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Zaire Webb commits to WSU, which commits to Twitter

By Jacob Thorpe

New rules will make social media even more prominent in the recruiting world. So it’s appropriate that’s how Zaire Webb made his commitment known.

For those luddites who are confused what the image hovering above this text is, it’s a tweet, in which football recruit Zaire Webb declares his intention to play football at Washington State.

Before midnight last night, these social media messages proffered by high school recruits were useful windows into the recruiting process, albeit one-way mirrors. Coaches or representatives of various football programs could not endorse the messages by favoriting or retweeting the tweets.

Then, everything changed.

Now, maybe I’m just an old fart shaking his fist angrily as the world passes him by (I’m 25), but I’m struggling to grasp the utility of this rule change. Because the rule applies equally to everybody, it doesn’t give any schools a new advantage, but it punishes already overworked coaches who don’t spend a few hours each week paying their social media tribute to a bunch of teenagers with egos that don’t need any more stroking.

For those of us who use Twitter to follow the sports world, it means sifting through literally thousands of new micro-missives from recruits who will not end up at WSU bragging about receiving their “fifth offer from WSU!!!!” (No, you didn’t. Use a comma.)

But here I am already letting this new rule distract me from the kids. So, here’s what we know about Webb.

Webb is yet another Florida recruit for Mike Leach’s staff, coming from Neptune Beach where he plays at Fletcher High. Scout.com lists Webb at 5-foot-10, 165-pounds and considers him a three-star quarterback. It looks like he chose the Cougars over scholarship offers from Central Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas-San Antonio.

Here’s some film of the newest Cougar:

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "SportsLink." Read all stories from this blog