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Washington State landed a verbal commitment on Monday with 3-star cornerback Sulaiman Hameed joining the 2014 recruiting class. As far as I can tell, Cougfan.com had the news first.
Hameed is a consensus 3-star recruit according to Rivals, Scout and 247. He's yet to be evaluated by ESPN. He reportedly chose WSU over an offer from Arizona State and is listed at both 5-foot-10 and 5-foot-11 with his weight ranging from 165 to 185 pounds. His senior highlights list him at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds. Regardless, he's right in the size range you'd expect from a high school corner prospect.
Despite landing two Pac-12 offers fairly early in his senior season, Hameed flew somewhat under the radar. Part of that is due to a torn ACL he suffered prior to his junior season. He missed the entire year and the first four games of his senior season because of the injury, according to Scout. When he did come back, he played corner, quarterback and reciever, earning first-team all league honors.
His senior highlights are all over the place, with clips of him returning punts, running the read option as a quarterback, playing corner and wide receiver. We'll have to wait and see how he develops when he moves to corner full time, but it's obvious the athleticism is there. The injury forced him to miss key development time, so he's likely a bit raw. That makes him an ideal redshirt candidate, but with WSU's depth at corner, anyone could play at this point.
Hameed becomes the 20th commitment in the 2014 recruiting class and the third corner, joining Kevin Griffin and Joseph Turner. Markell Sanders and Marcellus Pippins are expected to join the team as grayshirts, adding some much-needed cornerback depth.
Overall, Hameed appears to be a very interesting prospect. He may not be the "big corner" Mike Breske covets, but he's far from undersized. He's also very athletic and will bring some speed to the defense with a reported 40-yard dash time of 4.5. Development will be the key -- like it is for any prospect -- but at least you are building from an excellent base.
