In the world of college football recruiting, a prospect’s final decision often comes down to relationships, facilities and winning. Of these three things, WSU has the first two.

Head Coach Mike Leach brought an offensive, unique and sometimes controversial pedigree to Pullman on November 30, 2011. Since then the program has grown steadily but not at the pace that some expected when he was tabbed to replace Paul Wulff. Now, entering his fourth season as the man in charge, the winds whipping through the Palouse are beginning to change.

Prompted by the hiring of new defensive coordinator and secondary coach Alex Grinch, outside linebackers coach Roy Manning and the promotion of Graham Harrell to outside receivers coach, WSU has already seen an increase in recruiting for their 2016 class.

Despite the coaching change, WSU has a fairly strong 2015 recruiting class and has shown the rest of the Pac-12 that highly ranked high school and junior college recruits do want to play for Leach. On February 2, the Cougars had the 27th best recruiting class in the nation, according to Scout.com. The loss of Kyahva Tezino, Taeon Mason and Jonah Moi, along with a couple other verbal commits, pushed the class down to 34th overall.

While WSU did not finish as strong as it could have, it laid the foundation for the new staff to show it can recruit with the best in the nation. Tim Settle, a four-star defensive tackle from Stonewall Jackson HS (Va.), took an official visit to WSU on December 5, but signed with Virginia Tech. Adam McLean, a four-star defensive end out of Quince Orchard (Md.) took his official visit to Pullman on November 29, but signed with Maryland.

Quite possibly the biggest recruit Washington State had a chance at signing was Marcus Lewis, a four-star cornerback out of Gonzaga College HS (Md.), who signed with Florida State.

Mentioning Florida State, the reigning national champion at the time, and Washington State in the same breath shows just how close the Cougars are to returning to their days in Pasadena and winning Rose Bowls. But the separation from the five to six win plateau the Cougars stand on now, and biting down on the stem of a velvet rose with confetti pouring down are those elite recruits.

Elite recruits don’t sign without some showing that the program is still headed in an upward ascension. They have already come and some, like junior college safety Shalom Luani, who was rated as the No.19 JUCO prospect in the 2015 class, have decided to sign. But it takes that special, and honestly rare elite recruit out of high school to start the domino effect of four-star and potentially five-star recruits to Pullman.

WSU has the facilities. The coaches have the pedigree at both the collegiate and, in some instances, NFL level. The opportunity of playing in a Power-5 conference, something that previously was not a major card in recruiting, is one that the University will always hold. Feeling like a family does not draw everyone, but WSU possesses a close-knit collegiate community for those who want it.

Everything is available for the Cougars to recruit at a high level on a yearly basis, and the recruits will start to come when the losses become a thing of the past.