Leach Effect Continues to Skyrocket With Pelluer and Cracraft Commits: Cracraft Video

And the list grows on:

Yesterday Skyline LB Peyton Pelluer verbally committed to Washington State, continuing what has been a really good week for the Cougs’ recruiting class of 2013. This one is not particularly surprising because Peyton’s father Scott played linebacker here at Wazzu and was drafted in 1981’s 4th round in the NFL Draft. Peyton’s brother Tyler played at Montana and his other brother Cooper plays across the state at UW. He is not highly rated, but as our Mark Allen pointed out in his assessment, he makes plays sideline to sideline and 176 tackles in a high school season is absolutely stellar! You gotta love that he is a Legacy player for WSU and he is considered one of the best Lb’s in the state. I think a nice sign is that Wyoming, ASU and Colorado had offered him already. Mark added a Pelluer highlight tape in his post so make sure to check that out.

WR River Cracraft also put in his verbal to the Cougs yesterday, shortly after Pelluer. Cracraft isn’t particularly highly rated either, but we all know Leach knows what to look for in a receiver so I’m beyond confident that the kid can play right there. When I look at his tape, I then get really excited about the kid. He is pretty matured for a young receiver, at 6’1 and already at the 205 lb mark. He has really good field awareness, catches the ball with his hands and is a decent route runner for his age. I would like to see a lower base from him while he runs routes over the middle for two reasons. First is because it’s easier to idle down to find a hole and second college linebackers and safeties love to hit up and down targets, but he certainly makes some impressive catches laying out and he’s totally fearless. He caught 46 balls and 6 touchdowns in just 9 games his junior season, while being critically injured multiple times during the year. If you need more proof, in addition to the 7-on-7 highlight tape of River  that Mark provided in his Cracraft post, everything you need to know about the young man are in his high school junior season highlight tape:

Well, it only took one. I knew once Bruggman committed that the floodgates on offense were about to open, and WSU still has some very intriguing prospects on the table. The Cougs are up to 2 wideouts for the class so there’s realistically only two receiver spots open in my estimation, if there is a quality pair available. I think Leach and staff can afford to be a little picky now in the receivers they want for the same reason they wanted only one Qb, because of the young depth already at the position. With the departures this offseason we could use some solid overall defensive help in the front 7 now, especially at linebacker. One thing is certain, we’re looking really good at this point in the process. Hopefully we can nail down all of these guys with a good season showing.

GO COUGS!