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.
| PLAYER A | PLAYER B | |
| Height | 5-foot-8 | 5-foot-8 |
| Weight | 165 pounds | 172 pounds |
| 40 Time | 4.5 seconds | 4.5 seconds |
| Rush YPG | 192.7 | 197.0 |
| Rush YPC | 6.7 | 10.0 |
| Rush TD/G | 2.5 | 2.6 |
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?
Here's a hint: The guy with the bigger numbers is Galvin. The other guy was the Pac-10 offensive player of the year last year.
Am I going to sit here and tell you that Galvin is in line to have the kind of impact Jacquizz Rodgers had for the Beavers last year? Of course not. But what I am here to say is that so-called "measurables" don't always tell the whole story when it comes to a recruit, and nobody should know that better than Coug fans, who happened to have hit a home run recruiting a shifty, undersized back not that long ago.
Although undersized, Rodgers also had offers from Arizona, Baylor and SMU -- thanks in large part to an enormous junior season. Galvin's only BCS offer came from WSU. But he didn't quite have the same monstrous junior year that puts you on the map of recruiters -- "just" 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns. However, through nine games this year, Galvin's already got better than 1,700 yards and 23 touchdowns, and when you watch this highlight film at ESPN.com (they won't let me embed it), you can see why.
He's rated a two-star recruit by Scout.com, a three-star recruit by Rivals and a two-star recruit by ESPN.com's Scouts, Inc. Here's the scouting report in a nutshell:
"(Recruiters) look at my size, and they just cover me up, they overlook me," Galvin said. "I have to work harder just to get noticed. Good thing I don't have any problem working hard. I just do what I have to do." Six straight 200-yard games may have done the job. Suddenly, people are figuring out Galvin isn't really a "jitterbug," as he is often labeled in scouting assessments. By contrast, he's a runner who expertly follows blocks, spots holes in a split-second and explodes through them before opposing defenses have time to react.
Vince Grippi said this was a guy the coaches really wanted, and it's little wonder. This is a guy unlike any that the Cougs currently have on their roster. Remember how I broke down some of the wide receivers earlier and said, "Yeah, they look nice, but they don't really seem to have that breakaway speed"? Galvin does. He makes guys miss, and he runs away from them. And it's not like he's doing it against chump competition in the Bay Area.
This article on Galvin in the Contra Costa Times says that Cal and UCLA both began "sniffing around" recently, but it was too little to late for those schools. If you're looking for a reason why he chose WSU -- other than it being his only firm BCS offer -- check out this story on Galvin:
This coaching staff has been preaching family since it arrived. I have to believe that's something that resonated with Galvin, who said (before his commitment):
"Washington State is a great school. It's high on my list, and I'm really interested in them. I have a good connection with the coaches — they treat me like I've already committed and I'm playing on the team."
So where does he fit in? Although it's going to be tough for him to crack the running back rotation with guys like Logwone Mitz, Carl Winston and even potentially Chantz Staden in front of him, I wouldn't be surprised if he played right away next year on special teams as a returner. Some might question whether he can handle the pounding -- the same reason Rodgers was listed as a RB/CB prospect coming out of high school -- but Galvin's got much the same thing going for him that Rodgers and another smallish running back, Darren Sproles, have going for them, according to his coach:
"I told people he can bench-press 335 pounds and squat 500 and they were saying, 'There ain't no way.' But one day, some coaches came to visit and they actually saw him do it. They were like, 'Wow,' " Alonzo Carter said.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this guy is going to prove to be one of the major surprises of this recruiting class. If he does pan out, it'll be just another example of this staff's ability to identify talent early -- a la Jeff Tuel -- and go get it.