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Update on hoops signing period...

Bountiful (UT) Salt Lake Metro small forward Jeff Pollard tells WazzuWatch.com he'll sign with Washington State next week when the early signing period opens up on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The signing period is open for one week.

I have reached out to Robert Franks to see if they, too, will sign with the Cougars next week. I would expect both King and Renard, the Cougars' two junior college commits, to sign next week, though Franks has yet to take an official visit (he has visited unofficially) and still has to take the necessary placement tests for admission purposes.

Updated: Clarity on the Tracy Clark situation...

Update (7:03 p.m.): According to Jacob Thorpe of the Spokesman Review, Tracy Clark is still a member of the Washington State football program and Mike Leach misunderstood the question. I'll work with our sources to see if I can gather more information on the matter.

Redshirt senior cornerback Tracy Clark has left the Washington State football program, according to Jacob Thorpe of the Spokesman Review. Mike Leach confirmed the news to the media following the Cougars' Wednesday night practice.

Clark, in his first extended action of his career, gave up two touchdowns in the season opener against Rutgers, including an 80-yard touchdown on the first play of the season. The Pittsburg, Calif., product would finish out the game, however Charleston White took over against Nevada and Clark was buried on the depth chart since then.

Clark was recruited by Paul Wulff in the 2010 class and was rated two stars by Rivals.com. He picked the Cougars over offers from Cal Poly, Fresno State, North Dakota, Portland State, Sacramento State and San Jose State. After a redshirt year, Clark saw limited action from over the last three years, recording just nine tackles during that span.

With Clark quitting the team, it brings the number of departed players this season to four including running back Teondray Caldwell, receiver Kristoff Williams and running back Squally Canada. Williams left due to medical reasons while Caldwell and Canada left on their own terms.

There was a recent report that linebacker Chester Sua left the team, though, according to Thorpe, Leach has contradicted that report. I have been unable to personally confirm any reports that Sua, a former four-star recruit, is no longer with the program. For what it's worth, he is still listed in the school database despite reports that he was dismissed by the school.


Link: http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2014/nov/05/tracy-clark-leaves-wsu-football-program/



This post was edited on 11/6 12:03 AM by Britton Ransford

New offer out to 4-star B1G commit...

Adam McLean has been offered by Washington State. It's offer No. 43 for the four-star Penn State commit, who is rated the No. 9 strongside defensive and and No. 118 overall prospect in the 2015 class, according to Rivals.

In addition to Washington State and Penn State, McLean holds offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee and many others. The 6-foot-1, 282-pound defensive lineman currently has official visits lined up to Penn State, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

Depth chart for Oregon State released...

There were a couple changes to the Washington State depth chart ahead of Oregon State, which included Peyton Bender listed as the No. 2 quarterback, as Mike Leach mentioned during his press conference yesterday. When asked whether, if necessary, Bender's redshirt would be burned, Mike Leach said "they would cross that bridge when comes."

Depth Chart Notes

-Theron West, who filled in for Gerard Wicks against USC and finished with nine carries for 41 yards including a 26 yard scamper, is now listed as the No. 2 running back. West technically got the start last week at H-receiver in place of Rickey Galvin, though I believe the Cougars came out in their two-back set.

-Gerard Wicks was not suited up for the USC game and neither was Cole Madison, who is still listed as the starting right tackle, though Jacob Seydel figures to plug in there should Madison miss more time.

-Dylan Hanser is listed as the No. 2 WILL linebacker behind Jeremiah Allison. Hanser has received more playing time as of late and it appears he's passed Tana Pritchard on the depth chart. Pritchard started three games this season before giving way to Allison. Hanser, in three games, has one tackle.

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Link: http://www.wsucougars.com/pdf9/2952228.pdf

Transcript: Ernie Kent's Tuesday presser...

New Washington State men's basketball head coach Ernie Kent met with the media today to discuss the team's offseason, the upcoming exhibition game against Azusa Pacific and what his team needs to do in order to be ready for the season opener next Friday at UTEP.

-Kent said that DaVonte Lacy and Dexter Kernich-Drew are the only penciled in starters at this time and over the next few days he'll begin to figure out his starting five. Que Johnson sounds like he'll be the next one in line for a starter spot, though he wants to see more consistency for the remaining spots.

-Speaking of Kernich-Drew, Kent spoke at length about the senior, saying he worked as hard as anyone this offseason, added 20-pounds to his frame and seven inches to his vertical. Kent credited new strength and conditioning coach Scott Thom, formerly of California under Mike Montgomery, though he also noted that the team's new mentality, or confidence, as he put it, helped a lot of guys improve over the offseason.

