First of all, as someone suggested above, the eras are different. It's hard to make a direct comparison either way. Leach has better facilities to work with--but all of his competition does, too--while Price had Prop 48 and competition in the conference that wasn't as consistent across 10 teams as it is across 12 teams now. All the teams are investing now.
Second, I don't think the lack of good corners is Leach not "prioritizing" the position. WSU just has had a hard time attracting good enough athletes at CB in his time here, in the current era of recruiting where it's harder to find and hang onto hidden gems. If, as you suggest, Ed, that CB is the easiest position to recruit, since anyone can look at film and see who can play, that's conducive to an environment where the best recruits all wind up at the best recruiting schools, pretty much, and that seems to be what is playing out.
To the "prioritizing" point, just off the top of my head, he brought in a 4-star Sebastian LaRue, and players like Alex Jackson and Rahmel Dockery, who were some of the best athletes on the team when brought on board, and who generally were only at WSU because of Leach's name and his offense's reputation. He tried to put all of those guys at CB like he did with some guys at Tech, and they all didn't go for it and bailed. If he truly didn't give a damn and just cared about hoarding all the good athletes to make the most powerful offense he could, defense be damned, he'd do something else. He purports to be doing something similar now with leaving the good, big-bodied athletes who could play tight end on defense. I'm not buying what he's selling on that in terms of actually using a tight end, but he's not taking those guys from the defense.
I could see maybe taking a scholie or two from the OL and throwing it at more CBs, but it seems like we've had plenty of bodies cycle through the program at CB. It's just a problem of none of them being good enough. Adding another low 3-star to the mix who's basically the same guy as the other two above him wouldn't change it, IMO.
Second, I don't think the lack of good corners is Leach not "prioritizing" the position. WSU just has had a hard time attracting good enough athletes at CB in his time here, in the current era of recruiting where it's harder to find and hang onto hidden gems. If, as you suggest, Ed, that CB is the easiest position to recruit, since anyone can look at film and see who can play, that's conducive to an environment where the best recruits all wind up at the best recruiting schools, pretty much, and that seems to be what is playing out.
To the "prioritizing" point, just off the top of my head, he brought in a 4-star Sebastian LaRue, and players like Alex Jackson and Rahmel Dockery, who were some of the best athletes on the team when brought on board, and who generally were only at WSU because of Leach's name and his offense's reputation. He tried to put all of those guys at CB like he did with some guys at Tech, and they all didn't go for it and bailed. If he truly didn't give a damn and just cared about hoarding all the good athletes to make the most powerful offense he could, defense be damned, he'd do something else. He purports to be doing something similar now with leaving the good, big-bodied athletes who could play tight end on defense. I'm not buying what he's selling on that in terms of actually using a tight end, but he's not taking those guys from the defense.
I could see maybe taking a scholie or two from the OL and throwing it at more CBs, but it seems like we've had plenty of bodies cycle through the program at CB. It's just a problem of none of them being good enough. Adding another low 3-star to the mix who's basically the same guy as the other two above him wouldn't change it, IMO.
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