Lovie Smith Calls Lack Of 2020 In-State Signees ‘a little disappointing’

Illinois head coach Lovie Smith laments his frustration over the lack of in-state signees to his 2020 early signing class.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- It’s not an unfair assumption that Illinois head coach Lovie Smith is frustrated with the lack of in-state recruiting success.

The Illini fourth-year head coach addressed this topic unprompted in his introductory address during his media conference announcing his 2020 early signing class. While addressing the 12 signees to Illinois’ 2020 class, Smith knew he’d get the obvious question: Where are all the Illinois kids?

“A little disappointing we weren’t able to sign many of our state guys that we went after,” Smith said. “We offered about 19 athletes from our home state.”

After getting bowl eligible for the first time since 2014 and going 20-40 over those last five seasons, Smith acknowledged Thursday the Illini program and brand name isn’t close to a place anymore where it can assume interest even in its home state.

“Eventually we’ll get to a position where we’re keeping more of our in-state talent here at the University of Illinois,” Smith said.

Illinois may not strike out completely on its home state talent as four-star receiver Jadon Thompson from Naperville has been verbally committed since early April but announced he wouldn’t be signing a National Letter-of-Intent until February.

247Sports.com’s recruiting database lists 59 players from the state of Illinois with a rating of at least three of five stars and Thompson is the fifth-best Illinois prospect in the 2020 class. Big Ten Conference programs signed 13 players from Illinois spread out to six different schools.

“I really believe this staff doesn’t look at the ratings and the star appeal at all,” Illinois football director of high school relations Joe Price said. “Some of those (lower-rated) guys still fall through the cracks and yes, we may take a hit by taking some of those guys but they’ll fit what we do and then they get here and become really good for the University of Illinois.”

One shining example to Illinois’ struggles inside the state during this recruiting cycle is three-star Gurnee defensive tackle Willis “J.R.” Singleton. signing with Iowa State yesterday. An argument could be Singleton Jr., was seen as help at a major position of need and his father holding a degree from the U of I that should’ve given the Illini an advantage. Singleton chose Iowa State in July over scholarship offers from Illinois, Louisville and Michigan State.

When asked if the talent pool from the state of Illinois was weaker than in previous years, Smith bristled at a reporter’s question over the assumption that the talent level in the state of Illinois was down as compared to previous years. Smith refused Thursday to allow that an as an excuse for not signing a single in-state athlete in this 2020 early class.

“I said we offered 19 guys from the state of Illinois and they chose to go elsewhere,” Smith said. “In the future hopefully we’ll get some of those 19 guys to stay.”

According to 247Sports.com, five of the top 11 in-state talents in 2021 are already verbally committed to other Big Ten Conference programs than Illinois and the Illini only have one pledge to the 2021 class.