Can our new coaches recruit?

[COUGinNCW]

It seems like Mele, Wilson and Phelps were the names I heard most commonly with this year’s recruits. I’m hoping it’s a case of building relationships with the new coaches and not a prelude of things to come, especially with Wilson now at Oregon.

The 2020 class is the class we should see the momentum from 11-2 if we have some closers.

 

[dgibbons]

It seems like Mele, Wilson and Phelps were the names I heard most commonly with this year’s recruits. I’m hoping it’s a case of building relationships with the new coaches and not a prelude of things to come, especially with Wilson now at Oregon.

The 2020 class is the class we should see the momentum from 11-2 if we have some closers.

Like you said, I think we find out in 2020. It took Simmons and Manning a year to so to really get to work.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Good recruiters need to be backed up by top end facilites and winning seasons. Otherwise, 3 star kids.

 

[ShockandAweWSU]

Spurrier landed Jamir Thomas and the speedster out of Florida and had a big hand on recruiting several others like Scheetz from SC.... McBath did well in the San Francisco area getting Harris and some of the Juco guys. However I'm very concerned about Coach Shaver and continue to say Coach Nichol needs to step up. For the first time in forever we didn't land one recruit from Southern Cal. That is unfathomable to me. Shaver couldn't land one kid from the LA area or San Diego???? What is more concerning.....is this was his territory when he coached at Utah St..........No bueno. The other thing that worries me is that both Nichol and Shaver have hardly any presence on twitter and social media. Some old school types might say that is not important, but in todays age of recruiting it is possibly the best tool. Spurrier is contacting 5 guys almost every day. So important. Hate to say it, but the new lb coach coming in better be a stud recruiter to make up for some of our weaker recruiters (I'm not even sure Claeys goes on recruiting visits...to Claeys credit he had a big part in Daniel Isom).

 

[Observer11]

Quite honestly, I don't think it's in Leach's master plan to go after the 4 and 5 star guys.

His history at Tech was a bunch of 3 stars. You go back and look at his recent WSU classes- almost entirely 3 stars. I didn't go way back but the scout database shows Graham Harrell as a 4 star but everybody else was pretty much right at the 3 star level.

I think someone has done the math and figured out risk/reward on 3 and 4 star guys compared to the amount of effort it takes to corral them and fight off the competition and such -vs. the identifying 4 and 5 star potential and then coaching them up.

Not to say 4-star kind of talent doesn't help, but it's pretty obvious to me (Dillard being a prime example), Leach is more about proper evaluation and coaching up those who make it to Pullman rather than chasing the 4- and 5-stars who don't make it into USC or Bama or wherever.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Spurrier landed Jamir Thomas and the speedster out of Florida and had a big hand on recruiting several others like Scheetz from SC.... McBath did well in the San Francisco area getting Harris and some of the Juco guys. However I'm very concerned about Coach Shaver and continue to say Coach Nichol needs to step up. For the first time in forever we didn't land one recruit from Southern Cal. That is unfathomable to me. Shaver couldn't land one kid from the LA area or San Diego???? What is more concerning.....is this was his territory when he coached at Utah St..........No bueno. The other thing that worries me is that both Nichol and Shaver have hardly any presence on twitter and social media. Some old school types might say that is not important, but in todays age of recruiting it is possibly the best tool. Spurrier is contacting 5 guys almost every day. So important. Hate to say it, but the new lb coach coming in better be a stud recruiter to make up for some of our weaker recruiters (I'm not even sure Claeys goes on recruiting visits...to Claeys credit he had a big part in Daniel Isom).

IMO, and Im aware I give it a lot lol....

The entire staff needs to be in SoCal. Not 1 guy. Not 2 guys. Its not enough bodies. The entire staff needs to fly down, everyone hit 4 schools per day, fly home Friday night. Literally get to every school. Maybe its 30 schools per day, 150 schools per week. In 2 weeks youre done. Move on to the next area.

I never understood why staffs would pass out areas to guys and then that 1 or 2 guys would handle it all. Commit your entire staff to an area. Knock it out and move on. You simply cant get the job done without committing bodies to it.

