On a bye week, Illinois needs to nail down top-level recruits

Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesDuring this early season bye week, the Fighting Illini coaching staff is on the recruiting trail. They have spread out through the state of Illinois for this weekend’s high school games. Earlier in the week, the staff went across the country from Utah to Pennsylvania to Kansas. To their credit, they appear to be leaving no stone unturned.

But this staff, dogged as they may be, has a lot to prove. While nobody has a 100% hit rate, the Illini have been taking far too many Ls during this recruiting cycle. For a program looking to move up in a division that is about to get brutal with westward expansion, this should be a golden opportunity…