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Signing Day has come and gone with 22 newly minted WSU Cougars. The class is a really good one. The staff had a plan for areas that they could attack and they executed to near perfection. 13 of the 22 recruits came from Washington State or the area between the East Bay and Sacramento. Let's take a look at the composition of this class and who they best compare to.
Everyone is doing some sort of recap that references where we finished in the "rankings". I think the so-called rankings are garbage. Rivals doesn't update their player ratings on the West Coast more than once or maybe twice a year. The Scout network is incredibly responsive but they suffer from serious bias. For example, the Northwest recruiting coordinator is a relentless Husky fan and actually is part owner of the Husky fan site.
Rather than go by team rankings let's take a look at who our nearest competitor was and what sort of Cougar great this player profiles as. I've grouped the players into four categories:
1) The Drew Bledsoe Category (player could have gone anywhere he wanted)
2) The Gino Simone Category (player could have gone to most Pac-10 schools)
3) The Marcus Trufant Category (player had limited BCS opportunities but had limitless lower conference opportunities)
4) The Will Derting Category (kid was an hidden talent that WSU secured with little fanfare.)
Let's take a look!
The Drew Bledsoe Category (player could write his own ticket)
1) Aaron Dunn
Nearest competitor: Cal
Likely position in college: Tight End or Tackle
Player comp: Mark Bruener
2) C.J. Mizell
Nearest competitor: Florida State
Likely position in college: Outside Linebacker
Player comp: Mark Fields
3) Brandon Rankin
Nearest competitor: Alabama
Likely position in college: Defensive End
Player comp: Mkristo Bruce
The Gino Simone Category (player had plenty of Pac-10 options)
4) Connor Halliday
Nearest competitor: ASU
Likely position in college: QB
Player comp: Matt Kegel
5) Deone Bucannon
Nearest competitor: ASU
Likely position in college: Safety
Player comp: Eric Coleman
6) Marquess Wilson
Nearest competitor: ASU
Likely position in college: WR
Player comp: Mike Bush
7) Damante Horton
Nearest competitor: ASU
Likely position in college: Cornerback
Player comp: Karl Paymah
8) John Fullington
Nearest competitor: Oregon
Likely position in college: Tackle or Guard
Player comp: Calvin Armstrong
9) Brandon Golden
Nearest competitor: Colorado
Likely position in college: Cornerback
Player comp: Marcus Trufant
10) David Gonzales
Nearest competitor: Tennessee
Likely position in college: Tackle
Player comp: Scott Sanderson
11) Wade Jacobson
Nearest competitor: Arizona
Likely position in college: Tackle
Player comp: Bobby Byrd
The Marcus Trufant Category (Plenty of Mountain West options)
12) Toni Pole
Nearest competitor: Utah
Likely position in college: Defensive Tackle
Player comp: Tai Tupai
13) Rickey Galvin
Nearest competitor: San Diego State
Likely position in college: Running Back
Player comp: Jerome Harrison
14) Bobby Ratliff
Nearest competitor: San Diego State
Likely position in college: Wide Receiver
Player comp: Brandon Gibson
15) Matt Simmons
Nearest competitor: ASU
Likely position in college: Safety or Corner
Player comp: Eric Frampton
16) Eric Oertel
Nearest competitor: Wisconsin
Likely position in college: Running Back or Linebacker
Player comp: Steve Dildine
17) Tracy Clark
Nearest competitor: Fresno State
Likely position in college: Cornerback
Player comp: Jason David
18: Robert Jiles:
Nearest competitor: Fresno State
Likely position in college: Wide Receiver
Player comp: Scott Lunde
19: Kristoff Williams
Nearest competitor: Fresno State
Likely position in college: Wide Receiver
Player comp: Devard Darling
The Will Derting Category (Hidden gems)
20: Devontae Butler-Booker
Nearest competitor: Math class
Likely position in college: Running Back
Player comp: Jonathan Smith
21: Tyrone Duckett
Nearest competitor: Fresno State
Likely position in college: Safety
Player comp: Hamza Abdullah
22: Blair Bomber
Nearest competitor: Air Force
Likely position in college: Wide Receiver
Player comp: Sammy Moore
23: Jake Rodgers
Nearest competitor:
Likely position in college: Tackle
Player comp: Ropati Pitoitua
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Seeing Halliday comped to Kegel seemed off to me at first, but the more I think about it I think its realistic. I hope Connor has more upside than Kegel ever had an opportunity to develop, but when you look at it objectively Kegel was actually pretty damn solid and underrated.
Seems like most of the other player comps already account for upside development-- if not, and we ended up with all those guys in the same class, we'd be set for another run of three 10 win seasons.
I might have undersold Halliday with the Kegel comparison since I've pretty much taken the highest upside possible for all other players. But I feel like Kegel could have been tremendous if he had more than one year of playing time. Much better than he is perceived. Plus, I thought it was interesting how there is kind of symmetry with the Gesser and Tuel situations. Halliday would likely get two years of starting if Tuel works out like we hope.
The other part is that some of these guys were fallback options for ASU. So, it's not like it was a true head-to-head match-up like we had for Scott Crichton with Oregon State or something like that. That's the case for a few of them. For a couple of others we flat beat them straight-up with our pitch.
Take those comps with a grain of salt. That's best case scenario and would be like banking on winning a bet every time if you're odds were 10% In other words, if one of those guys maxes out his comp then we should probably consider that successful. We can always dream though, right?