Illinois football team loses 6 to portal in 24 hours
Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Blaise Sparks entered his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal on Tuesday morning, becoming the sixth Illinois player to hit the portal in the last 24 hours.
Sparks followed offensive lineman Brevyn Jones, defensive lineman Anthony Shipton, wide receiver James Frenchie, defensive lineman Tre'von Riggins and running back/wide receiver Kyron Cumby as Illinois players to hit the portal. All players were three-star prospects in the class.
New coach. It happens.
Yeah, not earth shattering. One of the players is their #1 recruit last year (Lovie recruit) so that’s gotta hurt a little.
Yeah but BERT, so still of interest!
Completely forgot Bert was there. Sorry, Bart*
He started a new band with Pep in Houston. Their lead singer has some issues though so he may be out soon.
*Bort
My coach is also named Bort.
How did I miss that Bielema had become a fucking Illinois bastard?
Anyway, not surprising. The transfer portal is going to be a big factor with a lot of coaching changes; players can follow a coach to their new school or leave a new coach that they don't like.
I am kind of curious as to whether or not Bielema can do anything at Illinois. He managed to not fuck up a great situation when he took over for Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin, but couldn't get over the hump at Arkansas. He did have a tougher schedule there than he probably will in the B1G West. Nobody at Illinois has been able to put together a decent team for more than a few seasons in a row in my lifetime.
Should be fun to watch his teams play Wisconsin, anyway.
I remember Kurt Kittner leading Illinois to a BCS bowl back in the day. They might have played LSU.
Yep, that did once happen.
The 2000s decade was pretty remarkable for Illinois. They played in 2 Bowl Games in that decade. 100% of those Bowl Games were BCS Bowls (2001 season Sugar, 2007 season Rose).
That is true "boom or bust" there.
In the five seasons between '01 and '07 they won a combined 13 games. Remarkable.
I think you spelled Rashad Mendenhall wrong. Oops Mendenhall was a couple years later under Ron Zook
You might be thinking of Juice Williams?
What I meant was Kittner didn’t lead anything, Rashad Mendenhall was the work horse until I realized they went to a Bcs game twice in the early 2000s.
Double post
Coaching at Wisconsin when Barry Alvarez is the AD is basically coaching with training wheels on. We saw what he could do without them at Arkansas … not much.
Arkansas is not an easy job. Not saying Bielema is good or bad but Arkansas is like the Illinois of the SEC. oops.
I think Arkansas is closer to MSU—the Hogs won a NC in '64, and have had 12 double-digit win seasons and 7 conference championships/co-championships since then.
Illinois is more like South Carolina football.
Seems like that's the way it goes. Most programs should be prepared to lose more guys more often.
Biting Illini, Flighting Illini
That's nothing. Syracuse women's basketball has ELEVEN players in the portal!
So they have playing time to offer. Ya gotta be an optimist!
Yikes.
I love that Illinois has (had) a player named Blaise Sparks. That sounds like the name of a fictional weed rapper from some new stoner movie. And Im totally about it.
This project screams Judd Apatow and James Franco--if not Harmony Korine. So I'm skeptical.
I was thinking more Chappelle style. Blaise could be this generations answer to Sir Smoke A Lot; who was never quite the same after his backiatomy.
I wonder what Erin Andrews thinks about this?
Just a peephole into the future.
On a related note, if you don’t like defense B1G network is showing Illinois at Michigan from 2010 at 7:30 EST.
Best thing about Bert....
....Mrs. Bert!
To say this guy out-kicked his coverage is the understatement of the year.
Wikipedia tells me that he has two daughters, named Briella and Brexli.
- Bad news: Briella Bielema and Brexli Beilema? It's like he and his wife were drunkenly coming up with anagrams for "Bielema."
- Good news: When they inevitably turn to porn they don't have to make up new names.
If you go into porn and your last name is Beilema, you just go by Beilema.
Bret Feel-em-up: there's your porn name. Don't thank me!
Eh, as much as I like to assume all females in certain fan bases are "women of negotiable affection," disparaging individual young women is not a good look.
If they have another kid they can name it Brexit.
Are any of those D lineman defensive tackle size?
Anthony Shipton is a 290 lb junior college transfer. His only offers he shows were Illinois, UTEP, Arizona, and Hawaii.
Don’t look now but Notre Dame just lost another to the portal. Puts them at 19 for the year. And here I was thinking Michigan was the only one who could lose players to the portal.
They also just got a commitment from a five star DE in Ohio. At least someone is trying to kick down the fence OSU has around Ohio.
Wonder if Harbaugh knows where Ohio is???
A certain somebody would have you believe that. Not going to say his name because he’ll show up spouting his mouth off again. Big “I drive a Dodge Stratus” Energy.
We aren’t, but UM’s stingy transfer policy makes it impossible to recruit transfers. So unlike other programs, the portal era is a recurring net loss for us.
Wow! I forgot Burt was hired there. What a year.
You have to wonder if Bert was showing the door to guys he didn't want; or at least encouraging them to look elsewhere
That would make his bragging about no transfers seem kind of odd.
"No one has left MY program."
"You guys need to leave."
In the weight room…in the community…in the weight room…in the community…
Does Illinois have a Big11/Chernobyl who posts “see I told you so” after vague non-specific transfer predictions too?