Thursday, December 21, 2006

More on Football Recruiting

Good Tribune story on Martez Wilson here by Teddy Greenstein.

A few excerpts:

Wilson, the top-rated player in the state, chose Illinois over glossier programs such as Notre Dame, USC, Ohio State, Michigan and Miami.

***

Wilson, a 6-foot-4-inch, 235-pounder whom rivals.com ranks as the nation's No. 2 defensive end, covers 40 yards in about 4.5 seconds. He's a a two-way threat at receiver/defensive end and the top player in Illinois. He picked the Illini over suitors like Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame.

***

Recruiting analysts say that if Illinois earns commitments from Wilson and from Bloomington Central Catholic's Josh Brent, a 6-3, 280-pound defensive tackle, head coach Ron Zook, whose team has won two games each of the last two seasons, and the school could be on its way to a top-20 recruiting class.

***

"Illinois is the recruiting story of the year," Scout.com recruiting analyst Allen Wallace said. "It's remarkable and it shows what a tremendous recruiter Zook is. It's insanely difficult to recruit elite talent to a program that has that kind of record. It can be done, but kids have to feel very strongly that the coach is not selling them a bill of goods.

"He's not going after 'sleeper' guys. These are guys who are being recruited by schools that normally make BCS games. Usually that holds a lot of cachet with superior recruits."

# posted by Chief : 9:09 PM


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