With football signing day about three weeks away, it's time to start sprinkling in these Coug Commit features again as we try to get you familiar with all the guys who should be signing on the dotted line for WSU come Feb. 3. We'll be tackling the guys who have signed recently first, then we'll try and go back and cover the guys who committed before we started these features.

First up: Lineman prospect Maxx Forde.

Forde is a legacy whose father, Brian, played linebacker at WSU in the mid-1980s. In addition to WSU, he had scholarship offers from Army and Air Force, which ought to tell you something -- namely, that he fits the profile of "neck up" players that Paul Wulff has been trying to add the program. You don't get offers from service academies unless you can hack it academically.

Rated three stars by Scout.com and Rivals.com and two stars by ESPN.com, Forde is 6-foot-4 and currently anywhere between 230 and 245, depending on whom you believe at the moment. That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if he projected as a defensive end, which is where Scout.com has him currently listed.

But after watching ESPN's video on him (they don't allow embedding, so you'll have to go there to see it), I really don't see any way he's a defensive end. He seems to lacksthe explosive first step a defensive end needs to be able to beat tackles. For the same reason, plus the fact that he's currently only 240ish, interior defensive line seems a stretch as well.

Instead of focusing on what he doesn't have, though, let's focus on what he does have: Great balance, good lateral movement and excellent body control, which to me screams offensive lineman. Given that Wulff really seems to like tall, long-armed tackles, it would seem that Forde would be too short for that position. That leaves guard or center, and to be honest, he seems perfectly fit for guard.

The biggest challenge Forde has in front of him is bulking up. Besides his academics, one has to believe a big reason the service academies were interested in him is because you don't have to be 300 pounds to be an effective lineman in their systems. He'll need to gain at least 50 pounds in weight and muscle to be a competitive interior lineman in the Pac-10.

Wulff wants his guys to maul. Forde's got a ways to go before he mauls.

Nonetheless, there is huge potential here. This is the kind of kid WSU made a living off of in the past -- the one who isn't ready to step right in, but with proper development and coaching, can turn into a really nice player. This kid has athleticism to spare, and goodness knows the Cougs can always use more athleticism.

If you want to know a little more about Forde and his personality, here's a nice little story from KING-5 TV in Seattle:

It's been a while since we've done one of these Coug Commit features, since that little run of five commitments in three weeks back in late September to early October. But with Ferris H.S. quarterback Connor Halliday taking the Saxons all the way to the Washington state 4A championship game -- which they would lose to powerhouse Skyline -- now seems like a great time to talk about Halliday, since he committed before we started writing these features (back on June 19, according to Scout.com).

Plus, we've now got some great video to pass along, courtesy of Sean Hawkins at WSU Football Blog. We'll get to that later.

First, the measurables. Halliday is 6-foot-5 but just 190 pounds. For reference, that makes him two inches taller than Jeff Tuel, but 17 pounds lighter. (And we thought Tuel needed to redshirt to put on some pounds ...) However, the rest of the package is absolutely as impressive as Tuel's, if not even more so.

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Many of you have already heard about Cougar recruit Connor Halliday's big performance in the regional crossover portion of the Washington state playoffs on Friday night to lead Ferris to a victory over previously unbeaten Wenatchee at the Apple Bowl. It led Panthers' coach Scott Devereaux to gush, "He’s the real deal. I’ve been coaching here for 15 years, and he’s the best quarterback I’ve seen. He reminds me a lot of Drew Bledsoe when he was at Walla Walla in the 80s. He’s a stud."

Of course, that makes us smile at a time when we need something to smile about.

I decided to dial up a friend who teaches at Wenatchee and has seen a lot of high school football, and asked him for his first-person scouting report. Here you go. It's fantastic.

Enjoy.

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Connor Halliday, a Washington State recruit with the Ferris Saxons, showed the Apple Bowl spectators in Wenatchee why he is a coveted quarterback. He went 22 of 39 for 259 yards, no picks, and three touchdowns and had one touchdown dropped. He also had a few timely runs for first downs in the 21-10 victory over the Wenatchee Panthers.

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Before we dive into the Cougs' newest commit -- the 17th of the 2010 recruiting class -- let's play a little game. See if you can figure out who the following two players are, using measurables from their senior year as reported by Scout.com, and stats from their senior season.

It probably didn't take you too long to figure out one of the guys is Rickey Galvin. But which one? And who's the other guy?

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Jiles could bring some needed speed to the receiving corps. (via media.scout.com)

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This is starting to get a little ridiculous.

Just days after teammate Tracy Clark announced he was coming to WSU, receiver Robert Jiles of Pittsburg (Calif.) High School said today that he is coming to WSU, according to Cougfan.com and the San Francisco Chronicle. It's the 14th known verbal commitment for Paul Wulff and his staff.

