Awesome Recruiting of the 21st Century: WSU's QB Conundrum

[The Ancient Enemy]

Maybe Paul Wulff didn't realize what he was getting himself into when he accepted the head-coaching job at Washington State. Maybe Wulff fell into a time-warp and thought Bledsoe was still on the roster, or even Ryan Leaf. Maybe, up there in the woods and mountains of Washington state, Paul Wulff is a modern-day Rip van Winkle.

Offense starts with quarterbacking. Debate it of you will, but the consensus falls back to the man behind center being the most important part of your offense. And with offense being 50% of the game, it is pretty safe to say that you need a capable QB to not only win games, but to manage games effectively. And as recruiting gets more and more important and media-crazy, it is getting harder and harder for teams under-the-weather to get players in place to make a run at a conference championship.

One of those programs who has been recently under-the-weather has been Washington State. Wulff has his work cut out for him, because the cupboard is pretty bare behind center. Today, ESPN reported that Wulff and Washington State have released "top quarterback prospect" Calvin Schmidtke from his scholarship, citing recent off-the-field turmoil. Teenage Schmidtke is having charges filed against him for a number of really intelligent crimes: DUI, reckless driving, marijuana possession, and 'minor in possession of alcohol and public disturbance'.

So with a cupboard that is already lacking, Wulff loses one of them to criminal charges. But for a top-rated prospect, Schmidtke only came into Wazzou as a 2-star quarterback. He had offers from a ton of top-rated programs, like Eastern Washington and Idaho State. To his credit, though, he did throw 37 TD passes as a Senior.

There are now 5 QB's on the Washington State roster. Gary Rogers, Kevin Lopina, Cole Morgan, Marshall Lobbestael, and JT Levenseller. These kids were not exactly in high demand coming out of high school. The starter, Rogers, had 1 offer, from Washington State. Lopina? Washington State. Morgan? Washington State. Lobbestael? Washington State. Levenseller? Washington State and Eastern Washington.

There might not be a more predictable conference than the Pac-10, in terms of how those teams will finish, from top to bottom. With that being said, and movement difficult, Paul Wulff certainly has his work cut out for him. And doesn't look like his predecessor is making the new guy's job any easier.