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PULLMAN — Ricky Ciccone hears a gentle knock on his office door and looks up. It’s Jimmy Rogers, Washington State’s head coach, sporting a dark gray sweatshirt. He’s wondering if his general manager is ready to do more of the work that has made him such a valuable asset for the Cougars.
Ready to go watch more recruit tape?
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in mid-May at WSU’s football complex, where Rogers and his coaching staff are working to fill out the rest of this fall’s roster, whose limits remain in flux. Both at this time and currently, the Cougs are over the limit of incoming roster limits of 105 players, but because neither side has settled the case that would set the limit, House vs. NCAA, coaches around the country are all in limbo.
Enter Ciccone, the mastermind behind WSU’s roster management, recruiting, salary cap and more. As the Cougars’ GM, perhaps the hottest emerging job in college football , he’s responsible for making the program’s roster tick, which means identifying and acquiring players that fit the coaching staff’s vision – and making sure everything stays under the team’s allotted $4.5 million in revenue-sharing NIL dollars.
Ciccone’s is an all-encompassing job, and WSU might not have fared so well this spring without him. So far, the Cougars have reeled in 13 additions, all of whom seem to suit their coaches’ new vision for the program – bigger, beefier athletes with the brawn to catalyze their run-centric offense and anchor their run-stopping defense. Up and down the list of WSU’s signings this spring, from veteran New Mexico State offensive line transfer AJ Vaipulu to experienced San Diego State transfer defensive lineman Darrion Dalton, the players fit this bill.
Thanks to all manner of factors – Rogers’ eye for talent, Ciccone’s…
Source link : http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/may/24/meet-gm-ricky-ciccone-the-mastermind-behind-wsus-r/
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Publish date : 2025-05-25 03:59:00
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