment at its discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.