The transfer portal is a dirty game, and the Illinois football team has been on both sides of the grossness.
There is no question that the Illini have done what it takes to land a few recruits every season. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a little salty when it comes to other programs taking our talent.
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On Monday night, Bret Bielema fired up his Twitter fingers and fired off a post on social media that piqued my interest.
The original post was a video from a social media account that had Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love’s dad talking about his recruitment. The social media post then goes on to say, “…University of Georgia tampered and made a lucrative offer to have him (Love) transfer there…”
Bielema’s response to that social media post was a quote retweet that read, “Wish they had succeeded…because they came and got ours #famILLy.”
What Bielema is talking about here is that heading into last season, Georgia backed up the Brinks truck to pull running back Josh McCray from Illinois.
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If the Bulldogs would have pulled Love in, that means McCray would have likely stayed at Illinois.
Georgia Bulldogs dumping money into Illinois football running back Josh McCray didn’t pay off
What is funny is that Georgia wanted McCray so badly. He had a great showing in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, where he ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns. It was like that was all the Bulldogs saw. They didn’t realize that his previous high that season was 78 yards.
I think it is pretty obvious that Georgia didn’t get their return on investment, ROI, with McCray. They probably paid hand over fist for a running back who had a total of 135 yards and three touchdowns and a 2.5 yards per carry average.
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Don’t get things misconstrued. I am happy for McCray. He got paid. While Bielema seems a little salty about the situation still, I think Illinois did just fine.
This article was originally published on www.writingillini.com as Bret Bielema still clearly salty about Illinois football transfer portal departure.
