Chicago high school football coaches on Big Ten's best recruiters, impact of NIL and more (2024)

Chicago and its surrounding suburbs contain roughly 10 million people. And with several FBS schools located in close proximity, including Notre Dame and programs across the Big Ten, the competition for high school football talent is fierce.

Which coaches and programs are doing well in the area, and which could be better? We talked to eight high school head coaches across Chicagoland, representing four public schools and four private. They were granted anonymity in exchange for their candor.

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Which in-state programs do the best job recruiting Chicagoland?

Coach 1: Illinois has really improved drastically with our school, really with a lot of schools. I’m really a big fan of Bret Bielema. He’s been great in terms of his staff getting out here since he’s been there. Every new Illinois coach — because I’ve been coaching here long enough — has told me that they’re going to be more of a presence, and that just never transpired. But Bret has pulled through, so Illinois has been very strong.

Coach 2: Northwestern has done a really good job consistently. When (Ron) Zook was at Illinois, they did an amazing job. But since Zook has left Illinois, Illinois’ recruiting in the state has been atrocious. And (David) Braun has just taken it a step further with Northwestern. He has done an amazing job and will continue to do a really good job. He’s already made inroads with a lot of people with Illinois high schools.

Coach 3: Illinois and Northwestern, they always do a good job of communicating with me when they want to come around, and even when they’re in the building, just kind of developed a really good relationship with those guys. … I wouldn’t give Northern Illinois a good grade.

Coach 4: Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen Northern Illinois every year. I don’t believe I’ve seen any other school every year.

Coach 5: Northwestern (has) always done a really good job of finding the guys that qualify and meet whatever that academic standard is. If there’s a guy in the Chicagoland area that fits, they’re going to do their homework and make sure they’re on it. Right close behind them now is Illinois. I’m a really big fan of (offensive line coach) Bart Miller.

Coach 6: (Quality control coach) Max Rosenthal is in constant communication (at) Illinois. Bielema has done a much better job with our school being more present and so on. There was a transition phase with Northwestern from (Pat) Fitzgerald now over to Braun and they still do a great job. But the relationships I would say are being built right now.

Coach 7: I probably have the most connection with Illinois. Eastern Illinois with (cornerbacks coach)Maurice Fleming, I would say between Eastern Illinois and Illinois.

Which out-of-state schools do the best job recruiting Chicagoland?

Coach 1: Wisconsin is definitely up there. They’ve been outstanding. Michigan was very good, too. I know Michigan State as well. Minnesota has been very consistent as well. Iowa has been outstanding. Wisconsin’s last staff recruited around here well, too. But they just picked up where the last staff left off. I know when coach (Luke Fickell) was at Cincinnati, they were a strong presence here as well, and he knows the type of talent that we have in the Chicagoland area.

Coach 2: Iowa has done a killer job forever. In my 20 years as a head coach, Iowa as far as big schools has just done an amazing job of getting Illinois kids. Much like Wisconsin does. Wisconsin owns Wisconsin. At least I feel like it’s tough to go in there. For years, kids wanted to go to Wisconsin. Iowa pretty much owned Illinois for the better part of my 20 years as a head coach.

Coach 3: USC now with (linebackers) coach (Matt) Entz who came from North Dakota State, he’s been in here multiple times and he always does a great job of communicating with me, with anyone that he’s specifically recruiting. He’s very realistic, gives great feedback, is very transparent.

Wisconsin was active until December. Wisconsin was around a lot, and then the last time I saw them was December. They weren’t around in January. They weren’t around this recruiting period so far. They were actively recruiting some guys and then kind of just fell off for whatever reason, and that’s their prerogative. I would’ve said that they were doing a good job of just being transparent, open and honest.

Coach 4: I think Iowa has come in every year. The Dakotas do a really good job, all the Dakotas.

Coach 5: It’ll be interesting to see how Luke Fickell does in Chicago. When Bret and even Gary Andersen were at Wisconsin, I felt like Wisconsin had a really strong presence, and then kind of waned a little bit on Paul (Chryst). … Since Luke’s come in, I’ve seen a little bit of Wisconsin again, but not like what they used to be before.

