In today’s college football climate, recruiting the highest rated athletes is becoming almost as vital as the games you win. This is especially true with the Mike Leach regime at Washington State.

When Leach was head coach at Texas Tech he was successful, finishing with an 84-43 overall record. Not only was the record that Leach’s teams posted impressive, but the players that went through the program were likely to have success in the NFL as well. Wes Welker, Michael Crabtree and Danny Amendola all went through Leach’s program at Tech and are household names in the NFL.

However, a head coach cannot do it all, and that is where assistant coaches come into play. WSU Athletic Director Bill Moos was impressed enough with the direction the team is heading that the assistant coaches were given raises so they would not leave the Palouse for other coaching offers.

WSU Defensive Line Coach Joe Salave’a has brought in a defensive line that is big, fast and explosive. Salave’a helped with getting a verbal commitment from four-star Thomas Toki. Toki is ranked as the No.15 defensive linemen in the 2015 recruiting class, according to ESPN.com. Toki holds offers from most Pac-12 schools, and is seen as one of the best defensive players in the 2015 class on the West Coast.

Possibly the biggest recruit who will be going crimson in the fall is Austin Joyner, from Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Joyner is a four-star recruit and rated the top recruit in the state of Washington according to ESPN.com. Joyner was a UW commit, until he flipped and gave a verbal commitment to WSU to play defensive back.

When one of the top athletes in the nation, let alone your own state, picks your school over your in-state rival, you know you are doing something right. It is key that Washington State wins the in-state recruiting battle with the University of Washington. With Joyner in the fold, WSU is well on their way to winning that battle in 2015.

Of course, Washington State does not only compete with UW to get the top recruits in the nation. The recruiting that takes place in Southern California is fierce competition. WSU has to compete with other Pac-12 schools, and the rest of the nation’s universities as well, to nab the California recruits.

That is why the Washington State football program went under renovation starting in 2012. Moos has made it his mission to turn the program around from a bottom dweller in the Pac-12. The “Cougar Football Project” was born in 2012 when the press box in Martin Stadium was renovated to catch up with the rest of college football, and Northside residence hall was made to house the athletes. Then the construction crew took to creating a world-class football operations building that has been getting rave reviews by recruits across the nation.

These facility upgrades help WSU stay on par with other universities in the Pac-12, which correlates to higher rated recruits donning crimson. Recruits that reside in California are noticing WSU. Four-star recruits Darrien Molton and Tyler Hilinski are future Cougs from California who have been impressed with the direction of the program, according to rivals.com.

No longer is Washington State taking a back seat in regards to recruiting with other Pac-12 schools.

As of right now, Mike Leach’s staff has four, four-star verbal commits and seven three-star commits in the 2015 class.

You can bet that WSU is high on more talented recruits’ lists, which could continue to turn this program around.

Big named recruits do not guarantee a Rose Bowl berth, but they do bring excitement back into a program that has struggled in the last decade. That puts smiles on the faces of Cougs everywhere.