Washington State Football: Top 5 remaining 2019 National Signing Day targets

Currently holding one of the Pac-12’s lowest-ranked classes, Washington State football hopes for a strong finish on National Signing Day to move up.

Mike Leach has never set the recruiting trail ablaze by reeling in blue-chipper after blue-chipper, instead relying on finding the diamonds in the rough and junior-college transfers to fill out his classes year after year.

Top talent will never flock to Pullman so Leach must constantly keep his ear to the ground in hopes of finding guys who are passed over by big programs for a myriad of reasons but possess developmental traits that could turn them into quality starters at the power-five level.

With just one day remaining before National Signing Day, Washington State’s class sits at No. 10 in the Pac-12 and No. 59 overall according to the 247 composite rankings. Their four year recruiting average coming into this season is 47th, meaning this is a below-average class so far even with the meager standards of the Cougar faithful.

There are some potential useful contributors among this group, however, particularly with a quartet of early enrollee JUCO transfers in the secondary. Arizona Western safety Bryce Beekman, College of San Francisco corner Derrick Langford, Iowa Western corner Daniel Isom, and El Camino corner Shahman Moore will all fight for immediate playing time in a secondary that must replace its top three cornerbacks from this past season.

The Cougars signed 18 players during the early signing period, and currently hold two commitments from players who chose to wait until February to sign. Both of those players are expected to sign with Washington State on Wednesday.

Coming off the program’s first ever 11-win season, Leach is hoping to retool and surprise once more with many pundits expecting a step-back for his team in 2019.

Can Leach engineer a big finish to this recruiting cycle, or will he swing and miss on his top targets and see Wazzu fall further down the pecking order of the Pac-12’s classes?

Let’s take a look at Washington State’s top five remaining recruiting targets: