Thirty years ago a colleague told me they hired from Chico State when they needed people skills, and Davis when they needed engineers. The Chico grads often landed interesting customer-facing jobs. A super bright, personable ME friend (Aggie) torched an introductory test entering the Navy's nuclear school, while a Cal grad struggled. (The questions were posed on a blackboard in front of a small group.)
One highly touted Gould recruit from Arizona that AZ HS coaches were saying had "NFL future" left after two years. Then there was Ryan Parenteau who was hot, then he dropped off most college teams radar for some unknown odd reason. I'm no expert, but saw his tape and went "Wow", and commented about him here. Covered well, hit like a truck, we inked him. He became almost an immediate impact player.
Before Hawkins arrived it seemed we landed a lot less 3-star recruits, they were typically all league and often had MVP awards, accolades, big numbers, etc. Gould had some 3 star guys, mostly studs, and most bounced.
Not negative. I don't understand the hype (stars) for players with very limited PT, but if he wins the starting job, great. Keelan Doss missed his junior year in HS w an injury, FBS schools had allocated all their schollies, and Coach Gould landed him. But Doss had solid sophomore and senior seasons.
A quick search says WSU football has $1M, but the goal is to get to $10 Million. That's a massive jump, I don't see how, unless they're including conference monies.