Coug 'Crootin: WSU football is firing out offers

Hello, everyone. This is my first post in what I believe will become a weekly recruiting feature on CougCenter, especially as recruiting heats up in the fall. The goal of this is to add a more thorough component to our recruiting coverage, so every week I will do my best to recap new scholarship offers, player video, and post-visit reactions. Any link with ($) following it is behind a pay wall.

Commits So Far

As already reported here on CougCenter, CA QB Ian Book was the first domino to fall in the 2016 class. As you would imagine, he is a pro-style QB and is a three-star composite. He also had offers from Boise St., UNLV and Idaho, and had reported interest from Arizona St. and Colorado. You, of course, can find more on Ian in his CougCenter commitment post.

Also committed is three-star CA LB Jihad Woods committed earlier this month to the Cougs. WSU was his only reported offer. You can read more on Jihad and his commitment on CougCenter's commitment post.

Recent Visits

Four-star CA LB Bryce Youngquist visited WSU recently and talked about it with Scout's Greg Biggins.

"It was a real good trip. I absolutely love Washington State. Their facilities [are] off the chart. Washington State, they have so much there, almost like Oregon. ... I really love the way they play football there."

Before you get your hopes too high, he also visited Oregon, which he called a "dream school" in that same interview. He also has visits planned to Oklahoma, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Tennessee.

Recent Offers

The Coug staff offered a pair of Hawaiians who have impressed on the camp circuit lately.

Three-star HI WR Kalakaua Timoteo was offered this week. While not particularly fast (he reports a 4.82 40), he gets decent separation, and at 6-3 can go up and get the ball.

He impressed many at the Oakland Opening, winning the WR MVP award. The current Hawaii commit saw his stock rise with his performance, and WSU saw enough to offer.

"A Hawaii commit, Timoteo may have earned himself a lot more opportunities with his performance on Sunday. He picked up an invite to The Opening Finals because he was by far the most productive and effective wide receiver all day and managed to get open against every defender." (Link)

Three-star HI OL Nate Herbig got an offer from WSU. His only offer to date is San Diego St., though he has received interest from other PAC-12 schools. At 320 pounds, Herbig finished blocks exceptionally well, though he looks to be a better run blocker than pass blocker.

WSU also offered unranked junior college CA OL Tyson Rising, who also holds offers from Colorado and Utah State. As you can see by his video, he plays with a mean streak. Check out the second highlight and you'll know what I mean.

2017

Looking a bit into the future, the Cougs got in early with unranked WA ATH Salvon Ahmed, offering him this week. Currently, Ahmed's other offers are Utah and Washington. The Cougs also offered four-star UT DT Jay Tufele, who holds offers from USC, Utah, Arizona, BYU, among others. Again, don't get too excited. Even without an offer, 247's crystal ball predictions has him 100% going to Oregon.

Thursday, the Cougs offered four-star CA TE Jimmy Jaggers, who has seen his recruitment blow up lately: Michigan, UW and Oregon State offered in the last few weeks, and UCLA recently visited him. Jaggers was named as one of the notable players at the B2G Sports 7-on-7 Chicago tournament in April. The Roseville & Granite Bay Press Tribune recently had an informative feature on Jimmy. While he didn't mention WSU specifically, he did elude to his recruitment being far from over.

"My dad and I have compared and contrasted a lot of schools — this one has a better football program, or this one has better academics and a nicer campus — we’ve talked about it a lot," Jaggers said. "I really don’t have any idea right now where I will be able to go or where I want to go."

Another offer was sent out Friday to CA OL Aaron Banks. The Bay Area lineman also has offers from Cal and Oregon St., and you can see his sophomore highlights here. He also made a splash at the Oakland Opening, earning mention by Scout's Brandon Huffman.

He played left tackle, but he'll likely end up sliding inside to play guard. He's got a good initial punch and moves really well for how big he is. He'll need to trim up a bit to to have any chance at playing tackle. He's got good strength and massive hands and did a great job using his hands.

Happy Trails

Four-star CA RB Sean McGrew, who we will see a lot of over the next few years, committed to UW this week. Two offensive line prospects who held WSU offers decided on Bay Area PAC-12 schools this week: four-star VA OT Clark Yarbrough decided on Stanford, and three-star CA OT Jake Curhan is headed to Cal. Speaking of the Bears, they picked up another WSU target in three-star CA CB Traveon Beck. The Cougs were in Beck's final five, but he's staying in-state. Finally, three-star CA DL Chase Hatada committed to Boise St. Monday.