4star DB
- Thread starter Coug95man2
- Start date
More excited about Chau Smith. Decent get for this late in the game but Oywek's offer sheet didn't set the world on fire. His other P5 offers were Arizona and Oregon St, perhaps the only defenses in conference worse than we were last year.
I’m thrilled to have him...welcome to Pullman young man!!
Chau Smith next commitment would have been Bowling Green.
Congratulations to this young stud
https://ref.surveyjunkies.co/Soldier82
Congratulations to this young stud
https://ref.surveyjunkies.co/Soldier82
Offers from Boise St, Air Force, and Arizona aren’t terrible, and he certainly plays a position of need.
He has played basketball his entire life. This past season was the first season he has played football. So, there is no sophomore or junior tape, nor did he attend the summer camps that get you noticed. That he has gotten this much recruiting notice from one year of playing is really impressive.
Likely it would have been Purdue. Or for a very solid Wyoming D.
This is a great story. Unfortunately, it's fiction. He played football all along. A simple Google search will turn up his jr film.
As another data point, he committed to Arizona before August. No way he gets a P5 offer before ever playing a down of FB.
I went back and read the article and I did misread one part of the article. But, the gist of what I wrote was correct. He was a basketball player that focused on playing basketball. It wasn't until his senior year that he decided to focus on football.
Needs to work on back pedal...but man he breaks to the ball with sudden quickness. Really long arms too.
Minimal experience accounts for technical things that need work (agree that backpedaling and switching from left to right lead or right to left lead are at top of list). But the athleticism is there, so this is very good raw material with which to be working. In the bigger picture, starting with two DB commits is a good sign, as well. The fact that Rolo & staff immediately homed in on the best available local DB also speaks to a willingness to look at reality that is refreshing.
I'm sorry, and I'm surprised that no one else has called you on this, but that is a hell of a thing to say. If you wouldn't say that to his face (which I guess you wouldn't because its rude as hell), then stfu. And thats not easy for me to say because you usually bring good takes to the board.
We are a defense bereft of talent that usually recruits at the 2 star level at this position. This is one hell of a get at a position that is sorely in need of a shot of excitement and talent.
Welcome to the program young man.
Talking to a coach that coached against him and they say he’s pretty damn athletic. He wasn’t DB OTY for his conference and it’s a pretty bad conference, but he has talent, but he’s raw. He’s fast, breaks well on the ball and is long. It’s a position of need and we need bodies. He’s a high ceiling type of kid. Worth the risk.
Thank you for the snarky reply. My response is directed at the 4 star commit headline. If you want to bill the kid as a raw three star with upside, I could get on board with that. One of the best options available for this late in the cycle? Sure. A 4 star recruit? No.
Would I trash the kid to his face for getting the scholarship? Of course not. It's great that he is getting a free ride through school. I don't begrudge anyone the opportunity. If I were talking to the coaches on this, I'd ask why he was so under recruited. How did UW miss this kid? Why hasn't he gotten more national attention? How far away do they see him from contributing?
I also took a ton of grief for being less than thrilled with the addition of Trey Davis. Didn't like that he hadn't received much recruiting attention either and didn't like that he left USC after a month. Saw too much downside to justify the scholarship. Kid didn't even last a semester.
I don't know who's the better prospect, but I think we can conclude that the former staff liked Smith better. Again, being right or wrong isn't the point here. I think "he's a four star recruit" narrative is a little unfair to Oywak. 247 has him ranked as the 17th CB in the nation. Rivals has him at 83 and ESPN rates him at 106. There is an obvious outlier there.
Who cares about the stars, the kid wants to be a Coug, has raw talent and lots of room for improvement, which are the kind of athletes this program had thrived on during successful years. So I welcome the young man and I happy he has elected to be a Coug.
I'm not putting a whole lot of value on what the previous staff thought of defensive talent. There's been a whole lot of swings and misses there, and only one real standout (Thompson might have been two, but...) That may be a bit unfair due to the turnover in staff, but after last season and watching us get dominated by a military academy - not lose, dominated - their currency holds little value for me.
Sarcasm alert- Amazing how the defensive players in a 61st rated recruiting class from the past can be coached down to perform like the 98th best overall defense.
Mid 60s to high 50's (nationally). We may have climbed out of the cellar in P12 rankings. WTFC....let's close strong tomorrow and gain some Mo going into Spring Ball.
Only because he did something that caused Leach to BOOT him.
Otherwise he would have stayed. And he played, may have burned his Redshirt. And he showed DECENT, ok talent, play.
That shows you were wrong about him, because you questioned his talent, whether he had talent or not.
.
Now if you had questioned his behavior, instead of the talent he had, then you would have been right, and not wrong about him.
Also Rolo seems to be willing to give the kid a 2nd chance to behave, show off his talent.
I thought it was two potential red flags with leaving USC so quickly. That's either a character or talent red flag. Do you want a guy who quit at USC because it was obvious he would never see the field?
Playing some snaps at Nickel this year didn't mean much. We threw everyone we could out there. Armani Marsh, Pat Nunn, Skyler Thomas, Travion Brown, and Trey Davis. None of these guys were likely to be the long term answer. Someone needs to line up there. I find it very interesting Armani Archie was able to keep his redshirt despite the coaches being high on him.
If you remember the 2014 season, a similar situation existed here. Our defense was terrible and our secondary was thin, but coaches burned the redshirts of Pat Porter and Kevin Griffin while trying to keep the shirt on Marcellus Pippins. Daquwan Brown got tossed against OSU for targeting IIRC, and Pippins had his redshirt burned.
The following season Griffin was at Cal Poly, Porter was a deep reserve before quitting midseason and ending up at Jacksonville St, and Pippins was starting opposite of Darrien Molton. There is a good chance (and unless Rolo let's him back) we never find out how Davis would have done but early playing time at a position where we struggled all year doesn't mean much.
The DB positions will be wide open in spring ball and nothing would please me more than to have the staff so happy with the results that it is not necessary to make the jobs wide open again for the fall. But it could happen. I won't be surprised if one of the true freshman see the field at some point this coming season.
