I was having this conversation on twitter yesterday with everyone's favorite SoCalCoug (sorry SoCal Coug, it's nothing personal):
@THESoCalCoug Dotson is on campus, too. Will be enrolled come Monday
— Kyle Rancourt (@KyleRancourt) January 5, 2012
@KyleRancourt 2 guys so far. I was hoping for more, but I don't expect much w/ a change in coaches, but I like it when arrive early.
— SoCalCoug (@TheSoCalCoug) January 5, 2012
Today, word out of CougFan is that Mike Leach has another verbal commit in RB Teondray Caldwell. So, you know what else SoCalCoug was hoping for? He was hoping you'd all give me money. Lots and lots of money. He was also hoping you'd give Mark a giant bag of Cool Ranch Doritos.
This video is from his junior year, but he graduated last year. He signed a LOI with Nevada, but did not play for them. I scoured the interwebs, but could not find out why. I trust in the CougCenter community, and believe an article will pop up within the first few comments about his mysterious year off.
Caldwell is already on campus and is scheduled to start classes on Monday with the rest of us. The funny thing is, he knew he was coming to WSU a while ago. You can read some of his tweets, but the one that surprised me was this:
20 days left in Cali:)#WSU
— Gotti (@tc5thetruth) December 19, 2011
I'm shocked that no one (myself included) picked up on that. With how crazy some message boarders are (and I mean that in a nice way), anyone that is even remotely linked to WSU usually gets brought up. This guy has known he was coming to WSU for over two weeks, and no word leaked? Weird.
As far as his talent on the field, there's plenty. At 5'11 and 205 pounds, he's a prototypical all-everything back in a spread offense. He can run it from a standard formation, from the shotgun, run end-arounds, reverses, catch passes, you name it. He can also return punts and kicks, but I feel like we're probably set there (although having a bunch of different guys who can do it is a good problem to have).
He makes a lot of nice cuts, and speed doesn't seem to be an issue. I didn't see blazing Rickey Galvin type speed in the video, but he's by no means slow. I prefer to take a wait-and-see approach with him, as there are positives. I just am never really a fan of calling every guy who doesn't have offers from bigger programs an exciting under-the-radar type player. It is worth noting, however, that RB's coach Jim Maestro was the recruiting coordinator at Nevada until he moved on to UCLA this past year.
Not sure he'll ever be a featured back, but considering our depth at the position, and the mass exodus of RBs from this years class, I'm in favor of bringing the kid in. My gut tells me Theron West doesn't wind up in Pullman, and that neither does Joseph Te'o. So with that in mind, Caldwell is a welcome addition as possibly the only RB in this class.
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