WSU Football Recruiting: Alabama CB Patrick Porter Gives Early Bid to Mike Leach

The Washington State Cougars took another step in the rebuilding of their defensive backfield early Friday morning as Patrick Porter told everybody that he’ll be playing his college football in Pullman. Hopefully for the Cougars, it sticks in the final weeks.

Porter has been quite verbal about his process and seemed to have a ‘need to make sure while I’m on my visit’ attitude about the commitment earlier this week, even before he made it. It led many fans on all sides to the question “why commit before the visits then?” The answer is still not in, but it was our prediction that the first team he would visit would garner his commitment today, so that he could make sure it felt like home. Washington State is that first visit next weekend.

Not that it’s a bad thing at all for the Cougars at all. Friday, the Cottondale (Tuscaloosa), AL native sounded much more sure of things, citing a good education and the ability to come in and compete as a freshman as key points in his decision. The Cougs lose three corners and two safeties to graduation and will have a senior at each position in 2014.

The more I’ve looked around at his recruitment the past few days, the more excited I’m getting! Here’s why.

Porter is a 6’0, 175 pound prospect. He is a big get and will compete for the starting job early, you can be sure. While he is only a 2-star prospect in Scout’s database (which is one we normally base our opinions off of), Porter is a legitimate 3-star prospect at both ESPN and Rivals. He holds offers from a huge list of schools, suggesting those higher rankings are probably closer to the actual level of this kid and also suggesting Wazzu may have just poached themselves a gem. Expect Scout to update his ranking in the very near future, although probably not a huge jump, at least a little in an upward trend.

The offers’ list includes an impressive bunch; Kansas State, Toledo, Tulane, Kansas State, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Tennessee, Miss. St., Ole Miss, North Carolina and a few smaller schools. He has also received legitimate interest at Miami (FL) and Minnesota, along with varied interest from Alabama, Florida and Georgia among others. Bolded are schools he is planning on visiting in the weeks after his Pullman trip on the 17th.

Watching some highlights, you’ll immediately see that Porter is an ultra-aggressive player who loves to come up and hit people. In that way he reminds you a little bit of former Coug Jason David, although David was more undersized. Still the aggressiveness from the corner position to want to really lay some wood on someone is something that’s been missing for a long time. Porter also seems pretty good down the field, though the cameras don’t do a tremendous job of keeping focus. Lastly, Porter is a solid athlete, playing quarterback and being able to make plays with his feet quite often.

Like I said, the more I look at this kid, the more excited I’m getting. If you’re looking for the highlights, they can be found HERE.