WSU Football Recruiting: Niu Sale, JC OL From California, Commits To Cougars

They need that extra year for strength and skill development to play at this level. So I would say the exception has to go by position. Unless we are in 2010 again, where we had to throw guys like Gonsales and Jacobson right in the mix. I think I would stick to redshirting all JC linemen when possible and bring the skill guys in right away. But, Leach and McGuire might not feel like we have luxury right now. We don’t know how they assess or will assess or current personnel.

From interviews with Wade and quotes from coaches, it appears that they believe he will be granted another year and are proceeding as though this is the case.

The real question, as alluded to, is if he can continue to play in the Pac12 with his back problems.

Although I would add I was a bit surprised he didn’t go for a few more in classes 2 and 3 once we saw how many guys had left the program (or been booted, flunked…etc). Starting a 240lb Alex Reitnour should’ve been the final straw right?

Good point above about how JCs tend to be a bit risky academically with us already hurting bad on the APR score. Either way we still had pretty high attrition with Wulff; especially on both lines.

I think after 49 games we saw all we needed to see and everyone has their own opinion on the subject; but, I think we can all agree that in his 4 years Wulff pretty much could never just catch a damn break.

First, I’m not sure where the number 10 comes from as some baseline, but in the first couple of years, I think he would have been smart to bring in closer to 10 JCs than 5.

Second, Wulff could have given out 25 scholarships every year, or even oversigned. He knew he was recruiting academic risks that may not make it in, and he knew some guys would get booted, flunk out, or leave, and yet we don’t have more than 25 players until 2010.

Third, examining the scholarship situation from 2004 through 2009, it should have been clear that 2009 was going to be the BOTTOM in terms of talent AND experience on the roster. By recruiting JCs like crazy for the 2008 and 2009 classes, he could have helped bridge that. And again, it’s not like he was filling the classes up with 25 can’t miss freshmen.

The main thing is you need a big body in the middle. The outside lineman do not necessarily need to be that big but atleast effective inside essentially DT type guys that play on the outside of the nose tackle. This gives you the ability to bring your OLB/DE from either side of the 3 lineman or ILB in with the 3 lineman spread out.

and even this comment is pretty tongue-in-cheek and not bad (though it’s starting down that road…)

Wulff’s decisions are valid one way or another because until this new class gets into school every guy on our team (save the few early enrollees) are here based on what Wulff and col were trying to do.

Despite all the “OMG all the new Leach recruits are SO F’ING good” talk the fact remains that they’re pretty much all going to be freshman and I’d be surprised if more than half even see the field this Fall much less make major contributions.

This isn’t the NFL where Pete Carroll can turnover 95% of the roster in a season. In the current era most college coaches face the “do or die” scenario at a school largely with the former coach’s players.

To me the trend speaks to his philosophy that he prefers not to bring in JC but knows when he has to.

tackling angle ‘problem’ resulted from the very small for Pac 10/12 DT’s the Cougs had on the field 2008-2010. Laurenzi was a 275 2 tech DT as a soph- shouldered up with Rankin, a converted juco DE who was 280 in 2010. Last year, the girth was better, the DT’s held the line far more often as Clayton ate downs and was 290 ish- with Laurenzi tipping at about 290 and Rankin up to 285+. The LB’s were no longer eating a OL before they pursued and it helped.

Not completely excusing the bad angles… nor the improvement by Hyphen; but the beating a LB takes when engaging a OL with regularity is brutal. Ledge was never the same after UCLA in 2010. Those engagement last year were far more often by design than happenstance and it helped them with field position and recognition.