WSU secures QB commit for 2020 in Jayden de Laura

The Washington State Cougars finally found their quarterback for the 2020 class: Less than 24 hours after extending a scholarship offer to Jayden de Laura, the three-star QB from Hawaii powerhouse Saint Louis High School committed to the Cougs, sight unseen.

“Me and my family talked about it last night. We’ve been waiting for this offer for quite awhile now,” de Laura told KHON-TV in Hawaii. “After we talked about it, we decided to jump on it while we had it.”

De Laura’s school should sound familiar, since it also produced former WSU Rose Bowl QB Jason Gesser, as well as former Oregon Ducks QB Marcus Mariota and current Alabama Crimson Tide QB Tua Tagovailoa. WSU was the first Power 5 scholarship offer for the three-star recruit; he also held reported offers from the BYU Cougars, Hawaii Warriors, San Diego State Aztecs, and Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

“For me, watching (WSU) and seeing their offense, I know I’d want to be somewhere I can air out the ball,” de Laura told 247Sports’ Blair Angulo. “Everyone knows they throw the ball almost 100 percent of the time and personally I know that’s an offense I can thrive in.”

De Laura doesn’t appear to have any senior highlights on Hudl, but his junior highlights reveal a player who is a bit more mobile than what the Cougars typically recruit at the position. He’s not a dual threat, per se, but that’s probably only due to the fact that he’s not really large enough to get hit on a regular basis. He can definitely move — and throw accurately on the run:

In that junior year, he threw for 2,395 yards and 19 touchdowns against 10 interceptions on 214 attempts (11.2 ypa). As a senior de Laura has already thrown for 1,950 yards, 19 TDs and 3 interceptions on just 171 attempts (11.4 ypa) in 2019 for the top ranked team in the state and No. 7 team nationally.

A lot of that ranking has to do with this win over Las Vegas powerhouse Bishop Gorman, in which de Laura threw for 297 yards and two TDs, while rushing for another 57 yards:

Here’s are some other game highlights from this year:

One of the key figures in de Laura’s recruitment was Mitchell Quinn, a redshirt freshman inside receiver for the Cougars who joined the program as a preferred walk-on out of Saint Louis.

“Mitchell told me it’s just like home, just like Hawaii,” de Laura told Angulo. “It’s all love over there, all about the football team and all about the school. It’s just a little colder than Hawaii. Peni (Naulu) is over there too talking to me and I have family that lives in the state, so it’s a perfect situation for me.”

De Laura is the second commit in the 2020 class from Hawaii, joining Alaka’i Gilman. (You can check out the entire 2020 class here.) The two are rivals — Gilman plays for Punahou — but they played on the same 7-on-7 team in the spring.

As is typical for star players from the islands, there’s a lot of coverage of de Laura to be consumed. I’m just going to drop as much of it as I can find in here for you to go through at your leisure.

Videos

Note: This first video — which is specifically about his commitment — starts out windy, but it gets better.

Links

Three-star QB commits to WSU - 247Sports.com
Honolulu (Hawaii) Saint Louis three-star quarterback Jayden de Laura breaks down his commitment to Washington State...

Saint Louis’ Jayden de Laura thinks he can ‘flourish’ at Washington State following verbal commitment | KHON2
On Tuesday night, the Crusaders star announced his scholarship offer from Washington State and less than a day later, de Laura committed to join head coach Mike Leach’s Cougars squad next season.

Saint Louis QB Jayden de Laura headed to the Pac-12 – Hawaii Prep World

Washington State football: Jayden de Laura of top Hawaii team commits - USA Today
Washington State got the commitment of Jayden de Laura, a quarterback from the school that produced Marcus Mariota and Tua Tagovailoa.