Bailey sucked in the 8A title game, although it was raining.
He’s going to need to improve alot as a passer.
I think he gets on the field as a frosh, but not at QB. He’ll be at RB or WR.
O’Toole at QB for 2013, with Bailey/Scheelhaase at the skill positions.
Good to see Illinois finally beat out some other good BCS programs for a player though.

What a positive first sentence for our first big name recruit in awhile Joe John! Although I guess you did qualify it with “although it was raining”. I guess that’s your version of half full? I keed, I keed. (Sorta)
.
I’m very stoked for Bailey and what he can do for this program in terms of turning other Illinois kids our way. Nice pick-up and it shows the in state recruiting push is showing results. Now we need AB to convince TI to take handoffs from him, LT to catch balls from him, and EP to block for him. A guy can dream right??
.
Also, Robert, I thought you’d be happy to know that Illinois represented the B1G in the first round tonight with the most picks at two.

Zook may have been a horrible coach…but look at the amount of pros he turned out from the 2009 team (that went 3-9)…

Jenkins (1st), Mercilus (1st), Benn (2nd), Vontae Davis (1st), Brent (7th), Liguet (1st), Martez Wilson (4th), Bussey (7th), Asamoah (2nd), and Jeff Allen will also be drafted this year.

“I think he gets on the field as a frosh, but not at QB. He’ll be at RB or WR.”

I am willing to bet literally any amount of money that he is not moved to any other position as a freshman. Name an amount.

Joe John,
.
Is that a testament to Zook? I mean, I know he was highly involved with the recruitment of these guys, but it wasn’t him who coached them up to the point where they could be drafted. I’d say that’s more proof that our position coaches were doing well. (And if Zook happened to be one of these guys’ position coach then yeah I’d say you’re right for that person.)
.
I WILL say that these guys succeeded in his and his coordinators system though…so maybe 30% Zook/ 70% position coach and coordinator.

.
I cant’ believe Joe John went right to a negative on this news. Wait – yes I can.
.
Dude, not only is your glass half-empty. The half that it does contain must be urine.

I see it as more of an indictment on Zook. He had all that talent and was still under .500 over the past five seasons?

This is an impressive get by Tim Beckman and his staff. Just to think that he won out over Urban Meyer, Bret Bielma and Bo Pelini is mind boggling to me, not to mention all the lesser schools that offered AB. I’m really looking forward to seeing what AB can do over the next 4-5 years and hopefully re-energizes Illini Football.

You forgot Mikel Leshoure, Joe John.

And, yes, it’s an indictment of Zook that we had that much talent and not much to show for it. The talent is quickly dissipating though, and getting AB is a huge jump on rebuilding this program.

I don’t care if he turns out to be worse than juice or nate at QB. What matters is that a highly recruited, highly ranked in-state recruit said he wants to come to the home state school and help build the program. Let’s just be happy about that for a while, instead of dissecting his every flaw.

Small correction to the first post
.
Joe John sucked in the 2012 recruiting wars, although it was raining 4-star recruits at the time.

How surprising, Joe John earlier suggested that Bailey was not going to Illinois. Now that Bailey has commited Joe John has already decided to be the first “Illini fan” to bash him.

I don’t know what title game Joe was watching but Bailey was clearly the best player in the game and it wasn’t even close. My wife teaches at Loyola. I told her early on, “This guy is going to beat you” and he did. He is elite.

I also said he was the type of guy we never get anymore.

I could not be happier to be worng.

tremendous pickup by the new staff. congrats to aaron bailey and the Illini

First, I’ve never mentioned Aaron Bailey’s name once on this site. Second, he completed 58-131 passes last year. Third, watch what I watched:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id/317746/bolingbrook-il-vs-wilmette-loyola-academy-il-class-8a-championship

Its amazing the level of homerdom here sometimes. You get labelled a hater simply by saying he’s not going to play QB his frosh year. I think he’s the level of athlete you need to recruit, just not a QB. Ohio State thought the same thing.

Is Urban Meyer also a hater?

The 30 year marker is interesting for QB recruits. Depending on how you count the 30 years, Dave Wilson is out, Tony Eason is close, but likely out, and Jack Trudeau is in. All three were NFL quarterbacks and better than any recruit on the list. Jeff George, another NFL quarterback, went to Purdue first and then transferred to Illinois when he did not get his way at Purdue. I am not quite sure how you can still call Jeff George a recruit.

By the way, the best quarterback matchup that wasn’t, Tony Eason vs. Dan Marino in 1981. A low scoring game won by a 90-plus yard interecetion return by a Pitt defenseive linemen.

.
Joe John, you said Bailey sucked in the 8A title game. That’s not mentioning him? It was literally your first post after Robert’s parking lot pod cast.