Schutt did not start for us last year. Hankins and Goebel were the starters up the middle. And it is unlikely he will start this year. We are going to be a 3-2-6 D in most situations this year, and the 3 starters along the line are Spence and Washington at ends, and Bennett. Now there will be traditional 4-2-5 formations against power football teams like MSU, and Schutt might start during those games, but it is unlikely he will start against Buffalo. I felt I needed to say this because it was mentioned he started last year, and will start this year, in this thread.
'12 IL DT Tommy Schutt (Ohio State Verbal)
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woolybug25
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There is a ton of talent in the Chicagoland area. Not just the kids you mentioned, but there are 4-6 top 100 kids in the area every year. scUM cleaned up there last cycle with Tillman and Bosch (plus several other lower prospects) and guys like SCHUTT, Voltz and Westerkamp all went to Big10 schools. Not only do I think that we could have put more effort into these guys, but it would have been a lot easier than recruiting all over the country. We can quickly visit these kids, they can do unofficials much easier and there are subway alums that we could leverage
We recruit Southern California harder than Chicagoland... which area do you think has the harder fight in regards to negative recruiting?
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With the douche baggery in Core6, it's debatable.
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The distinction has to be made we recruit Chicago very hard. I haven't read one knowledgeable report indicating that we aren't. However landing those recruits is a different story. I think TP's and TJ's info details this quite well. Why aren't they interested? That's something to discuss.
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I find it hilarious that one of their "coaches" put on his internet bio that he chose Illinois over Notre Dame when he didn't have a Notre Dame offer and wasn't recruited. There is some deep rooted something in that guy's head.
As to wooly... he is very poignantly capturing why Chicago is important... i.e. you have about a half dozen true elite Top 100 players every year from the greater Chicago area. That handful of players can be program changing for just about any school out there... SEC elites included.
With the exception of Los Angeles (and maybe Norfolk/VA Beach/"coastal" VA if you want to get liberal on what is a "city"?), I'm not sure if there is any singular city with more talent in it than Chicago. I'm sure you can make cases for some southern cities... and obviously regions/states (i.e. "Florida") have more talent... but Chicago is just about as good as it gets. We're talking about a location in our backyard that has gems every single year.
It's also important to point out that we do still recruit Chicago fairly well (just not as well as we should) and that other Big Ten schools also struggle to land players they "should" get, so it's not just an ND problem. Jordan Diamond "should" have gone to Michigan. Laquon Treadwell "should" have gone to Michigan. Ethan Pocic was SEC pre-disposed too from the moment he started visiting those schools after seeming inclined Big Ten initially. So, in general, there are just a lot of Chicago area kids that seemingly want to get away and go south. Maybe that's just a thing and they're tired of snow or something.
At the end of the day, 3/11 starters on offense are from Chicago. And we've landed prospects every cycle from Chicago... or have been in position to (Schutt). So maybe it isn't a huge deal. But there are also a lot of red flags and a lot of 5
ish caliber players we've missed out on over the last couple cycles. And you better believe it is a LOT easier to retain local players than those you're hauling from around the country because you eliminate the "transfer home" issue (and homesickness can be quite common among any student).In the end, my questions really are:
1. Can we do better? Is it a situation we can rectify or do we just have to deal with it?
2. Did Weis screw it up? I remember hearing stories about him burning bridges other places, but did he **** off the wrong crowd in Chicago?
3. Do the coaches care? And the answer to that seems to be a "meh" from what insiders have said.