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Signing days were generally pretty uneventful under Mike Leach, but that already has proven to not be the case under Nick Rolovich, as the new coach picked up a pair of players on signing day: Samoan defensive lineman Fa’alili Fa’amoe and Texas wide receiver Jay Wilkerson, who each have sent in letters of intent to join the 2020 recruiting class.
Fa’amoe is the one who will cause the most amount of celebration for Washington State Cougars fans who remember how instrumental recruiting from American Samoa was for Leach’s success at WSU — a number of the players recruited by former defensive line coach Joe Salave’a from “The Rock” are now playing in the NFL.
Fa’amoe doesn’t have a composite rating on 247Sports, but their evaluators tagged him as a mid-level three-star prospect as a defensive lineman. A 6-foot-5/215-pound defensive end from Pago Pago, Fa’amoe recently turned heads at the Polynesian Bowl.
Saw Fa’amoe at the 2020 @polynesiabowl and he made a huge impression, making our top performers list the second day of practice and wowing a lot of the players there who weren’t familiar with him. Good size and explosiveness off the ball. Rolo and Ricky Logo got a good one here https://t.co/ldYaKSPs0l
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) February 5, 2020
His other reported offer came from Hawaii, where Rolovich previously was coach. There doesn’t seem to be any video available.
Wilkerson, meanwhile, hails from Midlothian, Texas. Also a mid-level three star prospect, he was previously committed to Rolovich at Hawaii. He also held offers from Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, and Oklahoma State.
You can check him out below:
For complete coverage of the 2020 class, head on over to our main thread.