Coach 6: Michigan does a great job recruiting Illinois. Anytime I’ve got a Division I prospect, they make sure that they see the kid. Minnesota (has) an O-line coach, coach (Brian) Callahan, who is very consistent at communicating. They’re totally opposite in the way they recruit — Michigan and Minnesota — and you’ve got two completely different head coaches right now with (Sherrone) Moore coming in at Michigan and then (P.J.) Fleck at Minnesota.

Coach 7: Iowa does a really good job of it. They’re not just Chicago kids; they get to the Chicagoland in general. Minnesota would be another one.

What are your impressions of Bret Bielema and his staff at Illinois?

Coach 1: They’re very thorough. They follow through. They’ve been consistent with their visits to the school. They keep an open line of communication, very responsive if I reach out in a timely fashion of getting back to me. I’ve been developing a strong relationship with him more so than any other Illinois coach. And he’s very personable. He’s a down-to-earth, Midwest guy.

Coach 2: There is some frustration with a lot of people in the state. Some of it has to do with the transfer portal, too. … I told them up front, “If you guys are going to get kids in Illinois, you have to get in early and build that relationship. Otherwise you’re not getting kids.”

Coach 3: I thought two years ago that they did a really good job of coming through our school quite often, as much as they were allowed to, I should say, communicating as much as they could with me. And we had some kids that were being recruited by them, so it’s a little bit easier. With some turnover within the staff, with new coaches, it’s always hard to expect the same from these new incoming coaches as the last coaches.

Coach 4: They’re doing a pretty decent job. They have a high school coach liaison, Pat Ryan, and he does a really good job of communicating and staying in touch.

Coach 5: Bart Miller played at Oak Grove, so it’s been fun to watch his career and his trajectory, and I’ve gotten a chance to just see him grow up and really develop into an awesome coach. Bret’s done a really nice job of getting his staff out into the Chicagoland area, and out into the state of Illinois and really having a stronger presence.

Coach 6: Now that (Bret is) there, there’s more consistency. I’ve been very pleased with that. I can’t say that was always the case at Illinois. We had years when nobody came in or there was no communication even when we reached out to somebody.

Coach 7: Bret is the perfect person for that job, just being an Illinois native, being a Big Ten guy with Wisconsin and Iowa. He knows what it takes to win in the Big Ten. He has that program going on an upward trajectory.

What are your impressions of Marcus Freeman and his staff at Notre Dame?

Coach 1: They used to be a real strong presence here and I have not seen them or heard from them coming on a year. I never met coach Freeman. He’s never been by.

Coach 2: I’ve heard nothing but good things about coach Freeman. I had a good interaction with him. A lot of the staff that I knew is gone. So like Tommy Rees, Harry Hiestand and Chris Watt. Now he’s with the Colts. I don’t really know anybody over there.

Coach 3: Notre Dame, like many schools, they are active with our school as long as we have someone. Like, how many schools does Northwestern go into when in reality they know they’re only recruiting one percent of the one percent based on grades? But they’re still going through every school. I’ve gotten a call from (defensive line coach) Al Washington in the past month or two about some of our guys and some information. But they didn’t come in January or they didn’t come in December. And they were like, “We haven’t heard of these guys.” Well, if you don’t come through, then how the hell are you supposed to hear about them?

Coach 5: They’re around if you’ve got players. I don’t really know their staff very well. But I also know Notre Dame’s a little different; they’re definitely a national brand or at least they think of themselves that way. They’re going to be a presence in Chicago, but it’s not going to be for a developmental guy. It’s going to have to be a four- or five-star or a no-brainer for them to have to come in.

Coach 6: (Offensive coordinator) Mike Denbrock is now back at Notre Dame and I’ve been most impressed with Mike. He’s just done an unbelievable job with relationships and talking to us. Their recruiting procedures might be a little bit different because they really recruit the whole nation. So they will only really come to us if we’ve got a national kid.

Coach 7: Obviously, you nationally recruit so it’s a little trickier. You’re not kind of regionally recruiting. I haven’t seen anyone come through from Notre Dame. (One of my coaches) has a good relationship with coach Freeman and he speaks nothing but good things about him.

What are your impressions of David Braun and his staff at Northwestern?

Coach 1: Huge Braun fan. He recruited my school when he was at North Dakota State. So he and I had a strong relationship prior to him coming to Evanston. Northwestern recruits here all the time, too. Northwestern has been outstanding.