-Of the newcomers, Kent is still looking for consistency, though when he talked about who has improved the most, he name-dropped Trevor Dunbar, Jackie Davis, Ny Redding and Aaron Cheatum as guys who have improved the most since coming into the program earlier this year.

-Kent also said that Jordan Railey has improved in the post in recent weeks and he's going to be counting on him to continue that "once people are in the stands."

-Kent talked at length about how his team will progress throughout the season and how important it is to be trending upwards at the end of the year. He says the first two road games are very important for them to find some kind of success in tough environments.

-As for the exhibition game this Friday against Azusa Pacific, the goal will be for the team to play with poise, take care of the basketball and make sure that they can get a lot of guys minutes so they can continue their evaluation heading into UTEP and TCU. Finding a cohesive unit will be paramount in their evaluations.

Link: https://washingtonstate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1700424

WSU lands former Clemson receiver...

According to the Washington State football Twitter account, Washington State has landed former Clemson receiver Kyrin Priester who officially visited last weekend. I'm still working to confirm with Priester, however that's about as official as it gets.

Because WSU has already announced it, that would indicate that he has signed a financial aid agreement. We'll have more as soon as we can gather the information.

New offer out to Texas CB...

Willie Sykes picked up an offer from Washington State this evening. The 5-foot-11, 183-pound cornerback is rated two-stars by Rivals and also holds offers from Fresno State, Minnesota, Oregon State, Purdue, Utah and others.

Sykes has officially visited Minnesota and has an official visit set up to Purdue this weekend. Sykes is also heavily interested in Oregon State, who the Cougars take on this weekend.

Highlights: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1417380/highlights/145528375

Official visitor updates...

While Washington State was expected to have two official visitors in town this weekend, it appears just Kyrin Priester, the former Clemson receiver, was the only one to make it this weekend as Je'Vari Anderson informed WazzuWatch.com today that he rescheduled his visit for the Apple Cup.

The Concord (Calif.) De La Salle cornerback says it was a "scheduling thing" when asked why he was unable to make the trip. I'm working on getting ahold of Priester to see how his visit went, though he appeared to be enjoying himself based on his comments on Twitter.

New offer out to Arizona OL...

Davis Perrott. The 6-foot-5, 270-pound offensive lineman is rated three-stars by Rivals and also holds offers from Boise State, California, Colorado State, Indiana, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, South Dakota State, UNLV and Wyoming.

Perrott visited California a couple weeks ago and told GoldenBearReport.com that a decision is likely to come soon, though he still wants to take at least one more visit - possibly to Indiana - before a decision is made. Boise State is also under consideration.

Coaches

Who stays who goes? If any

Yost, Simmons, Maestro, and Simmons are safe IMO

Breske should be gone, I don't think he's that good of a recruiter, maybe Britton can add more depth on that. I have not seen the development in our secondary that I would like. Why can't David Bucannon see the field? How can a RS sophomore not get a look with how bad this secondary is? Why haven't we seen Taliulu get any better? He's been playing almost 36 games now. Couldn't he at least turned Tracy Clark into a serviceable DB in 3 years? Don't like the scheme, 3-4 is not gonna work here. Look at South Carolina, they just inputted the 3-4 this year and are getting their ass handed to them and they have 100x's the athletes that we have. Go to the 4-3, I think we have the DT's for it. I think we can find some tweeners to play DE for us, in California and Texas.

Clay McGuire, have we seen enough to make a judgement off him? Maybe Leach can go get Matt Moore his old OL coach at Tech who's at La Tech right now. Maybe McGuire just needs to wait for these guys to grow up a little, still a lot of young guys on that OL.

Volero and Wilson who are linebackers. Now I get confused with the 3-4 who coaches what, so I don't know who coaches what, but I just don't see the bodies here to make a good judgement. When we are playing Peterson and Pritchard tells us where we are at.

The defense is sitting on a lot of redshirts, Dotson, LaRue, Lenui, Farrar, Pippins, Fernandez, Mata'afa, Tapa, Hoyd and players like Griffin, Porter, Hameed, Luvu, and Hanser are playing as true freshman, we have Aaron Porter coming next year. The depth does look a lot better it's gonna be green. We are more athletic and faster in the secondary, but our linebackers are just aren't good.

I think the roster is started to become even, the attrition from 2010-2012 is just too much to overcome right now. But I just don't see Breske turning the corner here, his defenses at Montana were average, but created a lot of turnovers. This defense has like 7 total this year, 2 picks.
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