SportsLink

Some football recruiting talk

Posted by Vince Grippi

Jan. 27, 2009 9:20 a.m. • 9 comments

COUGARS • UPDATED: 7:50 P.M.

We have some surprises for you this Tuesday. Instead of basketball links, we offer some football recruiting insights from the “experts.” Not sure if they have any validity, but we’re passing them on. And, oh ya, a basketball commentary as well for you to discuss if you want.

••••••••••

• Football recruiting is front and center what with the first day of the letter-of-intent signing period a week from Wednesday. How are the Cougars doing? Well one site names already enrolled receiver Johnny Forzani as the No. 3 sleeper recruit of the year. Nick Daschel of Buster Sports talked with ESPN.com recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill, who had this to say about the Pac-10. A Scouts.inc guy, Craig Haubert, had this opinion on ESPN.com as well.

• UPDATE: Was tooling around the Net and found this mention of a change in WSU’s future football schedule. I checked it out and found out WSU and Minnesota decided to pull out of a two-year agreement. This allowed the Gophers to schedule USC and gave the Cougars a chance to schedule SMU next year and gave them some flexibility in future schedules.

• We’ll know how good the recruiting classes are on, no, not next Wednesday, but two or three years down the road. Recruiting rankings, like college basketball rankings, don’t mean a thing. The truth is revealed on the field. Speaking of college basketball, I’m going to pass on a free commentary on CougFan (it’s free so everyone can read it) from freelancer Howie Stalwick. You can discuss among yourselves.

•••

• That’s it for this morning. We’ll be back before we head up to Spokane this evening – flying to Phoenix tomorrow – with news from practice and Tony Bennett’s press conference. Till then …

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

coug79 on January 27 at 11:44 a.m.
Vince—thanks for posting the CougFan link. Quite informative.

I know I’m a pie-eyed optimist that the Cougs will find their collective strokes and start dropping the shots that have been painfully absent all year. Looking back on the season, in multiple games (Pac-10 and games like Pitt and Baylor) it seemed like every game I’m thinking “Why is this game close? We should be leading by 10 or more if just a few more shots drop.” Inevitably our tight defense can’t outlast our “rope-a-dope” offense. Against USC what was really frustrating was the number of wide open looks that the Cougs clanged off the rim—not even a hope of rimming in like the lone 3 pointer made by Harms. It just looks totally mental, because I’m sure these guys shot better than 27% in High School or Tony wouldn’t have recruited them.

So I’m torn. If just a few more shots drop, we can play with and beat anyone in the Pac-10. With decent shooting and our existing tough defense, I think we can beat both ASU and Arizona this weekend. But as the saying goes, if pigs could fly we’d all shoot pork. We haven’t seen it yet in nearly 20 games. More likely, as Howie says we are no longer a team seeking post-season play. Rather, we’re a rebuilding project that will require at least the balance of this season and all of next year. So, if Tony decides it’s time to increase the playing time for the freshmen, sit the seniors for longer stretches, and start building for the NCAA tourney run two years from now in Fall 2011, I’m ready for the long haul. Win or lose, I’ll still suport the team and buy my seasons tickets.

That said, Thursday feel likes a trap game for ASU to me (playing a beat down Coug team while looking forward to the Saturday match up with UW). I’m trying to decide if I’m optimistic or detached from reality.

Go Cougs!
MikeSequim on January 27 at 9:08 p.m.
coug79,

Be optimistic! I’m 60 and my wife tells me I’m “detached from reality all the time.”

These are still “Coug’s” and they’re ours! I haven’t seen 1 game this year where they haven’t tried. I haven’t seen them all but the ones I’ve seen, they competed! They are good kids all! It’s just gonna take time.

Mike, Sequim
scottB on January 28 at 1:54 a.m.
I think Howie’s piece was overly bleak. All it takes is a few buckets and the cougs are there. it’s not like every game is the Gonzaga game and we’re losing by 30. The team seems to have learned enough from the early losses to now be competitive in the second half, so I’m fully expecting every game the rest of the season to be squeakers. Whether we win or loose, the difference will likely amount to no more than 4 buckets. Bench points are definitely where those 4 buckets should be coming from too. having our starters average 6-12 points a game is about right for our style of offense, but typically you’d expect to get some buckets from then bench, and so far in pac-10 play that just isn’t happening.

I’m optimistic for both games this week, but willing to admit I might be out of reality’s scope.
scottB on January 28 at 1:56 a.m.
I haven’t seen Vince link this story yet… crimsonZZU posted it a week ago.

story is out of Oklahoma about Kyle Weaver developing and earning some playing time.

http://newsok.com/rookie-kyle-weaver-earns-his-chance/article/3337733
CarolC on January 28 at 1:22 p.m.
Coughoops.com provides frequent updates on Kyle Weaver’s progress, and posts some links that we don’t usually see in Vince’s stories. (Not a complaint about what Vince gives us!! Just an observation.) Check it out.