Coach 2: Braun’s awesome. I’ve actually known Braun since he got into coaching. He was a GA at Winona State. Some of the guys that they’ve brought on have been really good, at least from a recruiting standpoint. They just seem really on-point with everything they’re doing. They’ve been great from a communication standpoint.

Coach 4: I’ve known David for many years. They’re doing OK. They’re one of those schools, obviously with Fitzgerald, they’d be here all the time. I have yet to see David. He hasn’t come through. Now, that’s kind of unfair from the standpoint of I think they were supposed to come in to do some evaluations in January, but we had weather. But they never made it back.

Coach 5: (Coach Braun) recruited our area when he was the defensive coordinator at NDSU and he’s top-notch, high-character. He stepped into a really difficult situation last year and turned it into a real positive, and that’s kind of carried over into the recruiting. He’s done a really nice job of establishing a presence and keeping Northwestern very relevant.

Coach 6: Our relationship with the Northwestern staff was very strong before, and now it’s just in kind of that infancy stage with a lot of the new coaches. I’ve always said this: Northwestern is by the book more than any other program I’ll deal with in recruiting. Whether it’s Braun or Fitzgerald, they’re very good at following the rules, and I think they take a lot of pride in that. They’re the cleanest recruiting college that I’ve come across.

Coach 7: Coach Braun has been great. He invited all the Chicagoland head coaches out in the spring. We did a clinic there during one of their spring days and had a walkthrough. I thought it was awesome.

What other Big Ten programs stand out?

Coach 2: It’s hard not to say Iowa. They’ve done a great job. I think Luke Fickell is going to kill it. I think so highly of him. Wisconsin does a great job. (Sherrone) Moore from Michigan, I think, is going to do a great job. He’s always been a good recruiter through the years when he had our area. He’s going to do an outstanding job.

Coach 3: Iowa does a solid job. (Linebackers coach) Seth Wallace, he has our area. He does a good job of getting through the schools and trying to see as much as possible. I just think that they do a different job because they’re a little bit more old-school mindset. They’re not a school to jump on kids early, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re not the flashiest of anybody, I would say. So they might be a little bit slower and they’re not as glamorous. But coach Wallace does a good job.

Coach 4: Wisconsin was down quite a bit. But I have not seen them since they’ve changed over. But (offensive line coach) Bob Bostad still comes in, and he’s at Indiana now. He was at Wisconsin for a long time.

Coach 5: Michigan, Ohio State, they’re like Notre Dame. They only come around if you’ve got the big guns. I don’t have many dealings with those guys unless we’ve got whatever is deemed to be a true four- or five-star type of kid. Minnesota has done a nice job of recruiting Chicagoland. (Offensive line coach) Brian Callahan does a good job.

Coach 6: Wisconsin now with Fickell, it’s a little new. If you asked me who’s one of my favorite coaches that comes into our building, year in and year out, it would be Seth Wallace. I think he’s a tremendous recruiter. He’s very straightforward.

Coach 7: Ohio State and Michigan obviously have come in and grabbed the top guys, and I think that is always an easy thing to do for those kinds of schools. It’s more impressive when you see the schools like Minnesota, or even Illinois getting those top kids. … It’s always been Iowa’s MO, but they just do a really good job evaluating.

Who is the best recruiting head coach you’ve dealt with?

Coach 1: Bielema is really making a strong push to No. 1. Him and Braun are neck-and-neck. Before he took over the Chargers, Jim Harbaugh was incredible. He was an excellent recruiter when he was at Michigan. He’s real personable and down to earth. And he’s not above it all. Even returning text messages or calls or him calling me about something or sitting in on my leadership sessions when he was here. He’s just a coach’s coach.

Coach 2: I’d say Kirk Ferentz does a great job as a head coach. I’ve got a good relationship with him. Those guys are good from a recruiting standpoint. James Franklin was a great guy, too. Matt Campbell at Iowa State. I love him. Matt’s awesome. I would put Matt in that conversation with some of the best guys for sure.

Coach 3: Lincoln Riley is up there. He definitely takes the time, the effort. He does a really nice job based on my experience.

Coach 4: I would’ve said Fitzgerald was the best by far. He was communicative. He would reach out, text, call, even during the season, whether we had guys that could fit their program or not.

Coach 5: Coach Ferentz has done a really nice job. He’s been really top notch especially when they’re trying to come in and close the deal. His presence and respect that he has, he’s always been really good and really personable. He does a really nice job of establishing a great rapport, a great relationship with players, coaches and players’ parents. I like coach Bielema; I think he’s done a really nice job. But of all the coaches I have seen throughout the Big Ten, coach Ferentz is probably the best.

