Armed and eager

PULLMAN – Arkelon Hall was one of the first to consider and one of the first to commit to Washington State. So it came as no surprise that he became one of the first to deliver a letter of intent to Washington State.

At 7:01 a.m. Wednesday, he faxed his official commitment to WSU, making him the second member of the newest Cougar recruiting class, a group of 20 that head coach Bill Doba and recruiting coordinator Robin Pflugrad announced Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m really excited,” said the highly touted quarterback from Fresno, Calif., minutes after sending the letter to Pullman. “It just felt like a family to me up there. It felt real good. It felt like home.

“I’m ready to be a Cougar.”

Of those 20 players, Hall is considered by most recruiting ranking services to be WSU’s top recruit in this year’s class, and could very well end up being the Cougar quarterback of the future.

For Hall, it seems that the future can’t arrive fast enough. As one of the top quarterback recruits in the nation – he’s listed as the seventh-best by ESPN.com’s Tom Lemming – Hall had plenty of options.

WSU had decided to offer scholarships to four quarterbacks, with room for just one acceptance. Knowing that, Hall made some quick decisions. So quick, in fact, that it had Doba worried.

Before he even visited WSU for football camp before his senior year, the Edison High passer called the Cougar head coach to deliver the good news: He was going to WSU.

“I encouraged him to wait, hold his decision if he wanted to and wait until he came to camp to meet the staff and see if he really wanted to be here,” said Doba, admitting his own skepticism. “He said, ‘No, coach.’ I told him I was going to call the others and tell him that you were our guy. He said, ‘I’m a man of my word and I’ll be there.’ “

Wednesday, Hall made good on that word, something his father, Sylvester, never doubted would be the case.

“We did our homework and Wazzu was a home and it’s our extended home,” he said. “We’re excited to be a part of it.”

Arkelon (pronounced ar-KEY-luhn) spoke optimistically about the future, hoping he’d be able to get on the field quickly. But that’s no easy task at quarterback. Even though he was schooled as a prepster by former NFL safety Tim McDonald, the head coach at Edison, it could take years before he becomes the go-to Cougar in the clutch.

But the 6-foot-2 passer reminds his new head coach of another quarterback, and if he proves that comparison true, it will mean good things for the Cougars some day.

“We thought he had good mobility – he’s kind of like a Gesser,” Doba said. “Not only can he throw the football well, but he’s a great leader and a good kid.”

While Hall’s commitment gave WSU a marquee name to tout, the Cougars filled in many of the other 19 slots with players who, they hope, flew under the radar somewhat but will turn into winning college players.

“We’ve got a group of kids that want to be here, that play hard, that are good character people and will be a real asset to our program,” Doba said. “They gave us their word, and they followed through. I think that’s important.”

Most of the recruits will end up on the defensive side of the ball, as the Cougars filled needs, especially at linebacker and in the secondary. Defensive tackle Fevaea’i Ahmu is also a premier recruit.

Five of the 20 are linebackers, and Doba expressed hope that at least one if not more of those players would be able to step in and play immediately as freshmen, naming Los Angeles native Courtney Williams as a likely candidate. Four more players will go to the defensive backfield, probably the Cougars’ greatest weakness in the 2004 season. As a result, Doba said there’s a strong chance that one or more players there could also skip a redshirt season to play as freshmen.

But perhaps the strangest stat from the 2005 recruiting class comes from its geographical roots. The Cougars signed more players from the state of Texas (four) than Washington (three). Last season, WSU didn’t have a single Texas native on the roster.

“It wasn’t a great year in the state as far as talent,” Doba said, explaining the lack of locals. “We offered more, obviously. Some of them chose to go to other schools. Next year looks like a much better year.

“Our coaches have done a great job of finding possible walk-ons, kids that are possibly a little under the radar, and I think we’ll have an adequate number of kids from the state of Washington.”

Pflugrad also said the success in Texas had a lot to do with the work of linebackers coach Leon Burtnett, who was responsible for the area. It also didn’t hurt that WSU beat Texas in the Holiday Bowl just 13 months ago.

“We felt that Leon probably did as well as anybody with just work ethic recruiting this year,” Pflugrad said. “He actually lost a player that we had verbalized, and I think it really motivated him to shift into fourth gear and do a great job for us. … I think we outworked people, and I think that’s what we have to continue to do here.”

But, while WSU coaches were eager to speak positively about their successes in recruiting, 2005 will also be remembered as the year Jonathan Stewart got away. The state record-holder for rushing ended up choosing Oregon over WSU, a decision that denied the Cougars what would have been their highest-profile recruit perhaps ever.

“We felt like he was part of the family,” Pflugrad said. “Not getting him hurt a little bit that way. Our staff prided itself on working hard on everybody that we did sign. And you know, he was a special kid so we spent some special time on him. And now we get a chance to play against him, so he’ll come back to Pullman and we’ll wish him well.”