What are we going to see in Juice Williams when he takes the field this fall?
You’re going to see improvement, you’re going to see a guy ready to take the next step.
What kind of improvement is the defense going to bring this year?
Anytime you’re in your second or third year, you expect to get better, you gotta be more consistent. We talk a lot about taking the next step, how its just the natural progression of where you’re supposed to be as you develop.
How do you recruit to Illinois?
There’s no reason we shouldn’t be just as great as everyone else. We’ve got great academics, a great conference, and all that stuff, but mostly, your players are your best ambassadors. We’re selling the same thing everyone else is selling: happiness. We’re all selling things you can’t see. You can’t see education, you can’t see a degree, you can’t see happiness.
You mentioned yesterday that you were concerned about the text message ban because it would be very easy for someone to impersonate a coach in a text message. Is that a serious concern for you?
Well I don’t know if it seriously concerns me, but its something the people making decisions should think about, its part of the issue they have to deal with. People saying whatever the want. If you take away texting, it’s not going to be a huge change, people are still going to find a way to do whatever they need to do to contact recruits.
How has the internet changed recruiting? For better or worse?
I think that because of the net, because of all the exposure, it’s so much faster, it’s a bit scarier for parents, and probably for athletes too, there’s so much more information out there, it’s harder to figure out who they can believe, and what’s right and wrong, and who says which guys is the best.
How do you evaluate talent?
We always start off looking at three things. First, can this person help us reach our goal. Second, is this person going to graduate from the University of Illinois. Third, what is the character of this person, and that’s probably the most important, and then we go from there.
Is the NFL’s new conduct policy and the crackdown on “bad behavior” going to change the way college coaches recruit and the type of individuals they go after?
Most of the people that I’ve been recruiting and the people that I know recruit, everyone’s trying to recruit good individuals already, but with some of these other issues coming up more and more it’s all going to be come more PR conscious.
How important are facilities in helping you recruit kids?
They’re somewhat important, and to some it might be more important. Here we are at Illinois getting ready to be the best in the country until someone else builds something better and bigger. But the #1 thing is people, if you’re not happy, the facilities don’t matter. One thing I always tell kids is ‘forget about that stadium out there.’ If that all goes away, would you still want to be here?
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