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Nice signing day get. Very athletic. This class, surprisingly, seems as good or better than previous years
Hunter Haines, West Linn , Safety
Hunter Haines is a 6-1, 185-pound Athlete from West Linn, OR.247sports.com
22 so far according to WSU's site. I don't really follow recruiting, so have no idea how quality the class is. At least somebody likes us.Nice signing day get. Very athletic. This class, surprisingly, seems as good or better than previous years
Hunter Haines, West Linn , Safety
Hunter Haines is a 6-1, 185-pound Athlete from West Linn, OR.247sports.com
A few things…
With the portal now making it easier for kids to move around…. I think you are seeing guys that would usually just walk away (retire) or just flat out quit, find new places to be. So more guys are in it longer. Creates less spots for new bodies.
The 6th year the NCAA gave to everyone for covid has put essentially 6 recruiting classes into rosters now. Creates less spots for new bodies.
I believe there is more HS talent available now by default. I think there are more talented guys than usual trickling down. I think WSU is going to find themselves in a position to still get very good 3 star players as long as this continues…. even with all the adversity recently.
Anyone know how many roster spots they have open?
Agree. You also have upper tier programs showing little interest to some of these 3* kids now as they figure what they don’t land in 4/5* they will pay for in the portal. Completely different game in HS recruiting and schools like WSU can make hay if they play it right. Problem remains once these kids are ready and become impact players on the field how the hell do you keep them in the program?A few things…
With the portal now making it easier for kids to move around…. I think you are seeing guys that would usually just walk away (retire) or just flat out quit, find new places to be. So more guys are in it longer. Creates less spots for new bodies.
The 6th year the NCAA gave to everyone for covid has put essentially 6 recruiting classes into rosters now. Creates less spots for new bodies.
I believe there is more HS talent available now by default. I think there are more talented guys than usual trickling down. I think WSU is going to find themselves in a position to still get very good 3 star players as long as this continues…. even with all the adversity recently.
Anyone know how many roster spots they have open?
Yeah, all we can bank on is them getting to campus and enjoying the Coug family atmosphere. And perhaps a quality education that will serve them their entire lives. Since our NIL funds are lame (sorry I'm not giving to it), I still like the idea of whatever stipend we can provide that goes to all players equally. Pizza money if nothing else.Agree. You also have upper tier programs showing little interest to some of these 3* kids now as they figure what they don’t land in 4/5* they will pay for in the portal. Completely different game in HS recruiting and schools like WSU can make hay if they play it right. Problem remains once these kids are ready and become impact players on the field how the hell do you keep them in the program?
I’d be curious how a strategy might work if looking for freshman/sophs in the portal. They can’t transfer again without penalty till they graduate so you’d have them for at least two years.
Cool to see a nice recruiting class but hard not to think about how long they will actually be Cougs. Strange times.
The rich kid programs have shifted 1/3 or more of their available slots to kids they can poach. That means we have the opportunity to get better kids from HS. The trade-off is that we may not keep them for 4 full years, but all in all I think we may be ahead. As long as we continue to be viewed as a program that permits a kid to show his potential we should be able to benefit at least somewhat, even without a huge NIL budget.
It seems to me we were with Leach, that was one of his strengths. He recruited guys who were good enough in the classroom they wouldn’t flunk out, then developed them in the program and put them on the field their Junior and Senior years.WSU was not retaining the majority of its classes before NIL and the portal. It is a development school but that development is not 4-5 years. It is 2-3 at best and kids are gone.
The kids are fleecing the schools in NIL right now. Paydays and no length of terms required for deals? Amazing. Simply stupid how you can pay a kid so much $$$ and he can roll after 1-2 seasons or even sooner! And have zero financial consequence??? gtfo
Wanna see the portal slow down????? Make kids sign 3+ year NIL deals OR they can pay a hefty penalty.
I view this class as huge. Dickert said it on 710espn this afternoon about our schedule, “this is a bridge year”. We will find ourselves in a better situation 1-2 years from now. To get the recruiting done that they did in the face of all the shit flying around, is fairly impressive. Is it easier to get HS talent now? Maybe. All you can do is get talent here, hope to develop them, and then hope to retain them. They got themselves a bunch of solid guys to move forward with on that side of things while we figure out conference and NIL stuff going forward. And it seems the NIL collective has done a decent job of convincing guys to stick around at least to this point.
No disagreement here.My big grumble has nothing to do with the quality of who we got, it's that we only signed 3 OL. To me you take a minimum of 4 in every class, particularly if that's a position of weakness. Maybe there'll be a couple kids that transfer in, maybe not...
Is one of the four not signing?My big grumble has nothing to do with the quality of who we got, it's that we only signed 3 OL. To me you take a minimum of 4 in every class, particularly if that's a position of weakness. Maybe there'll be a couple kids that transfer in, maybe not...
