Holy cow guys, slow it down a little. I was on the computer all day, and nothing happened. As soon as I shut down my laptop, we get another commit? Figures. I feel pretty confident in saying that this is the latest in the day a player has verbally committed (~10pm) while I've been here at CougCenter. But, hey, new commit! Woo!
According to multiple sources on twitter, including Jake Worthen of Scout, Kennedy HS TE/OL Cole Madison is the newest member of the Washington State Cougars.
Burien (Wash.) TE/DE?OL Cole Madison has committed to #WSU
— Jake Worthen (@JakeWorthen) June 22, 2012
No one really knows what position Madison will play, but he's a biiiiig kid, so that's something. WSU now sits at nine commits (10 if you include Ivan McLennan, but, eh ...) after having only two last week. For serious, guys. Bruggman committed on the 13th, and since then, every single player in the nation* has committed to WSU.
*give or take a few thousand
I have no idea where Madison ultimately ends up, but Leach is a crazy person, so it'll probably be WR because hahaha. I think for a guy his size (6'6, 260), he has tremendous hands. He's a good blocker, but I don't know if he's quite at the level of someone who strictly plays OL. I could see him redshirting, gaining a bunch of weight, and sliding inside to guard. I'm not sure if he would work as a tackle, but Leach loves his wide splits so nevermind, I'm an idiot. Basically every offensive lineman is in a one-on-one drill anyway, so the distinction between guard and tackle matters a lot less.
Another thing Leach could do is use Madison as his Andrei Lintz 2.0. He gushes about how much he loves Lintz, and how he's never had a weapon like him before, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he sticks as a pass catcher.
The one thing I would like to see, blocking wise, is Madison getting a little bit lower. He's not standing upright or anything, and he's blocking as a TE, but if he can get lower, he can gain more leverage over the defender. I don't think this is some glaring weakness or anything; rather, this is easily correctable with a good coaching staff. I also don't think he was asked to focus on blocking.
Madison is one hell of an athlete. Scout lists him as a 2 star TE, while Rivals has him NR, and he's not yet in ESPN's database. I think the confusion on which position he'll ultimately play in college hurts his rankings, sort of like it did with Tana Pritchard. He's also not done growing, so there's a chance he's 6'7, 280 when he shows up on campus. I think he needs a little bit of polish, and clear direction at a specific position, but if you're going to gamble, this is the type of guy to do it on.
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