The 90 Illini #79: Brandon Hansen

Ah yes, I can finally do one of my "when a player commits to Illinois super early, there's no chance he will be rated and evaluated properly" rants. Hansen committed during the fall of his junior year. And no one (besides Illinois fans) pays attention to Illini recruits beyond that point.

Which is why, during his signing day press conference back in December, Bret Bielema noted how many offers Hansen had received in the 13 months since he committed. And he got very specific, noting how Hansen had turned down "teams in the playoff this year" before signing with Illinois. There were only four teams in the playoff, and I went back and watched the video to make sure I heard "teams" and not "team", so he had offers from at least two of these four schools:

Michigan
Washington
Texas
Alabama

Changes your entire outlook on him, right?

Also, while I have his LLUOI article open, I just want to note again how much everything has changed and how recruits are no longer rated, they're slotted. The national websites apparently no longer rate every recruit and just slot them based on the school they choose (with a sprinkle of inflation every year!). From my research in that article:

Individual player ratings from 247 for players in our 2014 class: 70, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 85, 88, 91, 96.

Individual player ratings from 247 for our 2024 class: 82, 85, 85, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 87, 87, 88, 88, 88, 88, 88

I just want to return to a world where if a player deserves a 70 he gets a 70 and if a player deserves a 96 he gets a 96. That's letting the ratings determine the class rankings. This is letting the team rankings determine the ratings. And I hate it.