Team breakdown: Illinois, Michigan, Iowa under microscope

Recruiting for the 2017 class has been going on for several years already, but with 2016 signed, sealed and delivered, the 2017 group is now front and center. Several Midwest-based programs are going to be under a microscope from now until next February.

The Illini have strange timing when it comes to switching out head coaches. One week before their season opener last August the school came down on Tim Beckman following months of allegations and turmoil within the program. Offensive coordinator Bill Cubit took the reigns of the program from there and then had the “interim” tag removed at the end of the season when he signed a two-year contract. Two years ultimately lasted just over three months when new athletic director Josh Whitman, in his first week on the job, fired Cubit and brought in former NFL head coach Lovie Smith.

While many see promise for the Illinois program under Smith’s guidance and experience, there is no doubt the coaching carousel in Champaign has stunted the Illini’s recruiting efforts over the last seven months. Smith has the NFL pedigree that will undoubtedly attract recruits' attention, but how will he adjust to the recruiting game after being out of college coaching for 20 years? He missed a big opportunity the first weekend on the job when dozens of top prospects were planning to visit Illinois and many reaffirmed even after the coaching change. Smith, however, decided to cancel that visit weekend and try to reschedule for later in the spring. There were a lot of very good prospects planning to come in, and getting them all rescheduled is unlikely. We’ll see how he rebounds on the recruiting trail going forward.

Jim Harbaugh has been a fixture in the headlines since he stepped back through the doors of Schembechler Hall in Dec. 2014, and many of those headlines have been made on the recruiting trail. In 2016 Michigan’s head man climbed trees and had sleepovers at prospects’ homes. He instituted a “Summer Swarm” satellite camp tour and a “meritocracy” based recruiting strategy. His tactics have drawn the ire of opponents and praise of fans, but one cannot argue with the results in his first full recruiting class: the Wolverines finished No. 4 overall in the Rivals.com team rankings and landed 2016’s No. 1 ranked prospect, defensive tackle Rashan Gary.

So, what will the encore in Ann Arbor look like? One of the biggest questions in the 2017 class is, will Harbaugh parting ways with several long-time commits at the end of the 2016 class discourage others from making early commitments in the 2017 class? Another question is whether the Wolverines will be able to reestablish themselves in their own backyard after signing just two from Detroit and none from Ohio in 2016? The Wolverines are currently at six commitments in the 2017 class, with the headliner being Rivals100 quarterback Dylan McCaffrey out of Colorado. Three of those commits are from in-state prospects, so those questions are being answered pretty satisfactorily at this point.

Nothing can jump start recruiting as quickly as on-field success, and after Iowa rolled through a perfect regular season in 2015, the Hawkeyes are seeing new life on the recruiting trail. Following appearances in the Big Ten Championship Game and Rose Bowl, head coach Kirk Ferentz signed the Big Ten’s No. 8 recruiting class this past February after finishing in the bottom third of the conference rankings each of the previous three seasons.

The 2017 class has carried on that momentum, with four of the top seven prospects in-state and the nation’s No. 28 ranked prospect overall already pledging to Iowa. Recruiting to Iowa City is certainly more difficult than recruiting to a campus located closer to major metropolitan areas, but Iowa has overcome that in the past. They signed the No. 11 class in 2005 and I am already on-record predicting they will crack the top 25 in 2017. With Rivals100 defensive end A.J. Epenesa and a strong crop of in-state talent on-board, the Hawkeyes have a chance for a really special 2017 class.

The buzz coming out of Manhattan is that 2016 will be Bill Snyder’s final one on the sidelines for Kansas State. Of course, that speculation existed prior to previous seasons as well. Whether or not this is Snyder’s last as head coach, prospects in the 2017 class are pretty well assured that the 76-year old coaching legend is not going to be around for the entirety of their college careers and that makes for one of the most unique recruiting situations in the country.

For his part, Snyder has been very honest with recruits and makes no guarantees about how long he will be with the program. For some prospects, like four-star 2016 quarterback signee Skylar Thompson, that was not an issue. For others, though, the uncertainty about who will succeed Snyder and when is a sticking point. The Kansas State coaching tree is a large and distinguished one, and names like Brent Venables, Jim Leavitt and current assistant Dana Dimel have all been mentioned as possible successors. Uncertainty in recruiting is tough to overcome, though, and Kansas State’s recruiting has been stagnant the last few years with Snyder’s eventual retirement looming.

Like Illinois, Minnesota has a head coach entering his first full recruiting class, but the similarities between the two situations ends there. Jerry Kill was one of the most popular and well-respected head coaches in the Big Ten during his tenure in Minneapolis. The Golden Gophers football program also saw a resurgence on the field under his leadership, and when he had to step down in the middle of the 2015 season due to health concerns, the Golden Gophers decided to stay within the family and promote long-time Kill assistant Tracy Claeys to the head coaching position.

Despite working alongside Kill for the previous 20 years, Claeys immediately made it known that his recruiting strategy would not be a carbon copy of Kill’s. He parted ways with several of Minnesota’s 2016 commitments, including four-star offensive tackle Sean Foster, and ultimately signed the Big Ten’s 10th ranked recruiting class in 2016. Offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover -- who was also one of the Gophers' best recruiters -- is now at Penn State and the new Minnesota offense will reportedly feature zone blocking schemes and have a brand new look. The Gophers have yet to land their first 2017 commit. It will be interesting to track how Claeys approach pans out.