Hello Coug fans! It's almost National Letter of Intent day (Feb. 6) and the final verbals are trickling in for what appears to be another strong recruiting class for 2010. Along with these verbals have come a flood of glowing reviews about the amazing experiences these kids are having on their official visits to Pullman. If you believe what they're saying, and the rate of verbal commitments seem to back them up, apparently Coach Wulff is the host with the most.
That said, I can't be the only one who has wondered, what on earth do they do with these guys? Knowing coach Wulff I think its safe to say they aren't getting the Tennessee/Lane Kiffin lap dance treatment, or anything close. So what do you do in Pullman, in January, to impress 17-18 year old kids? Last weekend a large group of recruits came to WSU, and as I personally shepherded a couple of old alums around campus to see all the changes of the last few years, we kept running into these guys, giving us a little glimpse of what makes up a recruiting visit. Here's what we saw...
It all started in the CUB where I took my weekend guests to see all the new changes including the re-located Bookie. We were near the hat rack, in the middle of our ritualistic mourning of the loss of that famous Bookie smell, when I noticed we were surrounded by football coaches escorting a bunch of kids who were rifling through the Coug gear. One kid in particular stood out immediately... future All American, Rose Bowl Champion and Heisman winning Cougar QB, Connor Halladay. First impression; boy, does he look young... and skinny, like freshman Robbie Cowgill skinny.
Lets hope Jeff Tuel stays healthy so we can keep the redshirt on this kid while he fills out the 6'5" frame. Still, the kid is productive on the football field.....
Some of the other kids were tough to recognize, but at least a couple stood out as looking well on their way to being physically ready for Pac-10 play. For a list of the recruits on campus last week, go HERE. I'll let you speculate as to who were the kids with the tree-trunk necks.
Our next stop was Bohler gym where as young gym rats we spent much of our formative years trying to get into pick-up games. With the opening of the Student Rec Center, "the gyms" as we always called them, have been completely taken over by the various Coug varsity sports, save for the occasional faculty rec league game. One of my favorite details of the remodeled Bohler is how they added on the new strength and conditioning facility while retaining the original facade of old Bohler gym. Now indoors, the old facade forms a large portion of a grand lobby with glass cases full of sacred Cougar relics and such.
We were in this area when we saw the parade of recruits again, getting a tour of the training facilities. While we don't have the resources of our Pac-10 brethren, it's still an impressive and classy looking facility.
Next stop for us was the basketball game vs. Stanford, where we noticed a conspicuous patch of open seats right in the heart of the Zzu Cru. As I expected, not long before the starting lineups were announced the recruits were paraded from the tunnel, along the court and into these seats where they received a hearty standing O from the Zzu Cru. Hopefully the first of many, many times these guys will get rowdy applause from the WSU student body. They were treated to a pretty entertaining game including one of the greatest blocked shots in the history of basketball by Marcus Capers.
After the game we retreated to the comfy confines of Dupus Boomers to put a few more punches in our beer card and discuss the young Cougs, and their issues with closing out ball games. Beers drank, punch cards punched, we headed out the door near Martin Stadium and were greeted with about 180 decibels of ACDC's Thunderstruck. The jumbo tron was on full blast showing highlights of the last season (...seriously). We made the requisite jokes about how putting together a 2009 Cougar Football highlight reel is the toughest job in show biz, yada yada yada. But it was actually a pretty good video, thanks mostly to Eric Block's hit, some circus catches by Tony Thompson and Jared Karstetter, and, of course, ACDC.
On the opposite end of the stadium, there were the recruits, taking it all in and hopefully imagining the day when it will be their highlights on that jumbo tron. Right about now I realized just how much Phase III is going to enhance the stadium and its attractiveness to recruits. DONATE TODAY!
To wrap it up, the recruits were accompanied by coaches and players wherever we saw them. I think it's important to note that the staff appears to be getting a huge assist in their recruiting efforts by the players they've signed the last two seasons. I think this is just another "intangible" of focusing on recruiting high-character kids. Character and talent don't have to be mutually exclusive and with so many of their recruits, this staff seems to be off to a good start in finding the right balance. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their stay and we can count on seeing each of them in Crimson this fall.
