The Cougs lost their top-ranked recruit in the 2024 recruiting class Monday morning, as four-star athlete Trae Davis announced his de-commitment.

The 6 foot, 170-pound recruit from Troup High School in Troup, Texas announced his decision at 11:30 a.m. on X.

“Thank you Washington State for everything and thank y’all coaches for believing in me but I will be de-committing. I wish the best of luck to the staff and the team. Still love coming from the Etx,” Davis said.

Davis said the decision came after a talk with his family. The loss leaves WSU with 18 listed commitments in the 2024 class according to 247sports.com. Davis has been committed to the Cougs since September 27. 

According to 247, Davis was offered by Kansas State October 6 and visited KSU November 10. He is listed as warm (another term for interested) towards KSU on the website.

The loss drops the Cougs class to No. 59 nationwide, with all 18 recruits remaining listed as three stars. Wazzu has not received a commitment from a four-star recruit since 2020, only securing 17 all-time.

It is a tough blow for the Cougars, who have been hit hard since the introduction of NIL and the opening of the transfer portal in recent years. It also comes a week after head coach Jake Dickert said that WSU is well behind in the NIL sweepstakes.

“In today’s world, you can no longer say that passion and spirit are gonna get you by anymore. It’s completely real that the NIL matters. And the facts are, Washington State, we’re way behind. Not even competitive in some aspects of the NIL. Recruiting, these kids tell you what they’re getting,” Dickert said. “In three weeks, it’s gonna be open target season on our players, and it’s already started.”

While open season on rostered players officially begins in a couple of weeks, the pursuit from schools on current WSU commits has already begun with Davis and will continue with all the other current commits until the early signing period December 20-22.