Jiles is a two-star receiver, and there seems to be slight disagreement on his size -- Scout.com has him listed at 6-0/185, while Scouts, Inc. has him listed at 5-11/182. Scout.com reports him to have 4.47 40 speed. There are no written evaluations out there that I can find, and I also can't find any free video (although there might be some on the ESPN page -- it won't load up while I'm at school, so I can't be sure).

The barrage of commitments leaves the Cougs tied for third in the conference for commitments right now. And while early commitments don't necessarily mean recruiting is going well -- after all, the guys who are committing still have to be able to play -- but I certainly think it says something about how Wulff and his staff are selling the program. It can't hurt that the other, more high-profile guys the Cougs are recruiting are seeing players flock to the program in droves.

And it certainly can't hurt for the recruitment of four-star safety Erick Dargan, who is a teammate of Clark and Jiles in Pittsburg and took his official visit the same weekend as the other two (against Stanford).

I will say this about Jiles, in lieu of seeing him: If that 40 time is legit, he'll bring a much-needed stretch-the-field speed element to the receiving corps.

The latest Cougar Commit, defensive back Tracy Clark out of Pittsburg (Calif.) High School. (via media.scout.com)

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The Cougs picked up verbal commitment No. 13 over the weekend when defenisve back Tracy Clark, out of Pittsburg (Calif.) High School, announced his intention to sign with the Cougs. The news was first reported by Cougfan.com.

What are the Cougs getting in Clark?

Well, he's only rated as a two-star prospect, and Scout.com's measurables don't exactly blow you away -- 5-foot-11, 175 pounds, 4.55 40-yard dash. However, Vince Grippi said that this was a guy the coaching staff went after hard. According to Scout.com, he didn't receive any other BCS scholarship offers, although it was said that Arizona State, Oregon State and Boise State showed interest.

ESPN.com's Scouts, Inc. has this evaluation:

"Clark shows both good aggressiveness and big-play ability at the corner position. While he lacks the bulk and overall size right now we feel his longer body has a lot of physical development left and he'll develop into a safety at the college level (where his speed is better suited). ... Overall, Clark looks to be a late bloomer physically and we like this kid's upside and potential blend of range, athleticism and ball-hawking skills down the line."

In other words, he sounds like the typical, under-the-radar type of recruit the Cougs have made a living off of in the past. The rest of the scouting report is glowing, and if he fulfills that potential, WSU will have a major find on its hands.

I couldn't find any free video, but if you want to check Clark out for yourself, there's some scouting video on his Scouts.com page.

One other thing to keep an eye on: The San Francisco Chronicle says, deep in its notes in this story, that his teammate, receiver Robert Giles, has also committed to the Cougs. However, Giles' name isn't on the verbal list at Cougfan.com, and isn't even on their list of players being recruited. Heck, he doesn't even have his own recruiting page yet at Scout.com or Scouts, Inc. So, I have no idea what's going on there.

EDIT, 11:30 A.M.: So, the reason I couldn't find anything on him was because the Chronicle spelled his name wrong -- it's Robert Jiles. And Cougfan.com is now reporting that he has, in fact, committed. We'll have our breakdown shortly.

We're going to try something new around here: Pass on the commitments of recruits when Cougfan.com reports them so that we have a chance to provide some brief analysis and also give you a place to talk about it.

We've generally stayed away from recruiting up until now because we like to talk about stuff we can see. Well, with all the video floating around out there, we usually can see at least something of these guys, so it makes sense to bring some recruiting into the fold after a guy commits. (You still won't see us talk about guys who haven't committed, unless it's clear the Cougs are in on a high-profile guy. Too much rumor and innuendo for us.)

The latest WSU football commit is Bobby Ratliff, a 3-star wide receiver from California. He's listed at 6-1/180, and there's are a pair of nice YouTube videos embedded below. The first is from his junior year. The second is from what looks like a UCLA camp. My initial thoughts from the videos below:

• In looking at his junior year video, he doesn't seem fit the profile of adding speed to the team. There are a number of times on the video where he lacks the explosiveness to pull away from defenders, and is even caught from behind.
• However, in the UCLA video, that doesn't prevent him from getting open in one-on-one matchups -- he runs excellent routes with sharp, decisive cuts that allow him to generate space, even without great speed.
• That shiftiness that leads to the good routes also allows him to be elusive in space.
• He seems to be an excellent pass catcher. Even though these are recruiting videos and they're not going to show any drops, he seems to have very good technique in catching the ball with his hands.
• The lack of breakaway speed but good hands seems to suggest that he would project to some kind of possession receiver -- if they keep him at wideout, which would seem likely.

Sound like anyone you know?

This looks like a guy who could contribute right away, but he might not, depending on how things shake out with Kevin Norrell, which might create too much depth for him to crack as a freshman. He's the 12th known commit to WSU, according to Cougfan.com.

Video after the jump.

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