Cougar Corner | WSU Winning The Recruiting War: Part 2

When Coach Paul Wulff took over the head coaching job at Washington State he was charged with the task of rebuilding a football program that was floundering.

Coach Wulff's years of success at Eastern Washington were built on fundamentals.

Simple stuff. Execute the fundamentals better than the opponent and you will be successful.

A key component to rebuilding the Cougar football program is to recruit and fill a roster with student/athletes who have Pac-10 caliber talent.

The first part of this series covered fundamental logistics of how Coach Rich Rasmussen, recruiting coordinator and tight end coach, is leading the way for Washington State.

Coach Rasmussen is confident on what WSU must do to win the recruiting war.

For example, California is home to some of the best high school football players in the nation. Though there is plenty of competition to recruit the top players from the Golden State the staff at WSU concedes nothing to Pac-10 rivals. Coach Rasmussen spells out why WSU is great choice in simple, distinctive terms:

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"(We) sell the message that, hey, we're an alternative to the California schools. Here's an opportunity to get out of the city to get yourself on to a more traditional college campus and really part of something different." - Coach Rasmussen

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Add to the equation why Pullman is a great place to attend college the chance to be a part of a team on the rise makes the choice of playing Pac-10 football at Washington State something special.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Former WSU basketball coaches Dick Bennett and Tony Bennett returned Cougar basketball to a very competitive level by offering top prospects the very same opportunity.

Slightly shifting gears, Coach Rasmussen will point out that even college football coaches have homework.

Part of the homework process includes reviewing endless hours of video on high school prospects. With the technology of today, almost all top prospects edit their own highlight video to gain interest from top schools. Watching highlight video shows young players at their best.

Digital video is a common tool for high school football programs. During the fall season, high school coaches have their hands full reviewing video and preparing their team for Friday night. It's unusual if they have time to dub off video requested by college coaches keen to learn more about one or two of their players. 

Game films are important to Coach Rasmussen because they tell a much more complete story on a player. It's just as important to see players missing a play in a game as it is to watch them make good plays worthy of a highlight reel.

This past month when WSU coaches were out on the recruiting trails, high school coaches time to burn some game video on to disks.

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"Those initial highlight videos are the first step for us. Within that 2 or 3 minute highlight video you can get an idea of whether someone can play Pac-10 level or not. And if you believe they can, then it goes back to gathering some high school game film and watching a couple of games... to further evaluate them." - Coach Rasmussen

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When pouring over highlight video and game films, what sort of student/athlete gets the attention of Coach Wulff?

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"We've had a tradition as long as I've been with Coach Wulff of recruiting as big and athletic a guy as possible because they mature. Our expectation is that after they've been on campus for two or three years, they're going to be bigger and stronger than the day they walked on campus."

For example, Michael Roos, who played for us at Eastern Washington is a perfect example of that. He's a young man who was actually playing some high school receiver and a little bit of tight end as a senior. We recruited him as a tight end and by the time he arrived on campus he was 6'6" and 255 pounds. We could see that he wasn't going anywhere but up. We redshirted him his first year and by the beginning of his redshirt freshman year he was up to 275 pounds and so we moved him to the defensive line just to get him some experience with being physical... using his hands. We moved him to offensive tackle. The first start of his career at left tackle was against Arizona State and Terrell Suggs...he didn't give up a sack the entire night. Those are the types of guys we're going to look for." - Coach Rasmussen

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When coaches talk about the "upside" of student/athletes, they are referring to potential in terms of maturity and physical growth. Coaching can go a long toward maximizing the maturing of a player but physical size is out of their control.

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"...the type of guys we're going to look for... are big and athletic now and that have a frame we can can add size and weight to. You can't teach athleticism. Either someone has it or they don't. We'd rather recruit the bigger athletic kids that are going to get bigger compared to that 6'2", 6'3" 315 pound guy that you may have to trim some weight off." - Coach Rasmussen

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By defining prospects in terms of potential, the need to travel extensively throughout the nation becomes a luxury WSU can do without. There are a host of student/athletes in the Northwest with a tremendous upside.  It may vary from year to year as to whether there is an abundance of skilled players or guys playing the line of scrimmage. But talent and potential can be found in close proximity to Pullman.

The patience necessary to develop a student/athlete into a Pac-10 level football player can be rewarded not just in terms of wins and losses but also in seeing young men mature. NCAA rules allowing for a redshirt season promote developing a football program with this very thought in mind.

In the next part of this series, we'll hear more from Coach Rasmussen on the little things going into recruiting that are leading Washington State Cougar football to success on the gridiron.

Originally published on Examiner.com