I’ll be honest, as a die hard member of the Cougar faithful and a football fanatic, last season was a tough one. We were roughly four plays away from winning six games and making our second straight bowl game. Unfortunately for our boys on the field and as we all remember all to well, it didn’t go our way and we limped to the end of the season and a 3-9 record.

But all is not lost, my friends! The beauty of college football is such that next season means new coaches, new story lines and most importantly, new players. National Signing Day was last week and the cougars signed a bevy of new young talent that will look to make an early impact on the field and in the locker room for years to come. 

For those of you who follow recruiting like I do, you know just how good this class can be and how much help they should be able to provide in their first year on campus. Mike Leach is already talking about how good these kids can be and how they can contribute. While it may be his job to do a little hype work to bring in the booster money and get the fans ready for next season, we all also know Coach Leach is a no punch pulled, straight talker. He has been absolutely gushing about these guys ever since the faxes started rolling in. He has repeatedly said this is the best recruiting class in his four years in Pullman, and I for one have to agree with him.

There is a running joke I've heard that Mike Leach does not care about what any one thinks of him (see Texas Tech), and he cares about defense even less. With the removal of Breske and the arrival of the new Defensive Coordinator Alex Grinch, there has been a new interest in the Cougar defense. This is reflected in the recruits who are projected to play on defense, especially in the much depleted and maligned secondary. 

This offseason, the coaching staff made the secondary a huge priority and signed six Defensive Backs, all rated as consensus three star players who should look to make an immediate impact on a secondary that frankly lost us more than one game. They would have looked more comfortable in the Big Sky, not the Pac 12 where they were clearly outmatched game in and game out. The fresh faces coming in will look to shore up the secondary and improve on our ranking of 127 of 128 schools in passing defense and gave up 33 touchdowns to 3 collected picks. 

The defense faces a tall order to improve on that number by any major margin. This is where Grinch comes in and should help that number as he spent his last few years coaching at the University of Missouri, which has been a dominant defensive team in the SEC and has had a secondary that is predicated on having rangy playmakers on the back end. The defense looks to be in much better shape heading into next year then they were a year ago at this time when there were massive and well justified concerns about how the secondary would hold up.

On the offensive side of the ball, things are much better. Last season, this was an offense that was dominant, throwing and ran it just well enough not to be completely awful. Thanks to Connor Halliday and arguably the deepest receiving core in the PAC 12, the Cougars threw the ball all over everybody, breaking records and scoring points in spades. Next year with the new recruits and some old fan-favorites, it looks to be more of the same. 

Luke Falk looks to be the clear favorite at Quarterback, with new recruit Tyler Hilinski looking to challenge him when he walks on campus. The receiving core that is already as deep as any in the country looks to get even deeper. Having signed three receivers with starting potential means that just in case you were worried, there were not going to be enough guys catching passes from Falk this year. However rest easy, he is going to have trouble finding a favorite target with the number of different people he will be able to throw it at. 

On the offensive line, most of our recruits are looking to red shirt, as our line was so young last year to begin with, don’t expect to see to many fresh face or new names there, that line looks pretty much set in place. This continuity should help develop the stagnant running game. Washington State did pick up one new back, but with Jamaal Morrow and Gerard Wicks splitting the starting role and both looking to only expand their role running the ball, don’t expect to see much of this new running back, and don’t be surprised if he gets redshirted in preparation for next year.

One final note I will make is that on special teams this last season, there is one play that made them the scapegoat of the year and describes the trouble of the year in one simple play. You all remember exactly what I’m taking about, last second easy as pie chip shot against Cal that should have put the game away and given the Cougars a hard fought win that might have given us momentum heading down the stretch. The good news is the Cougars appear to have found the answer in Matt Ambaro, a kicker out of California who should fix our special teams issues and prevent another loss like the disappointment of last year.

All in all, this was a good year for Cougar Football in terms of recruiting and should hopefully lead to the success we all dream of on the field. It looks like its gonna be a good year, and as always, GO COUGS.