They all signedIs one of the four not signing?
We obviously need as many linemen as we can get right now. In the bigger picture, it’s not about getting a “number” of players…it’s about doing a good job of evaluating the players you can land and getting as many as you can. Landing a bunch of fatties who are no good is pointless.My big grumble has nothing to do with the quality of who we got, it's that we only signed 3 OL. To me you take a minimum of 4 in every class, particularly if that's a position of weakness. Maybe there'll be a couple kids that transfer in, maybe not...
I re-read that X post. It frankly sounds like complete BS and/or a joke. Howe can we be #1 with nothing but 3 stars? Or OSU with only 12 signees? This guy is just yanking our chains, IMHO.First time I can ever remember WSU ranked First in the PAC in recruiting.
My big grumble has nothing to do with the quality of who we got, it's that we only signed 3 OL. To me you take a minimum of 4 in every class, particularly if that's a position of weakness. Maybe there'll be a couple kids that transfer in, maybe not...
Agree, agree, and agree. Bring the HS kids in, show them what being a Coug is all about. Do the best we can with this NIL BS. As I've said before give the limited amount across the board to everyone equally. Pizza money. Hey, if they turn out to be stars they can jump or get rich in the NFL. In the meantime, WSU is a special place.My quick take, which does not exactly align with many of you (no surprise there!).
- First, 4 OL is the bare minimum. If we had a young & solid O line this year, it is probably enough. Given how our OL was for much of the year, I expected 5. However, that is probably my only gripe with the class.
- 24 HS, 1 transfer. We recruited hard all year. The staff put in the work. I suspect the 24:1 ratio was due to several things: others had more NIL $ to use in buying players; we were able to get a slightly better group of HS kids this year because others were spending a lot of their slots poaching from others, rather than going the HS route; as a result of the first two things, we made a conscious decision to focus more on HS; our PAC 2 status & resulting uncertainty was a greater concern to the transfers than the HS kids; and finally this...I think the massive portal shift and resulting uncertainty at the HS level led a lot of kids to decide to go with a school that clearly wanted them and to make that decision earlier than normal. I have to assume that we were telegraphing to the HS kids that HS was our priority, while probably a lot of other schools were clearly chasing a LOT of portal kids (and every HS kid can follow all that just by looking at social media for who is following who). We focused on the HS kids while a lot of other schools at our level were clearly putting a lot of staff time and NIL resources into the portal. That also meant that the HS 3 star kids were not getting much NIL cash...because it was being sucked up by the 2nd and 3rd year transfers...which is another reason why this was a good move for WSU.
- I really like the class. There are many kids who could conceivably contribute their first year. And in the current environment of losing kids after 2 or 3 years, they need to produce quickly. I think we got more than usual of those "early contributor" kids.
- Finally, there were a lot of schools last year who went heavy with transfers and failed to acculture them enough to the new program to have a smooth start, even though many of those transfers looked good on paper (and on video). I think the better long term play for the Cougs is to go heavily with HS and only selectively grab transfers. IF the NIL/portal/roster size rules change, that could certainly change my opinion. But at this point, under the current situation, I like where we are. I think we've played the hand we were dealt very well...though I would still nitpick about having one more OL in the class.
My quick take, which does not exactly align with many of you (no surprise there!).
- First, 4 OL is the bare minimum. If we had a young & solid O line this year, it is probably enough. Given how our OL was for much of the year, I expected 5. However, that is probably my only gripe with the class.
- 24 HS, 1 transfer. We recruited hard all year. The staff put in the work. I suspect the 24:1 ratio was due to several things: others had more NIL $ to use in buying players; we were able to get a slightly better group of HS kids this year because others were spending a lot of their slots poaching from others, rather than going the HS route; as a result of the first two things, we made a conscious decision to focus more on HS; our PAC 2 status & resulting uncertainty was a greater concern to the transfers than the HS kids; and finally this...I think the massive portal shift and resulting uncertainty at the HS level led a lot of kids to decide to go with a school that clearly wanted them and to make that decision earlier than normal. I have to assume that we were telegraphing to the HS kids that HS was our priority, while probably a lot of other schools were clearly chasing a LOT of portal kids (and every HS kid can follow all that just by looking at social media for who is following who). We focused on the HS kids while a lot of other schools at our level were clearly putting a lot of staff time and NIL resources into the portal. That also meant that the HS 3 star kids were not getting much NIL cash...because it was being sucked up by the 2nd and 3rd year transfers...which is another reason why this was a good move for WSU.
- I really like the class. There are many kids who could conceivably contribute their first year. And in the current environment of losing kids after 2 or 3 years, they need to produce quickly. I think we got more than usual of those "early contributor" kids.
