Happy Thursday Coug fans!!!
It’s been awhile since my last post. This is for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I don’t care much to cover basketball. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE college basketball. Unlike college football, hoops has it figured out in terms of how to do a post-season. Nobody questions the legitimacy of the system, because each team gets a chance at the title no matter what. It allows teams like Butler and VCU a shot at the title, which obviously they deserve.
As much as I love watching college basketball, I don’t write about it. I know the sport pretty well, but for some reason I feel like I’m talking out my you-know-what anytime I write about it. So I will stick to my guns and leave that up to the other guys who actually know what they’re talking about. This is probably for the best, because I don’t have much good things to say about our Cougar Hoops team this year. I’m proud of them for pulling it together and making a run to New York, but the inconsistency displayed on the way was downright maddening. Not to mention the black eyes (or red eyes, if you will) left on our program from the off the court BS.
Now that the Madison Square Massacre is behind us, we can move on to pigskin. Spring football is in full gear and we have plenty to talk about. But today I want to bring up something that got lost in the shuffle on Tuesday…. We welcomed in a new member of the Cougar Family!!!!
Dalen Jones, a talented WR/CB prospect from northern California gave his pledge to Paul Wulff and became the first commit of the 2012 class. At 6’0” and 180 lbs, Jones is a versatile athlete that could line up on either side of the ball. As a Junior last year for Woodland High School, he caught 39 passes for 515 yards, rushed 88 times for 430 yards, and had 15 total touchdowns (4 receiving, 8 rushing, 3 passing). On defense he logged 56 tackles and 4 interceptions.
While his only other offers were from Sacramento State and Northern Arizona, he was seeing interest from many other Pac-12 schools and will likely be a 3-star prospect when Scout puts out their initial rankings. Given our young depth at wide receiver, one would guess that corner would be the best fit for him on our roster but as I mentioned, he could play either way.
Last season, we had an unprecedented 11 commits before the season even started. Don’t expect that to be the case this season for two reasons. One is that we have filled our roster considerably since Paul Wulff took over as the head man. We now have depth at a variety of positions and are signing players to continue to build that depth rather than plug holes, as has been the case over the past few classes. The other reason is that Paul Wulff’s butt is awfully toasty. If you think his seat was hot last year, then it is scorching right now. It will be awfully tough to pull in a bunch of commits when you’re job security is as low as his.
However, getting the commitment of a quality prospect like Jones just shows me how great of recruiters Paul Wulff and his staff really are. Remember in 2007 when Coach Doba was on the hot seat? He didn’t pull in a commit until November (Jared Karstetter).
That’s all for now Cougs! The Spring game is just two short weeks away! Can’t wait to see this team up close. All of us from Wsufootballblog.com are going and we would love to meet you all so come hang out with us! I leave you with two highlight video’s for Jones!
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