Washington State football: Grading Nick Rolovich’s first National Signing Day
In-State Fail
On big key in building a recruiting base is to start at home. While the state of Washington doesn’t produce the number of players Texas does, there are some great high school products. UW understands this. They got four of the top eight Washington prospects and are still in contention for number one ranked J.T. Tuimoloau from Eastside Catholic.
Of the 20 commitments, Wazzu has only two are from in-state. It gets a little worse. Those two recruits are ranked 14th and 21st by ESPN. This isn’t a knock on Edson and Kershaw. They may turn out to be outstanding college players. What they need is more local talent around them.
I covered Rutgers for two years, before and after they rehired Greg Schiano. When he came back to campus, one of Schiano’s first goals was to re-establish the New Jersey recruiting base. This was the first recruiting class since coming back, and he pulled in eight of the state’s top 22 recruits.
For Washington State to be successful, they must pull more in-state talent. Regional talent as well. No recruits in this class come from either Idaho or Oregon. Rolovich has to establish his base and work out from there. Why should an out of state recruit consider the Cougars if players within the state or region don’t want to play there?
Under the current conditions, it’s hard for a new head coach, especially one who came from thousands of miles away, to forge relationships with high school coaches. Hopefully, when coronavirus restrictions ease up, that will be near the top of Rolovich’s to-do list.
Overall Grade – C
In academic terms, a “C” grade is average. Exactly what the Cougs put together, an average recruiting class. There is no consensus four-star prospect out of the 20 commits. When compared against the rest of the Pac-12 and FBS as a whole, Washington State’s 2021 class is toward the mid-pack. That’s where they’ve been recently.
It’s important to note this is far from a final grade. We won’t know that for another four years.
Until the Washington State Cougars get better talent, they can’t expect to compete with the best in the Pac-12.