Saturday report: Recruits, commitments and oh, yeah, a practice
There was quite a crowd on hand for WSU's fifth spring practice. The Cougars held their Junior Day on Saturday, inviting scores of recruits and their family members to Pullman to see the team, view the facilities, meeting with academic counselors and so forth.
All told, there looked to be a couple hundred players, coaches and parents on hand for Junior Day, and the event was evidently a success, since a pair of four-star recruits accepted scholarship offers from Washington State on Saturday afternoon.
The first kid to commit to the Cougars was Connor Neville, a 6-foot-2 quarterback out of Wilsonville, Oregon.
All glory to God... #GoCougs 🐾 pic.twitter.com/MCKETGJZM1
— Connor Neville (@ConnorNeville3) April 2, 2016
According to Scout.com, Neville also had scholarship offers from Boise State and Hawaii. Here is his tape:
Shortly after Neville committed, the Cougars secured a left tackle for him when Richland's Dontae Powell also accepted a scholarship offer.
I would like to thank all the coaches who believed in me. But I choose WSU! #GOCOUGS #COMMIT pic.twitter.com/oIBAfbla3s
— Dontae Powell (@Dontae_Powell) April 2, 2016
The 6-foot-6, 300-pound Powell has scholarship offers from Colorado State and Wyoming, according to Scout, and sure looks the part walking around in street clothes. His film looks pretty good, too:
I'll let you know if any more of this weekend's visitors decide to spend their college careers at WSU. In the meantime, here's what else I saw at practice:
-- The wide receivers had a rough day and dropped a lot of balls during 1-on-1 and 7-on-7. That's too bad, because the Cougars were working on vertical routes and the drops appeared to knock Falk out of his rhythm.
-- One player who stood out on Saturday for the offense was Cole Madison. The big right tackle blew up a linebacker on one play, and then the next play he managed to get downfield faster than receiver Isaiah Johnson, paving a way for the freshman until he was eventually brought down by fellow early enrollee Jalen Thompson.
-- Thompson had another good day, by the way, with a pair of pass breakups.
-- Daniel Ekuale was limited, so Garrett McBroom ran with the ones at defensive end. The junior college transfer appears to be holding up well.
-- Deion Singleton played well at corner for the most part, although he did let Gabe Marks slip behind him. Bender threw a nice, high pass to Marks, who got 40 yards out of the play.
-- James Williams ripped off a 50-yard run. He seems certain to get carries this fall.
-- Robert Barber had a sack in team period. He's one of the more improved players on the team, and at a critical position.
