That said, I can’t be the only one who has wondered, what on earth do they do with these guys? Knowing coach Wulff I think its safe to say they aren’t getting the Tennessee/Lane Kiffin lap dance treatment, or anything close. So what do you do in Pullman, in January, to impress 17-18 year old kids? Last weekend a large group of recruits came to WSU, and as I personally shepherded a couple of old alums around campus to see all the changes of the last few years, we kept running into these guys, giving us a little glimpse of what makes up a recruiting visit. Here’s what we saw…
It all started in the CUB where I took my weekend guests to see all the new changes including the re-located Bookie. We were near the hat rack, in the middle of our ritualistic mourning of the loss of that famous Bookie smell, when I noticed we were surrounded by football coaches escorting a bunch of kids who were rifling through the Coug gear. One kid in particular stood out immediately… future All American, Rose Bowl Champion and Heisman winning Cougar QB, Connor Halladay. First impression; boy, does he look young… and skinny, like freshman Robbie Cowgill skinny.
Lets hope Jeff Tuel stays healthy so we can keep the redshirt on this kid while he fills out the 6’5″ frame. Still, the kid is productive on the football field…..
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNzssDwl2pc&w=425&h=344]Some of the other kids were tough to recognize, but at least a couple stood out as looking well on their way to being physically ready for Pac-10 play. For a list of the recruits on campus last week, go HERE. I’ll let you speculate as to who were the kids with the tree-trunk necks.
Our next stop was Bohler gym where as young gym rats we spent much of our formative years trying to get into pick-up games. With the opening of the Student Rec Center, “the gyms” as we always called them, have been completely taken over by the various Coug varsity sports, save for the occasional faculty rec league game. One of my favorite details of the remodeled Bohler is how they added on the new strength and conditioning facility while retaining the original facade of old Bohler gym. Now indoors, the old facade forms a large portion of a grand lobby with glass cases full of sacred Cougar relics and such.
We were in this area when we saw the parade of recruits again, getting a tour of the training facilities. While we don’t have the resources of our Pac-10 brethren, it’s still an impressive and classy looking facility.
Next stop for us was the basketball game vs. Stanford, where we noticed a conspicuous patch of open seats right in the heart of the Zzu Cru. As I expected, not long before the starting lineups were announced the recruits were paraded from the tunnel, along the court and into these seats where they received a hearty standing O from the Zzu Cru. Hopefully the first of many, many times these guys will get rowdy applause from the WSU student body. They were treated to a pretty entertaining game including one of the greatest blocked shots in the history of basketball by Marcus Capers.
After the game we retreated to the comfy confines of Dupus Boomers to put a few more punches in our beer card and discuss the young Cougs, and their issues with closing out ball games. Beers drank, punch cards punched, we headed out the door near Martin Stadium and were greeted with about 180 decibels of ACDC’s Thunderstruck. The jumbo tron was on full blast showing highlights of the last season (…seriously). We made the requisite jokes about how putting together a 2009 Cougar Football highlight reel is the toughest job in show biz, yada yada yada. But it was actually a pretty good video, thanks mostly to Eric Block’s hit, some circus catches by Tony Thompson and Jared Karstetter, and, of course, ACDC.
On the opposite end of the stadium, there were the recruits, taking it all in and hopefully imagining the day when it will be their highlights on that jumbo tron. Right about now I realized just how much Phase III is going to enhance the stadium and its attractiveness to recruits. DONATE TODAY!
To wrap it up, the recruits were accompanied by coaches and players wherever we saw them. I think it’s important to note that the staff appears to be getting a huge assist in their recruiting efforts by the players they’ve signed the last two seasons. I think this is just another “intangible” of focusing on recruiting high-character kids. Character and talent don’t have to be mutually exclusive and with so many of their recruits, this staff seems to be off to a good start in finding the right balance. Hopefully everyone enjoyed their stay and we can count on seeing each of them in Crimson this fall.
Enjoy your day, and Go Cougs!
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