Well, this one sure came out of nowhere. Eric Oertel, a
6-foot-2/195-pound athlete out of Racine, Wis., became the 16th
known verbal commitment to the WSU class of 2010 last night, as
first reported by his local paper. Oertel was so under the radar
that it appeared had to hastily create a profile page for him
when news of his commitment broke, and only Rivals appeared to
even have him on WSU's radar.  One reason he probably flew under
the radar is that he's from Wisconsin; every other current
commit is from Washington or California. (The connection,
apparently, is linebackers coach Travis Niekamp, a Wisconsin
native.) Additionally, he's from a tiny private Lutheran school
-- basically the equivalent to an A or B school in Washington,
although he's in a fairly good sized town (about the size of
Tacoma or Spokane).  Another reason he probably eluded notice is
because despite some of his gaudy rushing numbers -- he
reportedly is the leading rusher in the state -- he's not very
highly thought of as a running back