Cougs get leg up on recruiting race

PULLMAN — In golf, this time of year is known as the silly season, when no PGA tournaments that count are being played. In college football — even for the losing teams — there’s nothing silly about this time of year.

Washington State won’t be concerning itself with a bowl game in December or January after finishing a 5-6 season on Saturday. But its coaching staff will be worried about bringing in a recruiting class that can help the Cougars avoid losing records down the road.

Just two days after beating the Huskies in the Apple Cup, seven coaches — the maximum allowed under NCAA rules — were on the road recruiting. Just head coach Bill Doba, recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach Robin Pflugrad and defensive line coach Mike Walker were left at WSU.

They’re all returning to Pullman for the Thanksgiving holiday, but WSU’s staff will be hitting the pavement all across the country once again shortly thereafter.

“We can pay a lot more attention to them now because we don’t have practice,” head coach Bill Doba said of the recruiting advantage a staff can potentially gain by missing out on a bowl game.” We can stay out on the road all week and cover a lot more ground, turn over rocks.

“There’s always somebody.”

WSU coaches aren’t permitted to talk about who those somebodies are, but they can speak in general terms about the recruiting picture.

As late as this fall, it was thought that the Cougars could have as few as 12 scholarships available when signing day arrives on Feb. 4. (Until then, the best any program can do is collect non-binding oral commitments.)

But now, as players come and go, it appears WSU has at least 18 available and possibly 20. That has loosened the noose previously constricting the Cougar recruiting effort, which has already brought in at least eight oral commitments (see chart).

WSU could also get as many as four players back who were part of the February 2004 signing class but unable to qualify academically.

Wide receiver Benny Ward has improved his test scores to the point where he should be able to join WSU in January as a grayshirt freshman. Linebacker Tyson Kirksey and athlete Michael Willis could also end up in the same category, but they are both scheduled to have their qualifications reviewed by an academic committee. Defensive lineman Letrell Myers is still at junior college working on his Associate of Arts degree, which could come in December.

Part of the reason for the increase in available scholarships is because of the attrition that naturally occurs after every season.

While it’s not yet a certainty, Doba said it’s likely that wide receiver Jevon Miller will no longer play because of a wrist injury and offensive lineman Bryan Boyer will leave the program as he has already earned his degree.

And it’s a strong possibility that more players could decide to leave the program as well.

With the extra offers WSU can hand out, Pflugrad said it’s important for WSU to select players with a proved track record, whether coming from high school or junior college.

“Production is the answer,” he said. “When you take a great athlete, he’s got to be productive in everything he does for us to put him on scholarship. We’re looking at that much more intensely because our numbers are down.”

Both Doba and Pflugrad said the staff needs to focus on the defensive side of the ball, with three of the starting four defensive backs graduating and linebackers that will be one year closer to the end of their careers as well.

“Probably our first week out in December, we’re going to look very hard at safeties,” Pflugrad said. The coaches have said there is a strong possibility they will look to a junior college safety for more immediate help. “For the most part, we know who we’re recruiting offensively and we feel pretty good where we are and hopefully where we can be offensively. Then our priorities are that we need to find a few more players on defense. There just aren’t as many that we’ve identified, or haven’t been able to evaluate, as the offensive personnel.”

Given the high number of academic casualties from last season’s recruiting class — eight of 28 — Pflugrad said the coaching staff is attempting to be more cautious when it comes to signing day this year. But for those players in high school, the test-taking season is not over, and that could leave some Cougar recruits in limbo until next summer once again.

“I’d say we feel OK about it,” Pflugrad said. “There are so many seniors out there that have only taken the SAT or the ACT only one time, and there’s some that need to take it again to be qualifying in the NCAA. It’s still too early to throw them to the wolves and say, ‘No, you’re not going to make it.’ It’s way too early to do that. I think our staff has been geared to take some chances on some of those players over the course of our tenure here at Washington State, and that’s kind of hard to get out of your everyday mode of operation.”

Regardless of what should happen in the next few weeks as WSU has a number of recruits make their official visits and coaches continue to go out in search of future stars, one thing is an iron-clad certainty. The recruiting season will be heated, and it will be hard.

Last season, the Cougars secured a commitment from wide receiver Michael Bumpus not long before signing day, and he turned out to be the team’s best recruit in year No. 1. This year, the Cougars have a chance at Lacey running back Jonathan Stewart, perhaps the most talented high school tailback in America. But his decision — he has already visited WSU and also has trips to USC and Oregon on the calendar — could come late in the game.