The recruits are coming! The recruits are coming! It's that time of year we all run through the street ringing bells, awaiting the newest class of incoming student athletes. It's an exciting time for the fans and we're here to help. It just so happens we have plenty of resources to give you a crash course on recruiting, signing day and what this all means.
We have a recruiting hub at SB Nation, manned by the freight train that is Bud Elliot. He's been grinding away, updating commits and school-centric recruiting streams while preparing for signing day. He'll be all over signing day and we've got some great plans in place going forward. Bookmark it and check back for lots more.
For more of a WSU slant, we have our own recruiting hub. If you have no idea who's in this class or what's going on, it'd be a great idea to check it out. You'll find spreadsheets and links about the commits, as well as a map!
Spencer Hall's stylings are always worth reading and he's got three on recruiting and signing day. Here's his layperson's primer for recruiting, a helpful glossary and a guide to signing day. All three are hilarious and all three are must-reads.
Our resident 90's rapper and all-around smart guy Bill C. -- he wrote about tennis this past week and it was awesome! -- has a few helpful pieces about what's next. Here he discuss blue-chip quarterbacks, blue-chip running backs and blue-chip wide receivers. Read all three for a tempered look at expectations.
The last, but not least, link made me laugh while also conveying a message. Over at Barking Carnival, cuppycup, who you may know for his superb and hilarious gifs, took up writing for a moment. In this piece, he discusses tweeting recruits, with a handy guide for booster's to reference if they want to do it right. It's fantastic, so read it.
After the jump a few quick notes.
We've got a lot of cool stuff coming in the next few days, so keep a look out for it all. Mark and Kyle are running point and the rest of us with be like go-fers. It'll be fun, you'll learn something and we'll have everything you need covered up to and throughout signing day, as well as for the rest of the week.
The recruiting period is basically over at this point, except it's not. At midnight last night, we entered the final dead period of this recruiting calendar, though in this case "dead period" means something a bit different. Typically, this term means no in-person contact between coaches and recruits, and only one phone call a week. For years I've had this image in my mind of coaches saving their one phone call for signing day, then frantically calling recruits to make sure letters get in.*
*In reality there's so many ways to skirt this, but let's assume everyone plays by the rules (nobody plays by the rules).
Turns out the last dead period of the recruiting calendar is actually about seven hours. Observe:
In football, institutional coaching staff members may make unlimited telephone calls to prospective student-athletes during the period 48 hours before and 48 hours after 7 a.m. on the initial signing date for the National Letter of Intent. (Adopted: 1/10/92, Revised: 12/12/06, 12/15/06)
So, yeah. At 7 a.m. this morning, coaches were basically allowed free-reign again and can call every five minutes if they so choose. So much for recruits getting a few days to unwind, clear their heads and evaluate the situation!
Finally, one more gentle reminder. These last few days are also the ones that create the most turmoil in fanbases. Everyone will argue about the recruiting classes, evaluations of the players and the job the coach is doing. Some fans will take it further, unleashing venom directed at recruits that they somehow feel wronged them.
We're better than that here and expect everyone to follow the lead. Be civil in your discourse and elevate the discussion. Disagree, debate and discuss, but do so in a civil fashion. Play nice with each other.
And for the love of all that's holy, please be nice to the recruits. This should go without saying, but whether a recruit is coming to WSU or not, they deserve respect. I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but be respectful.
For more on signing day, be sure to follow @CougCenter on Twitter. We'll be tweeting as letters come in and will have plenty of information throughout signing day. Follow us to get it quickly.