WSU Football Recruiting: A second look at JC LB Ivan McLennan

Ivan McLennan is an interesting prospect. Coming out of El Camino College in Torrance, CA, he wasn't a highly sought after prospect at the beginning of this year. He finished with (reported) offers from Oregon, Arkansas, and Miami (FL). When he originally gave his verbal commitment, it went something like this:

"My visit was fun, Pullman is great, I like it here. I'm verbally committing now, but I still want to take all of my visits and see what happens."

Obviously that's paraphrased, but you can forgive me if I wasn't sold on that as being an iron clad verbal commitment. I've seen that movie before, and not just at WSU. It's Recruiting 101. I don't blame anyone for doing it, either. Around these parts, it's known as Bishop Sankeying a school into a better offer. It's how the game is played, and I figured it would happening again.

Except this time, it didn't. It wasn't a case of McLennan not getting a big time offer and sticking with the Cougs, it was McLennan seeing what else was out there and deciding Pullman was the place he wanted to be. That's outstanding.

The best video available, per usual, is via McLennan's Hudl page. You can view that here.

When I first looked at his videos, a lot of them were from his senior year in high school (2010). He looked like he could be a nice player, but I wasn't overly impressed with him as is. He was excellent at rushing the passer, but that was his one skill. I was convinced he'd come in and back up Logan Mayes at the BUCK, but that he'd be depth at best.

Then I watched his latest tape.

McLennan learned how to drop in coverage, and he's no longer a one-trick pony. Make no mistake, pass rushing is still his best skill, but he's become a more complete football player now. His video shows him getting beat in pass coverage but still tracking down the ball carrier and forcing a fumble. That's pretty great.

He has excellent speed, and my guess is he plays all over. He has the range and fundamentals to play inside, the pass rush ability to play BUCK, and the speed to play outside. He's pretty versatile, and I wasn't expecting that at all. He has 3 to play 2, and for those who aren't familiar with that term, it means this: he has three years to play his junior and senior years, meaning he can redshirt one year, but he'll be coming to WSU as a junior.

I doubt he redshirts, to be honest. My stance on both redshirting and bringing in JC players is pretty widely known, so the fact that I like this kid this much is pretty telling. Congrats to Ivan, and congrats to Leach and Co. for bringing in players other BCS teams covet.

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