Was able to view another practice today. All 4 JC dbs look good. #2 the tall jc corner from ccsf could end up starting opposite strong. He's long and a lot more physical than I expected. Esom and Beekman both getting most 1 reps at fs and ss. Esom isnt as tall as listed, but he has really good instincts. Last is Moore. Pretty thin but he has good burst. Closes fast. All 4 of these guys really surprised me for so new to program. Impressed how Shaver and Mcbath have assimilated them so quickly into the d. 3 of the 4 have really good size and long arms.
We did well with the JC dbs we recruited.
- Thread starter ShockandAweWSU
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Thanks for sharing. Two things I’m thinking for this year. 1. Defense could very well be the strength of this team . 2. I don’t think that JTs loss is going to be a big gaping hole. While it still sucks to lose a player of that quality and a senior, I suspected some of these kids coming up might have some game, and could fill that void with little to no drop off.
Yep, and this is why with Thomas at either SS, Strong Safety Or Nickel, and Beekman at Free Safety Or Nickel, and the JC DB's at either Corner, where Thomas, Beekman are not at, that the Secondary will be just fine without Jalen, with the DL, LB's, Woods, etc to help them.
And this is why Leach, and his staff got these JC DB's, and other freshman DB's over the last 1,2 years, because of lack of DEPTH, NOT because of a supposed lack of talent.
Leach and his staff probably thought, said: "Hey, even tho we have Jalen Thompson, and Thomas, and a AWESOME 2 DEEP Safety, CB, secondary, what would happen, if blank happens(Like with Jalen)? Because of that, maybe we need to get some more secondary players, in case that happens"
And then they went and got some more secondary players. And then the situation with Jalen happened, and the secondary will be just fine because of the staff had the foresight, good roster management skills, to get more secondary players.
Leach and Staff are great at Roster Management, and Recruiting both.
And that is why Leach can PLUG AND PLAY with this team.
And this is why Leach, and his staff got these JC DB's, and other freshman DB's over the last 1,2 years, because of lack of DEPTH, NOT because of a supposed lack of talent.
Leach and his staff probably thought, said: "Hey, even tho we have Jalen Thompson, and Thomas, and a AWESOME 2 DEEP Safety, CB, secondary, what would happen, if blank happens(Like with Jalen)? Because of that, maybe we need to get some more secondary players, in case that happens"
And then they went and got some more secondary players. And then the situation with Jalen happened, and the secondary will be just fine because of the staff had the foresight, good roster management skills, to get more secondary players.
Leach and Staff are great at Roster Management, and Recruiting both.
And that is why Leach can PLUG AND PLAY with this team.
Yup, Claeys brought in a bunch of tall/long DB's who can play physical in man coverage because he quickly wanted to change the look of a WSU DB. I don't think he uses 4 of the 6 scholarships he had on JC guys unless he saw some issues with the current group.
Beekman is getting a lot of love at FS but Derrick Langford has looked pretty impressive at corner. I wonder what his consistency is like in practice.
Grinch never recruited size at Corner. I can't think of many guys over six foot we actually signed and Porter. Grinch seemed to have a clear idea who he was looking for at safety, but corner is another story altogether.
With Isom coming in a bit taller than previously listed (he's 6-0), all four JC d-backs are 6 feet to 6-2, and all appear to be very athletic and quick. We'll see soon enough if this continues in real games, but I am liking what I have seen so far.
The other thing that really sticks out in person is how good some of those young DL are gonna be. Really impressed with B Jackson and Crowder and even Mejia. From last fall to this fall...wow what a difference a year makes.
Biggest individual freshman surprise that I've seen in the 2 practices I've viewed is #22 Jouvensly Bazile. Kid is impressive for a true freshman. Really fast and way stronger than I expected from his film. Great hands too. Really looks like he belongs. I think he'll play this year. Kid would have been top 8 WA HS recruit.
Biggest individual freshman surprise that I've seen in the 2 practices I've viewed is #22 Jouvensly Bazile. Kid is impressive for a true freshman. Really fast and way stronger than I expected from his film. Great hands too. Really looks like he belongs. I think he'll play this year. Kid would have been top 8 WA HS recruit.
Huge frame. Just needs to get stronger and work on firing off the ball faster. Huge upside. He has sat out quite a bit. Must be banged up.
I see Garay-Harris, Kwete, Sheetz, Crowder, and Jackson filling out to 280/290 in a couple years, and considering McDougle, Hobbs, and Echevarria, and Mejia are all just sophomores, the d-line is looking solid. Throw in Nathaniel James and his 430-pound bench press next season as well.
Bazil, I believe, is going to shock a lot of people. Can't wait to see the play when Bazil blows past the linebacker that's just been crushed by Markoff.
2018 class
D'Angelo McKenzie, S left program
Myles Green Richards, CB left program
Kedron Williams, S, medically retired (unfortunate, promising player as a true frosh)
2017
Josh Talbott, S left
Zaire Webb, CB
2016
D'Jimon Jones DB
Isiaah Love CB
I'm curious on how Gatlin Grisso is looking out there. He grayshirted last year and it was reported that he really filled out/hit the weights hard during that time.
Managing a roster is hard. They took 6 JC players this year. With 19 high school kids in the class, not all of them are gonna make it through. There will always be some attrition but to lose an entire position group hurts.
Between JC's and the transfer portal, schools like WSU should be able to land some good kids looking to finish out their career. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this down the road.
That play you have outlined, hope it happens in Eugene on the way to a 21 point Cougar victory. Wanting the string to go up to 5 games.
We have some young promising corners. Halid Djrabil, Archie and the new kid from fed way all have flashed at times. Big difference from hs wr to solid Pac 12 wr for young corners. Halid for converting from safety has actually looked really good at times. Tall corner from ccsf is only a sophomore too. Moore will be an absolute stud next year.
Grinch found Jalen Thompson, but he had some misses for sure. More press coverage from this secondary. Beside some blown coverages from qbs extending the play...they have really made the offense work hard. Of course the long grass at Sac isn't helping the wrs much. Lol
You are right, I never noticed that he wasn't on the roster. Strange, I haven't seen any mention of him not being on the team. He was an early enrollee in January with Cruz, Pospisil, Beekman, and others.
I'm not sure whether Theo reported or another source but it was something health related. Believe he's on the medically retired list but could be wrong. At this point it sounds like his career is over before it started.
He's a medical non counter. Enrolled at WSU but health isn't allowing him to play. Not sure if we get the scholarship back toward the 25 per year.
Speaking of guys missing, remember Jonathan Lolohea? Misi looks much better, I believe.
Another side effect of this Clayes defense with bigger physical corners is it should prepare our receivers better for when they go up against the grabby physical play of UW and anyone else who takes that approach. Not to say the receivers have been soft, but they’ve had more struggles with that scheme and those types of DBs. Give them a full month of our DBs trying to beat them up and these big receivers we have will be able to toss around the pac 12s best DBs.
Bigger receivers should help too. Seeing Kassidy woods in the slot is weird to see. Looks like a tight end out there.
I know we get the ride back towards our 85 limit, but I'm wondering if we get the one towards our 25 new scholarship players per year.
Gotcha' and I don't know the answer there. I would assume you still can't go over the 25 limit any given year other than in a Hilinski-type situation where a waiver was allowed to go to 26.
The 25 is a hard cap but you are allowed to count an early enrolled towards the 2019 class or count Trey Davis towards 2019 if we hadn't used our limit. So it's important to get the scholarship back if at all possible.
