To those who believe 2020's recruits hold more promise for us than the 2019 crew, I say we can deal with that next year. For now, it's important to nail down recruits that will help us in the 2019 season. We need wide receivers, we can use a top running back, love to find another McMorris, how about an exceptional quarterback although pickings are slim at this time. You never have enough OL or DL. I think we've covered LB, but DB's like Hicks, Hawkins, Beck and Bynum are worth their weight in gold. Ashton Davis is a favorite of mine.

We lose a lot of top talent this year: Kunaszyk, McMorris, Funches, Ooms, Mekari, Laird, Palmer, Hudson, Wharton, Tartabull, Coutts, Uluave, Bennett, Becker, among others. This doesn't consider those who might opt for the League after their 3rd year like Weaver and Bynum. We need a whole bunch of people, some more than others. If we want to retain our current top defense we must fill those slots that graduation and leaving after third year take from us. Wilcox and staff have wisely attempted to fill those positions, but there is still more for them to do today. If we want those 2020 recruits who are so highly coveted, we have to prove in 2019 that our wins over the Huskies and the Trojans and almost WSU aren't anomalies, but examples of a team on the rise.

Bear8 said:

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To those who believe 2020's recruits hold more promise for us than the 2019 crew, I say we can deal with that next year. For now, it's important to nail down recruits that will help us in the 2019 season. We need wide receivers, we can use a top running back, love to find another McMorris, how about an exceptional quarterback although pickings are slim at this time. You never have enough OL or DL. I think we've covered LB, but DB's like Hicks, Hawkins, Beck and Bynum are worth their weight in gold. Ashton Davis is a favorite of mine.

We lose a lot of top talent this year: Kunaszyk, McMorris, Funches, Ooms, Mekari, Laird, Palmer, Hudson, Wharton, Tartabull, Coutts, Uluave, Bennett, Becker, among others. This doesn't consider those who might opt for the League after their 3rd year like Weaver and Bynum. We need a whole bunch of people, some more than others. If we want to retain our current top defense we must fill those slots that graduation and leaving after third year take from us. Wilcox and staff have wisely attempted to fill those positions, but there is still more for them to do today. If we want those 2020 recruits who are so highly coveted, we have to prove in 2019 that our wins over the Huskies and the Trojans and almost WSU aren't anomalies, but examples of a team on the rise.

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Cal needs to bring in a bunch of junior college players who can play at a P12 level immediately.

I don't think Weaver will go early. And I'm beginning to think Bynum won't either. Neither have the optimum size for the NFL. They aren't small per se. But a 235 lb ILB doesn't work in the NFL. And the demand for ILB/MLB is low enough that teams can be picky and opt for 255+ lb dudes inside.

As far as recruits, JW's strategy appears to be to load up on quantity 3 stars rather than quality 4-5 stars. And frankly I think this is the right strategy. Our coaches seem to be able to develop these kids. But once you go that route, you kind of need to understand that not many of your recruits are going to make an impact as true freshman.

If you want to see who's name you might be reading about next year that you never heard of before, look to your RS SOs on the team this year that are #2 or 3 in the depth chart. That having been said, we don't lose that many folks on the defensive side of the ball. We lose 3, but we get back Cam G. So net loss of only two (assuming no early departures). The big question mark that people tend to forget about is injuries. We were very lucky this year with the defensive unit - Cam G. is our only lost starter. In so many years it can be much worse. We stay injury free and in 2019 our defense will be nasty.

Hope you're right about Weaver and with Goode returning we can pick up the slack that Kunaszyk leaves behind. We've gone through a couple of years where we might have dominated other teams but our depth and the extent of injuries throughout the team limited our ability. Maybe the gods of injuries are saying to themselves, "let's give Cal a chance and see what happens."

Cal84 makes a good point. In the past (and to a large degree the present as well), our biggest problem in terms of roster wasn't lack of top-level players (although we certainly can use more), but depth. When top starters went down, as some inevitably will, the drop-off has been severe. Stocking up on solid 3* players and hitting on the occasional top-level talent is the way to go.