Good job, LB. Interesting on Halladay: He doesn't look that rail thin on tape. Must be the "10 pounds" effect.
But ya, gotta keep Tuel healthy. That's why the signing of our to JC OL's was so darn huge!
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Thanks written by Chris '04,
January 22, 2010
Cool insight. I always wondered what they did to keep the recruits entertained during the "visible" hours of the day. I'm sure the night time scene is "don't ask don't tell". I rarely get back up to campus, even though I live here in Pullman. I've been in the new CUB twice but both times were on a Sunday so nothing was really open. Dupus Boomers looks cool, but I've never eaten there.
Don't forget Jake Miller. He was there and is headed to WSU. It's official. Good overall review of a recruit weekend. WSU has a great program. The overall support they offer these student athletes is amazing.
Doug Miller
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... written by James_wsu,
January 22, 2010
We will definitely need Jake after next year I'm really going to miss Pullman and the college atmosphere when I leave in May... but I'll be back to watch some Cougar football a few months after returning to "reality" lol.
Once a Coug, Always a Coug!
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Buckley written by sdcoug09,
January 22, 2010
Does anyone have any further information on Buckley's status? I'm not a member of Cougfan so I don't have access to most of the stories.
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... written by steve13,
January 22, 2010
Check out ESPN's evaluation of Halliday, hardly a top prospect, and has Wulff and staff shown anything in there 2 years that they know how to develop talent? Not counting the Portland State win they have 2 wins in 2 years and are looking at a 1-2 win season this year. So once they are fired it will take even more rebuilding, you guys are a long way off.
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... written by LucasCoug,
January 22, 2010
SDCoug09, would that be Patrick Nelson?
Sounds like Buckley is waiting on his AA, that he is supposed to get in March.
Ah, Steve, your ignorance is entertaining. It's a good thing that there are checks and balances in the recruiting ranking world. Scout.com has him a Top 40 signal caller. And, truly, if you knew anything at all about recruiting you would know that it is one of the most inexact sciences.
So, we'll take your comments with a grain of salt. For your lack of knowledge is entertaining, we don't feed trolls in Cougar Country!
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... written by Steve13,
January 22, 2010
Obviously recruiting is inexact so let's look at offers, wsu, Idaho, and Hawaii, real impressive
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Bookie Smell written by '03CouveCoug,
January 22, 2010
Longball,
Your comment about that old Bookie smell made me laugh. It was pretty distinct, however I'd argue that the most distinct smell in a WSU-related building belongs to the Cougar Depot. That place has a smell that resembles poop wrapped in cinnamon potpourri. Not a very welcoming scent in the visitor center!
Tell me someone out there knows what I'm talking about!
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... written by sdcoug09,
January 22, 2010
No, I'm not P. Nelson.
Thanks for the update.
As for Steve, personally, its tough for me to truly judge Wulff as a developer of talent because he only working on his second full recruiting class. To me, it seems the lack of wins stems more from the state the program was in before his arrival. If you look at what he did at Eastern, he was able to win and even recruit and develop players that are playing in pro leagues, even the NFL. Granted its a different ball game at I-AA, its clear that he can recruit the players, we will see this coming season and, depending on how the season goes, the next how he develops the talent. In regards to Halliday, there is no empirical method to determine how a recruit will assimilate into a college program, just as with college players to the pros. There are people out there who aren't sold on Jake Heaps or Nick Montana, would you say that Mendenhall and Sarkisian don't know what they are doing?
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Halliday written by JasonUW,
January 22, 2010
So, why are you guys so high on him? He has a great frame at 6'5, but with his only other offers being Idaho and Hawaii, it's tough to proclaim him the savior of 2012-13. Did he play in a tough conference in high school?
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Thoughts on Halliday written by SeanHawk,
January 22, 2010
Good points. He isn't weighed down with big offers. But there are some reasons for this. He did commit early to WSU, and that can sometimes keep other offers from coming in. Second, early on he wasn't too high on anyone's radar, but he is regarded as a late bloomer. So the evals you seen on espn aren't exactly current, in fact the last one I saw there on Halliday was before his senior year. Third, some well-regarded high school coaches have raved about his performance in '09, with one calling him one of the best looking passing talents in the state in a long time (I think Moses Lake coach said that?).
