If, maybe the best "doing more with less" coach in the business, can only get us to second and third tier bowls with a steady diet of "under the radar kids," Rolo is going to have to hit it out of the park and start recruiting at a Price (at his best) level at some point, or we are going to have no chance of going to the Rose or similar bowls. We went the entire Leach era with many of us in complete denial in this regard. The fact is you don't play the game, or follow the sport, with a Holiday or Alamo Bowl as the objective. Now that Leach is gone, am I free to say, without retribution, that continuing to recruit a steady diet of "under the radar kids" isn't good enough. Is it okay to say, again, that we want a Pac-12 championship every now and then? You can't get their unless you start actually "out recruiting" other Pac-12 schools.
Leach recruited more high end 3 stars, borderline 3/4 stars, low ended 4 stars, RR 5.6, 5.7, 5.8 recruits then almost every other coach in almost all of WSU history, amd STILL his recruiting classes were STILL ranked at the bottom of the Pac 12, despite that(Which goes to show that my point that WSU can recruit more 4 star recruits, be ranked the 25th best class in nation, etc, amd STILL be ranked 12th in Pac 12 recruiting wise, because the other Pac 12 colleges are recruiting even more 4 star then WSU, and are all ranked in the top 23 recruiting classes as that's how tough, good, the Pac 12 can be at times, in recruiting.)
Yes Leach had UNDER THE RADAR, 2 star, NR, MW conference recruits. But often times those recruits got offered, reranked, bumped from NR, 2 stars to 3.5 stars, 4 stars, AFTER Leach, WSU, offered.
And WSU did have a Rosebowl, NY6 ESQUE, LIKE season in 2018, IF PAC 12 Refs had not CHEATED WSU out of a win over USC, and IF there had not been a BLIZZARD in the AC.
2018 was, should have been a 10-1, 11-1 season pre bowl game, etc, and a 12-1 postbowl record with either a Rosebowl, or Fiesta, NY6, etc, with or without NY6 win or loss.
So Leach's recruiting was Rosebowl worthy, or capable of producing a rosebowl. That's not invalidated because of a crazy Pac 12 refs, or a FREAK BLIZZARD.
That said, one has to be as good as Leach or even better, in order to do it Leach's way of recruiting.
1. Is Rolo recruiting only under the radar.
2. If he is, is he Rolo as good as Leach at recruiting the way Leach does with primarily under the radar, making more with less, etc.
The answer is that we dont know yet. We'll see.
The answer to the other question is that Rolo has about 2 4 stars(1 4 star from WA that signed during the early signing period, and 1 other 4 star after that. Then after that, about 2,3,4, 3 stars, and 1,2, 2 stars, 1,2 NR, 1, 2 Big Sky/MW conference guys. So that's a Mixed Bag. Also if Shumpert who a ALL STAR coach says loves, wants to play at WSU, goes to WSU, then his 4 star teammates, that said they will play wherever Shumpert plays, would play at WSU.
So already 2, 4 stars in class, and could easily be 3,4,5,6, total 4 stars in the class mixed with 3 stars, 2 stars, 1 stars, NR, etc.
That's pretty ok to semi good, and just ok, fine enough for his Rolo's first year.
But we'll see if he lands more 3/4 stars, and if he Rolo can get diamond in rough's under the radar talent, and develop, etc.
We'll see.