Coach 6: Harbaugh and P.J. Fleck. We had them on the same day one time, and that was probably the funniest day of my life, listening to the two different styles of those two guys. They’re both so different, but they sold their programs.

Coach Ferentz (is) kind of a fatherly figure. He’s not the buddy guy. He’s more like the wise man that walks in when he recruits, so it’s interesting to see the contrast and styles from Minnesota to Iowa. Purdue has been good over the years … we had a lot of connections with (Louisville coach Jeff) Brohm. So that’s a newer relationship. Same at Indiana with the new coaching staff. They’ve been in quite a few times throughout the year, and they’ve been communicating. That relationship will continue to grow.

Which assistant coaches stand out for how they recruit?

Coach 1: Seth Wallace at Iowa is a big one. (Defensive coordinator Tim) McGarigle at Northwestern. He’s been really good. The defensive coordinator at U of I (Aaron Henry). It’s just how organized they are, how they have all their ducks in a row. They don’t just show up to school. They’re very thorough with their evaluations, and their honesty especially is much appreciated in this college football business.

Coach 2: Seth Wallace does a good job out of Iowa. Zook had a great staff as far as from a recruiting standpoint. Bob Bostad, I always loved him when he was at Wisconsin because he was always recruiting our O-line guys, so he was good.

Coach 3: If I was a kid, based on what I see these guys talking to our guys when they’re recruiting our guys, I’d play for coach Entz any day of the week. There’s just something about him. And he’s not flashy at all. (Defensive line coach) Terrance Jamison at Illinois does a damn good job. I think coach (Lou) Esposito, the D-line coach at Michigan that just got hired, does a good job.

Coach 4: Seth Wallace of Iowa is awesome. (Outside linebackers coach) Chris Simpson at Eastern Michigan is great. Bostad at Indiana is really good. Bart Miller from U of I. He’s been through twice in the five years I’ve been here. (Defensive coordinator) Jesse Bobbit up at South Dakota State does a nice job. I feel like they come in prepared.

Coach 5: Bart Miller, I think he’s top notch. Seth Wallace to me, he’s one of the best, if not the best. What I love about him is just his honesty. He’s going to shoot you straight. He’s always going to make time for you.

Coach 6: I have four that I put in a certain bucket. Seth Wallace is one of them. Sherrone Moore from Michigan when he was an assistant was another one. And then Jake Moreland, who’s now in the NFL (Houston Texans), was at Western Michigan. And Sean Lewis, who was at Syracuse and was the head coach at Kent State, went to Colorado and now he’s a head coach again (San Diego State). Those four have been completely separate for me and their style, their ability to be honest with kids.

Coach 7: Seth stands out, Tim McGarrigle stands out, coach Callahan at Minnesota stands out. I’d definitely say those three guys.

Which schools and coaches could have done a better job of recruiting Chicagoland and why?

Coach 1: Notre Dame has fallen off, in my opinion. They used to be a big presence around here and like I said, I haven’t seen them in about a year. I never see Nebraska or Texas. Michigan could do better. They dropped off. Maybe it’s because of the coaching change. They haven’t been around. And Michigan State I would say. They could do a better job. They kind of disappeared on us, too.

Coach 2: Illinois. Purdue and Indiana could do a better job. And then just in general, some of the MACs. Northern Illinois could do a better job. Illinois State. The state schools could all do a better job of recruiting.

Coach 4: The first time I saw Southern Illinois was this year, and we’ve sent a kid FCS or higher … every year.

Coach 5: Wisconsin could be better. Their presence isn’t nearly as big as it used to be when coach (Barry) Alvarez and coach Bielema were there. I feel like there’s been a drop-off in the little bit of time that coach Fickell has been there.

Coach 6: Northern Illinois, to me, has been really inconsistent.

Coach 7: Northern Illinois is an interesting one to me, especially with the transfer portal and things going on. It’s just a shock to me they don’t get more Chicago kids that go somewhere else and now they’re transferring. I don’t know if it’s because they were never in the picture to begin with early on in their high school recruiting process.

Which MAC schools stand out?

