Washington State In Running for Top Flight TE Josh McNeil, Along With 4 Traditional Powerhouses

Washington State could pull one of the most unlikely recruits in recent memory if it can reel in Josh McNeil, who has big names in his top 5. They consist of Alabama, Miami, Georgia, Florida and yes, our Cougs. CougCenter has written a nice article about it so view that here, but apparently WSU’s Outside Receivers Coach Dennis Simmons had a beat on the 4 star prospect and had successfully recruited him to East Carolina. In the grand scheme of things, ECU is as likely a candidate as Washington State is, especially with Leach at the helm here. But I also know that the in state angle played large there, because McNeil is from North Carolina.

Here’s what McNeil had to say about the situation, via Bud Elliot:

"While McNeil cited the opportunity to play right away and NFL development at the former four schools, the connection with Washington State is based on a personal relationship.“I was an East Carolina commitment for a while, but my recruiter coach left for Washington State. I want to give them a shot,” he said."

That’s pretty high praise for coach Simmons. I think McNeil will actually be pleasantly and totally surprised if he does get to visit the WSU campus, which he plans on doing before he makes his decision. He has already visited ‘Bama and UGA and plans on visiting Florida and Miami later this month. McNeil plans on making a decision by early next month so hopefully he comes in the first week of August or so when the facilities are all but complete and gets a good look at what is a tremendous upgrade.

With a coach like Mike Leach, there’s a bit of a drawback to the NFL development angle to a pure all around TE, which Josh has cited and I’m sure has taken into heavy consideration. On the other hand, I’m going to take a different approach and say that there are 3 really important reasons why McNeil could easily choose the Cougs in this race once he sees campus. First, the receiver portion of his development will be more than met. McNeil is 6’5, 226 and his best attributes are his hands, so he’s definitely a candidate for redzone targets and a lot of passes over the middle of the field, where the accurate quarterbacks we have compiled in Halliday, Bruggman and Apodaca would easily and frequently utilize him.

Secondly, if you consider that the NFL is becoming more of a passing league by the year, that could swing his decision in favor of WSU and Leach’s system. Remember there’s no more 1 and done in college football so it’s not like he gets one year to showcase his talents and then try and move on. And thirdly the Pac-12 is as big as any other conference outside of the SEC right now, while also being accessible all over the country with the Pac-12 Network on tap and the new-found ESPN relationship. This of course means full exposure for any Pac-12 player, which is a huge draw!

This could become a very interesting development in the next couple of weeks. If Simmons and Leach can convince him that the program is going to become big-time in the next 3 years, and he likes what he sees on campus (which I expect that he will), we could get a really highly sought after recruit. In my opinion that would once again draw some bigger fish in the long run. But a lot of things have to happen here when you’re dealing with the big names that we are, so it’s a wait and hope situation. In the end I don’t think he’ll be here, but I can see it happening if the cards shuffle out right. Either way, it says something that WSU is in the running for this guy.

GO COUGS!