Besides, he looks the part. He put up big numbers in the highest WA classification, and did so on an offensive system similar to what WSU wants to do. And you see the video and you see the arm strength, accuracy and quick release people have said about him in the past.
Honestly though, who knows how he will work out. Thing is, nobody saw Jeff Tuel coming last year at this time, then 9 months later he is throwing for 350 yards at Cal. Like it or not, Wulff is showing that they have a decent eye for talent where others may not be so gaga about a kid who only gets a few stars or is only in the top 30 or whatever it is. But who knows.
But honestly, we aren't sure what will hspp
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Duhh... written by WSU91,
January 22, 2010
Everybody knows WSU is the toughest place to recruit to in the Pac-10. WSU rarely if ever gets the top flight 4-5 star guys. However, WSU has typically, in the past, gotten way more out of its talent than almost anyone would expect. Frankly, it's laughable for people to point out how WSU isn't getting top level talent, hence we fans shouldn't get excited. Duhh... That's how it's always been. We get that. We don't need Steve13 and JasonUW to point out the obvious to us. What matters is if Wulff can develop the talent he is getting. That's way more important than the overall "apparent" quality of the recruiting class. We'll see if Wulff can or cannot get that job done.
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... written by LucasCoug,
January 22, 2010
Sean, it was the Wenatchee coach who compared him to Bledsoe on a high school level.
Rubi, keeping tabs on the Cougs in LA? I like it. Hope you weren't at Pauley last night...
I have no issues with CPW's ability to recruit. But I won't have more thoughts on his ability to develop talent for at least one if not two more years. Based off the talent he developed at EWU, I think we will be just fine. I believe it was Paul Sorenson who wrote an article on Cougfan that the three highest sought college players sought after by the NFL this year, from colleges in Washington , are all Wulff recruits/players from EWU.
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Ahhhh. written by gp,
January 22, 2010
We are never allowed to be happy or optimistic about any of our recruits. Just curious how many of those top notch guys the Huskies recruited did. (Besides Locker Almighty of course)
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Hits & Misses written by Coug Banker,
January 22, 2010
In a nutshell, every program has it "hits" and "misses." Not every 5 Star recruit is going to end up in the NFL or even finish school for that matter and there are always going to be guys that get coached up and become superstars out of nowhere.
Once CPW has another year or so to coach up some of his recruits, then we can rate him as a recruiter/developer/coach. Until then it's all a crapshoot!
Go Cougs!!
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JasonUW written by TiltingRight,
January 22, 2010
Chris Young only has one offer. The UW. Ben Riva's only other offer is WSU (which some people would argue isn't a BCS school). Both are really good players, both verballed early, and if they were solid, likely wouldn't get further interest from most schools who'll use their time/resources on kids who are persuadable.
Halliday threw for nearly 4200 yard with 43TDs and 13INTS. Without Skyline's talent surrounding him.
Brandon Huffman, one of the lead scouts for scout.com said this:
"Scout's Take: Halliday is a steady quarterback, with good size (legit 6-4), but still with a frame to put some more weight (looking about 190). He's got a quick release, great pocket presence and the ability to connect on all of his throws. In this game, he did an excellent job of spreading out his passes, hitting six different receivers, and going 17-for-28 for 307 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He didn't throw deep much, but didn't need to, since several of his short passes turned into big gains by his receivers. He's got great command of the offense, and a confidence in his arm, but not an overconfidence, where he might force the ball, which he didn't show any penchant for. He makes very good decisions, is nimble and looks like he'll be a bigtime player for the Cougars in college."
Does that mean he'll "lead us to the promised land?" No. But it's plenty of reason to be excited about him.
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Halliday written by Coug in NCW,
January 23, 2010
I saw Halliday play in Wenatchee last fall. He looked bigger than 185 to me if he's 6'5" but I guess the full gear might be deceptive. I really liked what I saw of him but he had ALL day to throw. I'm sure even with an upgrade of WSU O-Line he'll never get that much time to throw again in a live game.
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I'm really going to miss Pullman and the college atmosphere when I leave in May... but I'll be back to watch some Cougar football a few months after returning to "reality" lol. 
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But ya, gotta keep Tuel healthy. That's why the signing of our to JC OL's was so darn huge!