 

[dgibbons]

Spurrier landed Jamir Thomas and the speedster out of Florida and had a big hand on recruiting several others like Scheetz from SC.... McBath did well in the San Francisco area getting Harris and some of the Juco guys. However I'm very concerned about Coach Shaver and continue to say Coach Nichol needs to step up. For the first time in forever we didn't land one recruit from Southern Cal. That is unfathomable to me. Shaver couldn't land one kid from the LA area or San Diego???? What is more concerning.....is this was his territory when he coached at Utah St..........No bueno. The other thing that worries me is that both Nichol and Shaver have hardly any presence on twitter and social media. Some old school types might say that is not important, but in todays age of recruiting it is possibly the best tool. Spurrier is contacting 5 guys almost every day. So important. Hate to say it, but the new lb coach coming in better be a stud recruiter to make up for some of our weaker recruiters (I'm not even sure Claeys goes on recruiting visits...to Claeys credit he had a big part in Daniel Isom).

I hear you, just pointing out that Upland is next to Ontario, and Temecula is about half way between LA and SD. The numbers from SoCal have certainly tailed off with the staff changes.

Claeys was not brought here to recruit (the additional coach the NCAA allowed last year). Nichol has not had much recruiting responsibility here either. It would be nice if the new LB coach was a SoCal recruiter.

 

[ShockandAweWSU]

You're right....I forgot about the OLB out of Temecula. He is one of our best recruits too. He was Wilson's recruit all the way, but youre right. I can't count the long snapper. LOL

 

[Cougzz]

Good points about California recruiting. We are seeing big changes there. Nine of the top fifty California recruits went to Washington while USC and UCLA whiffed on one right after the other. And that is not limited to just California. Hunter Hill picked Utah State over USC. That is my favorite highlight of this recruiting season.

 

[YakiCoug]

It seems like Mele, Wilson and Phelps were the names I heard most commonly with this year’s recruits. I’m hoping it’s a case of building relationships with the new coaches and not a prelude of things to come, especially with Wilson now at Oregon.

The 2020 class is the class we should see the momentum from 11-2 if we have some closers.

Patrick Utschinski, Jamir Thomas, and Travion Brown, I believe, are 4-stars in another system. And Brown and Hawaiian LB Peni Naulu both had offers from the UW and a few other Pac-12 schools. Thomas had multiiple offers in the Midwest but mostly as a linebacker.

 

[YakiCoug]

Quite honestly, I don't think it's in Leach's master plan to go after the 4 and 5 star guys.

His history at Tech was a bunch of 3 stars. You go back and look at his recent WSU classes- almost entirely 3 stars. I didn't go way back but the scout database shows Graham Harrell as a 4 star but everybody else was pretty much right at the 3 star level.

I think someone has done the math and figured out risk/reward on 3 and 4 star guys compared to the amount of effort it takes to corral them and fight off the competition and such -vs. the identifying 4 and 5 star potential and then coaching them up.

Not to say 4-star kind of talent doesn't help, but it's pretty obvious to me (Dillard being a prime example), Leach is more about proper evaluation and coaching up those who make it to Pullman rather than chasing the 4- and 5-stars who don't make it into USC or Bama or wherever.

Leach has a pretty good eye for egotistical and self-centered types, especially those who don't work hard in practice.

 

[YakiCoug]

You're right....I forgot about the OLB out of Temecula. He is one of our best recruits too. He was Wilson's recruit all the way, but youre right. I can't count the long snapper. LOL

It isn't lost on Oregon that WSU has won 37 games the past four seasons (26 in the Pac-10) while consistently landing recruiting classes in the lower division of the ranking systems. Watch for them to continue taking our ACs away to upset the cart in Pullman.

 

[YakiCoug]

Spurrier landed Jamir Thomas and the speedster out of Florida and had a big hand on recruiting several others like Scheetz from SC.... McBath did well in the San Francisco area getting Harris and some of the Juco guys. However I'm very concerned about Coach Shaver and continue to say Coach Nichol needs to step up. For the first time in forever we didn't land one recruit from Southern Cal. That is unfathomable to me. Shaver couldn't land one kid from the LA area or San Diego???? What is more concerning.....is this was his territory when he coached at Utah St..........No bueno. The other thing that worries me is that both Nichol and Shaver have hardly any presence on twitter and social media. Some old school types might say that is not important, but in todays age of recruiting it is possibly the best tool. Spurrier is contacting 5 guys almost every day. So important. Hate to say it, but the new lb coach coming in better be a stud recruiter to make up for some of our weaker recruiters (I'm not even sure Claeys goes on recruiting visits...to Claeys credit he had a big part in Daniel Isom).

Twenty recruits were signed and sealed in December. By design of his late recruitiment a year ago,.Mayginnis takes one of the remaining schollies. Price supplants Powell (watch the videos; it's an upgrade). Sheetz will blow up, I suspect. Of course, I'm still hoping a McDougle-like d-line transfer emerges. We shall see.
Generally I agree with the original post in this thread (Wilson's replacement must be a great recruiter), but I feel this is a solid class at this juncture. And if it leads to an 11-2 collapse a few years from now, so be it ...

