Thomas Toki's enrollment delayed until January

The crown jewel of WSU's 2015 signing class, defensive tackle Thomas Toki, can been conspicuously absent from fall camp for the past week. Now, we know why. Cougfan reports he'll enroll in January ($) after failing to receive academic clearance from the NCAA to enroll for the fall semester.

Toki was the first commit of the 2015, giving his verbal on Christmas Eve 2013. He played two seasons of high school football in Kirkland at Juanita High before transferring to St. Francis in Mountain View, CA before his senior season.

Toki probably would've competed for playing time this season so while his loss for 2015 is a blow, I don't think it's a gigantic one. The one unit on WSU's defense that performed well last year was the defensive line and even though they lost Xavier Cooper and Toni Pole, they get Daniel Ekuale, Destiny Vaeao, Darryl Paulo, and Robert Barber back. In addition, the massive Ngalu Tapa comes off his redshirt and Hercules Mata'afa is thought highly of as well.

So while this news stinks, I wouldn't turn up the panic meter too high just yet. While Toki would've competed for playing time, the coaches probably would've liked to tag him with a redshirt. If he doesn't enroll in the spring, feel free to turn the meter all the way up to 11.