WSU football recruiting: Early signing day primer

Washington State, fresh off signing Mike Leach to a shiny new five-year, $20 million deal, now shifts their focus to the early signing day period, which begins tomorrow.

The NCAA implemented the new signing window earlier this year and while the traditional February signing day will still be in effect, it’s looking like the early signing period is going to be the biggest day of the recruiting calendar moving forward, according to Bud Elliott of SB Nation, who asked coaches what they expect tomorrow.

The principle guiding the common strategy of the schools is to maximize the leverage given to them by NCAA rules.

So here is how the vast majority of college teams will attack early signing day.

“With few exceptions, we expect to sign every verbal commitment we have. This is [now] the main Signing Day.”

If a player has been offered and has verbally committed to the university, that team expects him to sign. Coaches have put in months, if not years, of work toward their current verbal commitments. They do not want to spend another second ensuring those players sign. In fact, that has long been one of their biggest annoyances with the recruiting process.

To put it another way, a lot of schools think upward of 80 percent of their recruiting classes will sign in December, with only a few players waiting until February.

The December early signing period is now the big trip to the grocery store, while February’s traditional National Signing Day is going to become the quick stop for a gallon of milk.

Barring any surprises, Leach and the WSU coaching staff should be no exception, as the vast majority of the current recruiting class, which currently sits at 21 known commits, is expected to fax in their national letters of intent at some point tomorrow.

Recruits expected to sign tomorrow

Based on what we’ve heard, here’s a list of the 16 prospects we expect to sign with WSU this week:

• QB: Cammon Cooper
• RB: Max Borghi
• WR: Rodrick Fisher, Calvin Jackson, Kassidy Woods, Brandon Gray
• OL: Cade Beresford, Syr Riley, Jarrett Kingston
• DL: Jonathan Lolohea, Brennan Jackson
• LB: RJ Stone, Kedron Williams,
• DB: D’Angelo McKenzie, Myles Green-Richards, Patrick Nunn

Of these 16 verbal commits, Cooper, Borghi, Fisher, Lolohea and Jackson are all expected to enroll at WSU in January and participate in spring practices. The rest will likely arrive in June with the rest of the class that signs in Feburary.

Recruits not expected to sign tomorrow

• WR: Drue Jackson
• OL: Nick Lewis
• DL: Amir Crowder
• DB: Erick Hallett, Gatlin Grisso

Obviously, this list is unknown right now, but reading the tea leaves suggests these are the players that are questionable to sign at this point in the recruiting process. Note: Victor Terry is reportedly no longer committed as he works on academics.

Recruits to watch

Cade Beresford, a touted offensive tackle prospect from Woodinville, took an official visit to WSU two weeks ago, though he’s been pursued by UCLA and USC of late. He mentioned on Twitter last week that he was 100% committed and signing with WSU, though it’s recruiting and a lot of funny things can happen in the final hours.

WSU will also be included in a hat ceremony tomorrow as it appears three-star safety Halid Djibril will be deciding between WSU and Oregon State. The Los Angeles (Calif.) Cathedral prospect took an official visit to WSU two weeks ago, then followed that up with a trip to Corvallis last weekend. It’s unknown when he’s deciding.

Myles Green-Richards picked up an offer from in-state program Oregon State on Sunday night, but there’s been no mention of his interest in the Beavers. Still, it’s something to watch for as the faxes begin rolling in.

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It’ll be interesting to see how this early signing day will impact the college football recruiting landscape and WSU, in particular. WSU recruiting classes have notoriously been a “back up plan” for larger programs who miss on their big fish and I’d expect some of those programs are already in commits’ ears about holding off on signing.

Should be an exciting day! CougCenter will have you covered as the faxes come in.