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Quite honestly, I don't think it's in Leach's master plan to go after the 4 and 5 star guys.

His history at Tech was a bunch of 3 stars. You go back and look at his recent WSU classes- almost entirely 3 stars. I didn't go way back but the scout database shows Graham Harrell as a 4 star but everybody else was pretty much right at the 3 star level.

I think someone has done the math and figured out risk/reward on 3 and 4 star guys compared to the amount of effort it takes to corral them and fight off the competition and such -vs. the identifying 4 and 5 star potential and then coaching them up.

Not to say 4-star kind of talent doesn't help, but it's pretty obvious to me (Dillard being a prime example), Leach is more about proper evaluation and coaching up those who make it to Pullman rather than chasing the 4- and 5-stars who don't make it into USC or Bama or wherever.

This is going to be a fascinating class to look back on in a few years. It is loaded with a bunch of middle of the road 3 star guys with nine guys getting no other Power 5 offers outside of WSU based on a breakdown that I read. 3 of the 4 OL guys are the kind of guys that look like they need to grow into the role and all are probably projects to some degree or another. This is the first class since 2014 that doesn't have at least a couple guys rated 5.7 with the Rivals Rating. If this was a Paul Wulff class, I think we'd all be worried.

However, I think that Leach has proven that he knows what he's looking for in recruits so I'm not worried about the fact that this class doesn't really wow when you look at the overall numbers. The guys themselves all look pretty solid and as mentioned by Observer11, Leach is more worried about getting guys that will work at hard at being good football team members that can do their jobs instead of flashy studs who might wilt when the going gets tough. It's going to be interesting to see which of these guys end up being that "diamond in the rough".

 

[PINGDUDE4]

Hopefully someone on the staff is assigned to mining the heck out of the transfer portal.
This is a new dynamic and not really sure everyone knows how to handle it yet.

But really could see a guy like Leach making gold out of it. Taking guys with underutilized potential is Leach's wheelhouse ( see Minshew). There has to be some guys that WSU did not get the first time that are now in the portal that they may want to give another look.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Hopefully someone on the staff is assigned to mining the heck out of the transfer portal.
This is a new dynamic and not really sure everyone knows how to handle it yet.

But really could see a guy like Leach making gold out of it. Taking guys with underutilized potential is Leach's wheelhouse ( see Minshew). There has to be some guys that WSU did not get the first time that are now in the portal that they may want to give another look.

Its a shopping site for ball players. What position do you need??? Look it up and see who is there.

All these kids sign with these schools and they are caught up in glitz, glamor, shiny stuff. When they realize they arent gonna play, time to find another program.

Until the coaches have limits on leaving programs and the schools share the money made.... I see no reason why student athletes shouldnt be able to come and go as they please.

 

[dgibbons]

Hopefully someone on the staff is assigned to mining the heck out of the transfer portal.
This is a new dynamic and not really sure everyone knows how to handle it yet.

But really could see a guy like Leach making gold out of it. Taking guys with underutilized potential is Leach's wheelhouse ( see Minshew). There has to be some guys that WSU did not get the first time that are now in the portal that they may want to give another look.

Super Dave Emerick.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Good recruiters need to be backed up by top end facilites and winning seasons. Otherwise, 3 star kids.

Well...that's us!

 

[Coug1990]

Its a shopping site for ball players. What position do you need??? Look it up and see who is there.

All these kids sign with these schools and they are caught up in glitz, glamor, shiny stuff. When they realize they arent gonna play, time to find another program.

Until the coaches have limits on leaving programs and the schools share the money made.... I see no reason why student athletes shouldnt be able to come and go as they please.

Agree

 

[YakiCoug]

It seems like Mele, Wilson and Phelps were the names I heard most commonly with this year’s recruits. I’m hoping it’s a case of building relationships with the new coaches and not a prelude of things to come, especially with Wilson now at Oregon.

The 2020 class is the class we should see the momentum from 11-2 if we have some closers.

WSU has won only 26 of its last 36 conference games, so ... no.

 

[BiggsCoug]

Well...that's us!

I have no prob with 3 star, all day tough, ultimate effort, gritty ball players. I will take 25 of them every and give 2 shits what the recruiting rankings say.

Is it 4-0 against Oregon now? Thats one class that never beat WSU. I hope to see it be 2.