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Recruit switches from Idaho to Beavers

Posted by Josh Wright

Dec. 21, 2010 4:48 a.m. • 4 comments

When I spoke with Robb Akey a week after the season, he mentioned the Vandals were competing against a Pac-10 school for a recruit. “That’s not an everyday occurrence,” he said. But it now appears Idaho has lost out on that player — partly because of the uncertainty with the WAC. Read on for more.

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Defensive end Desmond Collins of Salt Lake City, who had given Akey a verbal committment earlier, has switched his commitment to Oregon State, according to ESPN. “I actually committed to coach [Mike] Riley when he came over for a home visit last Friday,” Collins told ESPN. “I just talked to coach [Rob] Akey about 30 minutes ago and gave him the bad news and honestly, it was easily the hardest thing I ever had to do. Coach Akey is awesome and an unbelievable guy but I just started to have some reservations about Idaho and felt like Oregon State was the best move for my future.”

Akey said he knew other coaches would “throwing some rocks” during recruiting with the WAC in flux after Boise State leaves this year and Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii leave the following year. And Collins said the conference issue factored into this decision.

“All along, my feeling was the two schools were pretty equal and the one difference was Oregon State played in a BCS conference,” Collins told ESPN. “I was OK with that but lately, I started hearing more and more talk about a lot of schools jumping out of the WAC conference and it made me think a little more. I know Fresno State, Hawaii and maybe even Nevada could all leave and I don’t know what that would do for the conference. I didn’t know if Idaho would stay or if there would even be a conference any more.”

According to Scout.com, Idaho has five known commits. All our rated as two-star recruits.

Four comments on this post so far. Add yours!

808Vandal on December 21 at 10:33 a.m.
This is a big loss for Idaho, but I’m sure something the coaches might have suspected. Hopefully they have some back-up offers for the D line.

The WAC really needs to get its act together and stabilize things. I’m sure that SJSU, USU, NMSU, and LaTech are having the same problems. Why go to one of those schools when there is no stability and long-term plan for the WAC.

Time for a new WAC commissioner.
RobE on December 21 at 2:38 p.m.
Even without the uncertanty of the WAC, I’m sure why you EVER choose a Idaho over Oregon State, if you have full ride offers from both.

I love Akey, great motivator, great person, but Collins is being very kind in saying the schools are pretty equal aside from conference affiliation.

All that said, what a mess upcoming for the WAC, Mtn. West, etc. Boise State really should have held off on committing to the MWC until all the dust settled from the big boys. I’ve got to believe the Big 12 would have offered BSU and TCU to join after losing Nebraska and CU. Now, the two big boys in MWC, Boise St. went to compete with are both leaving.
JamesBond on December 21 at 7:06 p.m.
I have always wondered what a new commissioner could possibly do for the WAC.
Colorado_Vandal on December 21 at 8:28 p.m.
BSU thinks and believe that they belong in an AQ conference, but those conferences look at a lot of things in addition to the competitiveness of a schools athletics teams.

There is no way that the Big 12 or Pac 12 will or would take BSU. They don’t measure up academically, have the funds of an endowment to drive change, and don’t have the market (television sets) that those schools in those conferences have.

The best solution is to merge the WAC and MWC. But I don’t see that happening because of the bullheads running each conference and Kustra wanting to separate himself from Idaho and in his mind better BSU.