WSU football recruiting: Apple Cup loss, firings have little effect

Whenever a season starts going south, fans worry intensely about the effect that it will have on recruiting. That's doubly true when a team has put together a pretty good class, as is the case for Washington State, which has secured the kinds of commits that could make this Mike Leach's best class yet -- provided all the verbals stick.

Of course, panic starts to set in when a bunch of those recruits come to Pullman for their official visit on Apple Cup weekend, and then the home team gets smacked around by its rival.

The truth of the matter? A bad loss doesn't seem to bother recruits -- who are basing their decisions on relationships and/or facilities and/or academic reputations in addition to a program's prestige -- nearly as much as it bothers fans.

Example:

That would be Thomas Toki, consensus four-star defensive lineman, who also said this today:

WSU commit Thomas Toki on WSU's defensive coaching changes: "If it's something that'll benefit the team, then let it be."

— Britton K. Ransford (@BKRansford) December 1, 2014

Toki has since taken the tweet with the picture down, perhaps because the guy on the left is TJ Fehoko, a three-star defensive end who is currently committed to Colorado. But the sentiment is clear.

Meanwhile, Cougfan.com's Braulio Perez caught up with four-star linebacker Kyahva Tezino, who also was at the Apple Cup on his official visit.

"I enjoyed myself out there," Tezino said. "Teams lose every day. The loss didn't affect my interest in them at all. I enjoyed my visit and being out there raised my interest in them a lot. It was a really good trip for me."

Additionally, Ransford has talked to three-star cornerback Darrien Molten, who is coming on his official visit next weekend, and Molten essentially said the same thing as Toki($) following the news of Breske's ouster. And the Cougs are still firmly in the mix for four-star receiver Stanley Norman, who happens to be close friends with Tyler Hilinski.

It doesn't mean WSU will necessarily keep all these kids; it just means that if they don't, it's probably smart of you not to try and say it was because of the Apple Cup or firing Breske.