An Excerpt From Cougar Sports Weekly, Signing Day Edition

Here’s an excerpt from Thursday’s newsletter, in which I identify five guys from this class whose names you’ll want to remember both this fall and down the line. This is the first guy, who is somewhat obvious, but the quintet also includes a dark horse guy who might surprise you:

Gabe Marks, WR (5-foot-11, 175 pounds)
Cougar fans like to think WSU is already pretty deep and talented at receiver, but they’re just not as deep and talented as most people think, never mind the fact that Leach will play a ton of receivers and there aren’t enough currently on the roster. Beyond that, he is looking for guys with very specific abilities to play in his offense, and the fact that he signed four guys who profile as inside receivers in his system speaks volumes about whether he thinks there already are guys on the roster who can do what he wants in there.

Marks is the most heralded of the four wide receiver recruits Mike Leach brought in, rated four stars by both Scout and Rivals. He was WSU’s only recruit in the Rivals 100, rated No. 87 overall by the service, and decommitted from SMU to join WSU. Marks has speed to burn, as evidenced from the way he runs away from defenders in a Southern California league that’s got plenty of speedy defenders. He moves in and out of cuts without losing any speed, an essential skill for any Leach inside receiver, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Marks is earning snaps from day one. If not — after all, Leach demands a high level of execution on offense, and it will be tough to develop that in fall camp — he still projects as a guy who will eventually excel in this Air Raid offense.