Go 2 Guy: Cougars toast their long shots at casino

AIRWAY HEIGHTS -- This whole recruiting thing has truly gotten crazy. On national letter of intent day, the Huskies offered pay-per-view online -- $6.95 gave you access to analysis from Bob Rondeau and Sonny Sixkiller on the new Dawgs.

Personally, for $6.95, I'd take a six-pack over a Sixkiller -- and did; the Coors Lights are chilling in the motel-room fridge -- but this was no doubt a popular promotion for U-Dub fans eager to fawn all over their highly ranked teenagers.

I wonder if booster boy Ed Hansen paid $6.95 to watch his future heroes or if he's saving up to put a $100,000 bounty on someone else, like Lorenzo Romar if his team doesn't start making free throws. I jest, kind of. With deranged and deep-pocketed Huskies, one never knows anymore, especially with Todd Turner's head last seen rolling out of town.

The Dawgs continued this over-the-top tribute to recruiting with a "Signing Day Celebration" Wednesday night at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. For $35 you, too, could have been there.

I've got to bust some Cougs chops as well -- they've also been caught up in the recruiting frenzy, holding their "Signing Day Celebration" at the Northern Quest Casino near the Spokane airport.

I'm trying to determine if the Cougs are sending the right message by associating with a gambling establishment. I'm also pondering which horse I should take in the eighth at the Meadowlands and if you've hit bottom when you bet on harness racing.

(The horse I took, Ambro Ben, happened to finish next to last.)

Howie Mandel was at the Northern Quest last week, and Bill Cosby will be here Sunday. On Wednesday, WSU coach Paul Wulff was the headliner, showing off his recruiting class to about 200 Cougs who he pulled away from dealers and bartenders.

Wulff recruited 24 players. They all looked great on video. But let's be honest -- some will pan out, some will wash out and some will flunk out.

The new coach received a standing ovation, and he further endeared himself to the crowd when he said, "We're recruiting people who want to live in Pullman, Washington, and are dying to be Cougars."

Earlier in the day in a more understated setting on campus, Wulff spoke glowingly of his incoming players at a news conference and said his staff did a remarkable job, all things considered.

When Wulff was hired to replace Bill Doba on Dec. 11, the Cougars had three verbal commitments. One of his first stops was the Sammamish Plateau, where he talked to Eastlake wide receiver Cory Mackay, who rescinded his verbal to Washington and committed to the Cougs.

Mackay, a 6-foot-4, 216-pounder who might be a tight end, said he initially committed to the Huskies because "they were my only Pac-10 offer, and they were filling up on commits. I jumped on board too quick."

I asked a draft expert for the jewel of WSU's class. As possibilities, he mentioned Bernard Wolfgramm, a JC defensive lineman from San Mateo, Calif., with a shock of hair flying from the back of his helmet; and Kevin Norrell, a receiver from Long Beach Poly who could be the next Brandon Gibson.

The expert also said nice things about Lakes quarterback Calvin Schmidtke, who has great stats but isn't even 6 feet, drawing favorable comparisons to Jason Gesser, though I'd worry about him being the next Chad Davis.

But the biggest jewel? Andrei Lintz, a tight end from Meridian High and a converted punter who moved from Russia to Bellingham when he was 6. Lintz has played football for only four years.

This is the jewel -- a raw former punter from a 1A school? But Wulff raved about Lintz, too, saying "he has a chance to be one of the better players in the Pac-10."

ASU charged in late on Lintz, and somehow Wulff prevented an additional slither to the desert.