Cougars Starting To Hear More Yeses Bleak Off Season Looking Brighter As Letter Of Intent Day Arrives
A few weeks ago Washington State’s recruiting season was shaping up to be as bad as the Cougars’ 3-9 regular football season.
Wide receiver Taylor Stubblefield of Yakima opted to go to Purdue, not WSU. Lake Washington tight end Calen Powell picked Duke over the Cougars. And Washington coach Rick Neuheisel had made an early sweep through the state and garnered just about all the top talent.
“It was bleak,” said Jeff Carr, a recruiting expert for pacwestfootball.com. “Guys like Stubblefield and Powell had always been the backbone of Mike Price’s recruiting classes. And they didn’t get them. It was looking real bleak.”
It was also real obvious that six wins in two years had damaged the reputation of the program. Not even Cal Worthington could sell that kind of clunker.
But Price and his assistants slapped on a new coat of paint and hit the road. Soon instead of “Nos” the Cougar coaches started to get some “I’ll-think-about-its.” Not long after, the “I’ll-think-about-its” turned to “Yeses.”
Junior college running back David Minnich entered the fold. Safety Lacy McDonald did an about-face and told Arizona State he was leaving it for the chance to go to Washington State. Wide receiver Ronald Nunn did the same thing with Arizona.
On Tuesday, blazing fast Anthony Buchanan of University High turned down a full track scholarship to Washington because he had the opportunity to play football for the Cougars.
“That class got a lot better in a hurry,” Carr said.
One day before today’s national letter of intent day, Washington State’s class was ranked 59th by Rivals.com, an Internet recruiting service. While that’s a huge fall from last year’s top-25 class, it is not as low as many early forecasts predicted. And that ranking, which does not include several late oral commitments, also may not be indicative of the talent level.
With 11 junior college play ers expected to sign, the most in recent WSU history, Price and company look to be trying to make an immediate turnaround.
The most highly regarded of the JC prospects is Minnich. A first-team All-California JC player, Minnich has some of the same tools 1,000-yard rusher Kevin Brown brought to the Cougars two years ago.
Washington State also picked up Nakoa McElrath, a speedy wide receiver out of Palomar JC. The 6-3, 210-pound prospect has big-play ability, but there are worries about getting him to and keeping him in Pullman. That may be the reason behind the late pickup of Compton College receiver Billy Chase. Chase had 39 catches for 542 yards and four touchdowns last season.
The Cougars decided to grab a couple of linebackers from the JC level as well.
On the high school level, the Cougars are in position to steal three top prospects from other schools. Gerald Welch, a 5-9, 165-pound wide receiver/defensive back from St. Louis in Hawaii, had originally committed to Hawaii, but is said to have had a change of heart. Welch and St. Louis product Jason Gesser, a current Cougar, have been talking in recent weeks.
Washington State is also in position to get KentMeridian defensive end John Bronson. The 6-foot-3, 229-pound product committed to Penn State, but has had second thoughts. He and his family recently visited WSU, and the word is that he will sign with WSU.
Steve Smith, a safety from Serra High school in southern California, is also waffling on his commitment to Oregon and could go with WSU.
The Cougars’ top high school commitment is running back Chris Bruhn. The 6-1, 205-pound Woodland, Calif., product gained more than 1,800 yards and 23 touchdowns in seven games last season. The downside is that his grades are shaky and he will have to bring those up to make it into school.
WSU is expected to sign 23 to 26 players today.