- Finally, there were a lot of schools last year who went heavy with transfers and failed to acculture them enough to the new program to have a smooth start, even though many of those transfers looked good on paper (and on video). I think the better long term play for the Cougs is to go heavily with HS and only selectively grab transfers. IF the NIL/portal/roster size rules change, that could certainly change my opinion. But at this point, under the current situation, I like where we are. I think we've played the hand we were dealt very well...though I would still nitpick about having one more OL in the class.
Yeah I'm always a big believer when everyone else's zigs, you zag.
I think the transfer portal is gonna prove to be a fugazzi in the next few years.
Yes, top teams can fill a few pieces...but ty ou cant be build a roster from it and I think there are going to be a lot of folks who want their NIL money back.
You seriously didn’t get the joke?I re-read that X post. It frankly sounds like complete BS and/or a joke. Howe can we be #1 with nothing but 3 stars? Or OSU with only 12 signees? This guy is just yanking our chains, IMHO.
That said, our class looks solid. Good job by Dickert and staff in this current era on being in no man's land.
Come on, Loyal-pay attention! WSU is #1 in the PAC, and OSU is #2. OSU is also LAST in the league. Second place is also last place.I re-read that X post. It frankly sounds like complete BS and/or a joke. Howe can we be #1 with nothing but 3 stars? Or OSU with only 12 signees? This guy is just yanking our chains, IMHO.
That said, our class looks solid. Good job by Dickert and staff in this current era on being in no man's land.
Oh yeah! Hey I'm not mentally disabled, just a little slow at times. And often drunk. Which reminds me, I'm almost out of beer and better get to the minimart so I don't get lambasted by ED for careening around shitfaced dodging innocent women, children, dogs and other critters.Come on, Loyal-pay attention! WSU is #1 in the PAC, and OSU is #2. OSU is also LAST in the league. Second place is also last place.
My quick take, which does not exactly align with many of you (no surprise there!).
- First, 4 OL is the bare minimum. If we had a young & solid O line this year, it is probably enough. Given how our OL was for much of the year, I expected 5. However, that is probably my only gripe with the class.
- 24 HS, 1 transfer. We recruited hard all year. The staff put in the work. I suspect the 24:1 ratio was due to several things: others had more NIL $ to use in buying players; we were able to get a slightly better group of HS kids this year because others were spending a lot of their slots poaching from others, rather than going the HS route; as a result of the first two things, we made a conscious decision to focus more on HS; our PAC 2 status & resulting uncertainty was a greater concern to the transfers than the HS kids; and finally this...I think the massive portal shift and resulting uncertainty at the HS level led a lot of kids to decide to go with a school that clearly wanted them and to make that decision earlier than normal. I have to assume that we were telegraphing to the HS kids that HS was our priority, while probably a lot of other schools were clearly chasing a LOT of portal kids (and every HS kid can follow all that just by looking at social media for who is following who). We focused on the HS kids while a lot of other schools at our level were clearly putting a lot of staff time and NIL resources into the portal. That also meant that the HS 3 star kids were not getting much NIL cash...because it was being sucked up by the 2nd and 3rd year transfers...which is another reason why this was a good move for WSU.
- I really like the class. There are many kids who could conceivably contribute their first year. And in the current environment of losing kids after 2 or 3 years, they need to produce quickly. I think we got more than usual of those "early contributor" kids.
- Finally, there were a lot of schools last year who went heavy with transfers and failed to acculture them enough to the new program to have a smooth start, even though many of those transfers looked good on paper (and on video). I think the better long term play for the Cougs is to go heavily with HS and only selectively grab transfers. IF the NIL/portal/roster size rules change, that could certainly change my opinion. But at this point, under the current situation, I like where we are. I think we've played the hand we were dealt very well...though I would still nitpick about having one more OL in the class.
Well, everyone knows that it’s always been understood that if you weren’t first, you’re last.Come on, Loyal-pay attention! WSU is #1 in the PAC, and OSU is #2. OSU is also LAST in the league. Second place is also last place.
It's 7am here, and you guys are already insulting me? Although I don't quite get this one.Well, everyone knows that it’s always been understood that if you weren’t first, you’re last.
There was even a ballad about it.
It's 7am here, and you guys are already insulting me? Although I don't quite get this one.
" I went home last night at 2 with a 10 and woke up at 10 with a 2" - Willie Nelson.
I have a really nasty old story, I think true, about first and last. Way too bad even for this place. And surprisingly, having nothing to do with me.
What? every joke in this place has to do with me. And every nasty insult, Pay attention!Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby....the joke really didn't have anything to do with you.
What? every joke in this place has to do with me. And every nasty insult, Pay attention!
And I have never actually seen that movie, so your context confuses me. Not a new concept.