William C. Phillips III

Shawn Watson, SIUC football coach, said persistent recruiting allowed his staff to focus more emphasis on areas the team needed to hit in this years recruiting battle.

We put more emphasis on offense since last year was a defensive year, he said. We have a good group of athletes across the board.

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Watson said he believes the recruits for this year are a group of talented kids, but how they will affect the program depends on their ability to mature quickly.

Recruiting is not an exact science, it’s liquid science if anything, Watson said. It’s too wishy-washy, you just have make the best decisions for your progaram.

This year standouts include talent from around the Midwest, which Watson said he is excited about, and hopes can fill some of the holes that have developed due to graduation and a transfer in coaching staffs in 1994.

Marcus Capone, a 6-4, 215 lb. quarter back from Long Beach, NY (Nassau Junior College) had a good winter, and Watson said Capone is a good prospect for the team to build around.

Mike Green, a 6-6, 230 lb., tight end from Camby, Ind, is a top athlete, accoroding to Watson, and currently leads the state of Indiana in rebounding on the basketball court.

He is a good basketball and football prospect, has a lot of talent and was highly recruited by1-AA, Watson said.

Patrick Izzo, a 6-2, 230 lb. line backer from Algonquin, Ill. (Harper Junior College), had a great seasonlast year, and will help replace the graduated Brian Tranchitella at line backer.

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Jim Lawhorn, a 6-1, 265 lb. full back, from Carmel, Ind. (Carmel High School), is a versatile athelete, and was an undefeated wrestler at the heavyweight level.

He might be one of the better prospects we’ve gotten over the last couple of years, Watson said. We felt like he can do a lot of different things beside play full back, such as defensive and offensive line depending on his level of maturity.

Willie McDonald, a 6-3, 180 lb. defensive back from Chicago (Chicago Vocational High School), sat out the past fall to make up a test score. McDonald originally signed with University of Northern Iowa, but he chose not to return and will be a great help in replacing graduated defensive back Darnell Hendricks, Watson said.

Johnny Robinson, a 5-8, 155 lb. wide receiver from Chula Vista, Calif. (Grossmount Junior College) runs the100-meter dash in 10.4, and will also compete on the SIUC track team.

Jim Tumilty, a 5-10,180 lb. running back from Naperville (Naperville Central High School), was a member of Chicago’s Top-100 football players team

. Tumility played with a bad knee all year long, and he’s a very inspirational player, Watson said.

Watson said he and his staff used consistent recruiting to get good athletes, and did not allow larger schools like Brigham Young University to stand in their way.

This past year I don’t think we backed off anything. We stayed on them, and we were pretty persistentday after day week after week, Watson said.

This was the hardest year in recruiting I’ve had because we had a lot of kids who committed early and a lot of guys from 1-A tried to come in and get them, he said. We were able to hang on to them, and they were attracted by the attention we were giving them.