Washington State Football: 5 takeaways from 2017 regular season

4. Wazzou needs its best recruiting class yet in 2018

Since Mike Leach arrived at Washington State, the Cougars’ recruiting classes have improved in almost every year. If the Cougars can finish 2018 at their current ranking (per 247Sports), this year would be the highest they’ve finished ranked since he arrived in Pullman.

The Cougs are ranked 37th per 247 and driven by Cammon Cooper, a four-star pro-style quarterback from Utah. Cooper leads the pack but it’s a well-rounded class. The Washington State class of 2018, if it stands as is, is ranked sixth in the Pac-12 with the focus on wide receivers and offensive tackles to go around Cooper. There’s only one four-star and one two-star, with the other twenty prospects sitting at three-stars.

Leach needs that influx of talent to replace talented seniors and keep the hype machine rolling in Pullman. He blurted out that the stadium was “like Woodstock” after the upset win over USC and it seems like the students have gotten behind their quirky head football coach.

Hopefully Leach can continue to improve his recruiting classes, even while flirting with jobs in Lincoln and Knoxville, and keep the Washington State Cougars improving annually. When he arrived, Leach complained about the stark drop off in talent from when he left Texas Tech to his arrival in Pullman. Well, after classes ranked 44th, 56th and 42nd, that’s a nice step up from the 68th ranking the season before he arrived.