Coach 2: Toledo does as good of a job as anybody in the MAC. Ohio lately has been awesome recruiting this area. When Sean Lewis was at Kent State, they did well. But Sean’s an Illinois guy. Miami of Ohio. Being an Illinois guy, Chuck Martin does an outstanding job.

Coach 3: Miami of Ohio, they do a solid job. Ohio, they do OK. Central Michigan, they do a solid job. Nothing blowing my doors off, if you catch my drift. But I would probably say Eastern Michigan, they overall do a nice job of communication. I would say Eastern and Western Michigan do the best job out of the MAC schools.

Coach 4: I’ve been impressed this cycle with Eastern Michigan, Toledo, I thought they’ve done a really good job.. I’ve never seen Miami of Ohio, which is crazy.

Coach 5: Some people might be frustrated by (NIU) because they’ve got a process and they’re old-school. The fact that coach (Thomas) Hammock is going to offer him when they offer, it’s going to mean something, and that might frustrate people. But I respect that. That means more to me as a coach. There are some schools right now that are going around the Chicagoland area dropping offers like it’s candy. That makes you wonder, “OK, great, my kid got an offer. Is this a committable offer?”

In what ways has NIL impacted high school football recruiting in the Chicagoland area?

Coach 1: My recruiting traffic compared to pre-NIL has drastically dropped. I think the portal — and I know I speak for a lot of coaches that I talk to anyway — has really hurt the high school football players who are being recruited. It’s a smaller pool that are being recruited because of the portal. That I know for a fact. It’s actually helping the MAC schools, as the MAC schools that recruit my area tell me they’re getting more quality players they wouldn’t have pre-NIL, pre-portal, because so many colleges are going to the portal and skipping high school kids.

Coach 2: I don’t know that it’s the NIL. The transfer portal is what has impacted college football. It’s killing recruiting for high school kids. What ends up happening is now that Big Ten kid might be a MAC kid. That MAC kid is now a 1-AA kid. That 1-AA kid might be a D-II kid. And then they play for a couple years and they get back to where they probably would’ve started. That whole path of where the kids go, it’s totally different now. Now these lower-level, Division I schools, they literally have to tell kids, MACs and these other schools have to say, “Hey, come here, have a good year, you’ve got a good chance of getting picked up by a Power 4 school.”

Coach 4: It just lessens the amount of kids that are getting high-level opportunities. Where schools used to take chances on some developmental kids, they’re not going to anymore. And that’s part portal, but it’s also part impatience with administrations. When you’re getting rid of coaches that have winning records after one down year or maybe didn’t quite live up to expectations, if you’re on a one-year contract every year, why are you going to develop a kid?

When you’re talking Big Ten schools, for example, if you’ve got a guy who’s a developmental kid or a borderline guy who’s not a four- or five-star kid but would be before the portal a definite take, they may be like, “Well, if he is good, we’ll take him from a school after he’s played there for two years out of the portal. We don’t need to put resources into that.” So I think that’s changed recruiting quite a bit.

Coach 5: The portal has had a bigger impact than NIL. The portal now has squeezed the ability of schools to recruit and develop high school kids. And we’ve had guys in our group that just graduated in ’23. And we’ve got some guys right now in this ’24-25 class in normal years who (coaches) would be looking to offer and develop, but now with the pressure to win now, a lot of schools are turning their attention more towards the portal.

I’ve got head coaches that come in, and, “Hey, Coach, we’ve got 25 spots, but 12 of them are only going to be high school kids.” In some programs, it’s even less than that. It might be 10.

Coach 6: It’s absolutely crazy. I hope people say that because if they don’t say it’s crazy, they don’t know what they’re talking about right now. I’m just really confused with how quickly the talk is not always about full scholarships, it’s about NIL. … It’s real money. You’re not talking like a couple hundred dollars here but thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars potentially going to 18-year-olds or 17-year-olds that are turning 18.

Coach 7: More and more coaches, they’ve talked about how they dread it, but they know it’s going to come up. Every now and then you’ll get a kid who asks about it, or even a coach who brings it up. But it’s just kind of one of those things they want to tiptoe around.

Coach 8: I haven’t seen it impact us yet. I think that it may be because of the level of kids we had. We have a lot of really good football players, but we don’t have those four- and five-star guys. I don’t see that being a factor with any of our kids.

(Top illustration: Daniel Goldfarb forThe Athletic; Photo: Britta Pedersen / Getty Images)