COLUMN: Does Lovie’s Apathy Come From A Failing Recruiting Plan?

Lovie Smith has attempted to downplay a February signing period where they’ll be inactive. Is that a good future plan for Illinois football?

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- I just don’t buy it. And neither should you.

Maybe not being interested in the February 2020 signing period is a bold strategy for Illinois football. Maybe only signing a dozen prospects during the 2020 December early period was the plan all along. Maybe Illinois will become ‘Graduate Transfer U’ among all the Power Conference football programs.

And if all of this becomes the current and future winning formula for Illinois head coach Lovie Smith and everybody inside the Smith Family Football Facility in Champaign, I promise to formally and publicly apologize to all involved.

Maybe the small senior class resulted in a small recruiting class, which was always going to force Illinois’ recruiting class to be lower in the online recruiting rankings that value quantity.

But nope, I don’t buy it.

I don’t believe it was the intention of Smith or anybody who works for the Illinois head coach to finish anywhere near Northern Illinois - let alone one spot behind the in-state Mid American Conference program.

I doubt the U of I athletics public relations officials are super excited about the Big Ten Network broadcasting three hours of live signing day coverage without Illini football being heard from at all.

I don’t accept the idea that Illinois had every intention of being apathetic to losing a four-star verbal commitment Tuesday to a midwest Group of Five program whose head coach is connected by every possible media report to Michigan State’s immediate head coaching opening.

I simply don’t believe it was the intention to be sitting on the morning of Feb. 5, the first day prospects can sign following the December early period, with at least five and maybe as many as eight scholarships remaining unused.

So, what do I believe is happening here? Simple. This is political pivoting coming from the Illinois football facility spin room following recruiting failures. It’s a parlor trick designing to pull your attention away from looking here, instead of there.

Nobody representing Illinois football can claim the following:

• A single 2020 signee inside the state of Illinois. Zero.
• A single four or five-star 2020 signee according to 247Sports.com. Not one.
• More than one 2021 verbal commitment, according to 247Sports.com. Samari Collier stands in that class by himself.
• Any recruiting class since 2018 being ranked in the national Top 50, according to 247Sports.com

So, what does Smith do when clearly the evidence suggests recruiting high profile high school athletes isn’t something they’re successful at? Claim it’s not important and change the subject. No, don’t look there. Look over here.

Illinois football officials want to talk about how the graduate transfer market and the transfer portal is the bright shiny thing they’re actually proud of. Why? Because the University of Illinois football program, under Smith’s leadership, has officially put all of its recruiting eggs in the graduate transfer basket. How do I know this? Smith said so plainly and clearly that he wants to be the quick fix solution for several disenfranchised, frustrated mercenary players.

“Is divorce a part of our lives and our world? Yes, it is,” Smith said Monday. “Sometimes divorce is a good thing. And then both parties can benefit from it. There’s a certain type of guy, when talking about grad transfers in general, we’re interested in but for the most part, these guys have demonstrated they’re serious students and they’re looking for something we can give them.”

Maybe Smith has heard pundits and some of his coaching colleagues derisively calling the transfer portal college football’s version of free agency and thought to himself: Hey, the free agency thing worked out great for me in the NFL, let’s do that.

The problem lies in there being no historical evidence that type of behavior can be categorized, by any definition, as program building. Yes, the graduate transfer market can help you plug an important hole. Oklahoma has done so with its quarterback position for several years now and LSU’s graduate transfer is likely to win the Heisman Trophy, National Championship and No. 1 NFL draft pick triple crown. We can now effectively answer the decade-long question of what an up-to-date LSU offense can look like with a premier quarterback. The question we can’t answer yet: When will LSU effectively recruit the quarterback position? The graduate transfer of Joe Burrow doesn’t solve that problem while providing a purely pleasant pause button to it for the folks in Baton Rouge.

So, maybe two years from now, Illinois’ path will be seen as the bold beacon example of how recruiting is supposed to work from 2020 and beyond. Don’t worry so much about that irritating high school recruiting. Instead, start seducing the grad transfers. If that’s the case, Illinois will go from a Big Ten doormat to a 6-7 team to a consistent winner that can tout how much their organized plan was the right one. 

But that’s not right now what I see and hear. All I’m sniffing out now is talking points coming from a failed previous plan.