National Signing Day

[Superneck]

Musings on the "list"

Kind of saddened that of the 24 names, only two are from the Chicago area, and one of them via a sting in CC. Has WIU completely given up on the instate talent? If I remember there was a bit of a pipeline coming from the Wheaton/Naperville corridor of the western burbs, and WIU was even hosting a mini camp of sorts in Naperville for a number of years... but geez...out of the sheer numbers alone how do you get just 2?

Trying to figure this one out: Jack Beneventi... "From 2012-13 was listed No. 4 quarterback in the country by Fox Sports and No. 10 at the position by ESPN..." now jump forward... he commits to IOWA [website]http://qctimes.com/sports/college/big-1 ... 031c3.html[/website] and has scholarship offers from Illinois and Notre Dame to boot. Ok I get that Iowa went a different direction so that's that..but how did he go from that ranking to leaving the HS that he earned it from to end up graduating from Fenwick...

That is all. My brain hurts.

[Superneck]

ok I read a bit more on Mr. Beneventi...much of the school change involved a family relo, but based on his success at Fenwick, it is kind of sad that it came with a price.

[ST_Lawson]

Yea, I think he had problems transitioning to a new coaching staff, teammates he didn't know as well, likely different playing scheme, etc. All those factored in to really hurt him during his senior season. That combined with other opportunities caused Iowa to reconsider his offer.

Prior to the change, he was on track to be a likely multi-year starting QB in the Big 10.
If you put him in the right situation, with the right support group, and he's willing to put in the effort, I think he could be one of the best QBs at the FCS level.

[sealhall74]

The lack of more Chicago area recruits is surprising. Maybe in Coach N's mind, we have a surplus in program as a whole right now so this is his attempt to even things out in the long run. Even more surprising to me though is the handful of pairs of kids coming from the same high school program. I can read a whole bunch of things into that, some good and some not so good. I wonder if Coach N stole this recruiting strategy from the military (Buddy System). I need to explore the recruiting class in a lot more detail, but in general, I would probably like to see more "A"s on the report card. I.e., kids from the higher classes (4A, 5A, 6A, ...) are better bets at the D1 level than kids from the lower classes.

[WIU02]

I was checking the new class on Twitter this afternoon, and noticed something that I thought was odd. Each player came with a picture of them striking a football pose in their high school/cc uniform. The picture also listed their size, and presumably the position they were recruited to play at WIU. I saw many guys running with balls in hand that are signed on defense. I also saw some really odd weights listed for positions that are out of the norm, ie a LB at 175lbs. Am I looking too far into this, or are we putting a lot of guys at positions they didn't play in high school?

Regarding Beneventi, I grew up a block from Fenwick where my parents still live, so I heard a lot about him. He really just flat out struggled, and was eventually benched. Taking a flyer on him is a good choice for Western, and for Jack. It gives him the opportunity to play football at the next level, and we could have something special. He wouldn't play for a couple of years either way, so he can come in, redshirt, and get a fresh start.

[sealhall74]

I just looked at the Redbird recruit list - predominantly big metro areas down the heart of Illinois. I also took a peak at the Bison list. A few big metro skilled players but mostly small schools (good ol' country farm boys) in the trenches. Both strategies obviously work well. So whether by his own design or not, I think Coach N is aligning more with the Klieman way of doing things - recruit high character kids with excellent work ethics to achieve success. Fingers crossed right now. BTW WIU02, those country farm boys have to know how to play both offense and defense.

[WIU02]

Haha, fair enough sh74. I was at Western with plenty of guys from rural IL and IA who played high school football, and that is the norm.

[wiu712]

Story about the Western Football Signing Day as seen on WGEM-TV Sports with Ben Marth:
http://www.wgem.com/story/28029619/2015 ... ade-macomb

On a side note, Quincy University had 41 in their new signing class. After having to play their games at Quincy High School for the last 4 years, QU will be returning to a newly re-modeled QU Stadium.

[Western_101]

712, QU no longer playing at Flinn Stadium?

[wiu712]

Redneck: The football side of QU stadium is being renovated. The 2015 football team will be returning to QU Stadium.

Here is the news story from KHQA-TV-7:
http://www.connecttristates.com/news/st ... NQHQmc5Bjo