PULLMAN — As the Washington State football team angles toward fall camp, beginning Wednesday morning and ushering in the Jimmy Rogers era, the new coach finds himself empathizing with a veteran wide receiver.
Josh Meredith, a San Diego native, is entering his fifth college football season. He’s meeting his third coaching staff, all at WSU. He established a consistent role last season, averaging a few catches per game, but he has yet to break out. More often across the past four years of his life, he’s found himself several rungs down the pecking order at wideout.
“To hear it one more time, a different regime talk about what they think is important, after a while, I think that gets hard for a player,” Rogers said on a Zoom news conference Tuesday, “especially when it’s your senior year. He stayed here for a reason, and we’re trying to deliver our best to him to make sure that it was worth it.”
Rogers took care to point out that Meredith looks noticeably faster than he did even in the spring — “and I think he feels faster,” Rogers added — but the truth is Meredith will have to earn his playing time. The same goes for players at nearly every position group, underscoring the importance for Rogers and the rest of the Cougars’ coaching staff to integrate a whopping 74 newcomers over the next two weeks, all in preparation for WSU’s season opener Aug. 30 at home against FCS Idaho.
WSU’s first three days of fall camp will be split into two-a-days, with one practice set for 9 a.m. and the next for 2:20 p.m. After that the Cougars will practice at 10 a.m. Monday through Friday, with the exception of Aug. 13, which will feature an earlier practice to make room for media day interviews and photos in the afternoon.
Thanks to NCAA rules, WSU will conduct helmets-only practices for the first two days of fall camp, adding shoulder pads on the third day. The Cougars’ first practice in full pads is Monday. The academic year starts Aug. 18, which is when the team will turn its focus to Idaho and begin regular-season practices.
“‘I’m excited about the start of fall camp. It’s been a great summer so far,” Rogers said. “Our guys got bigger, faster and stronger and became closer as a whole football team. It was much-needed, especially with the transfers that we brought in at the spring. Overall, these last seven, eight months has been a sprint, for sure, and today is check-in for fall camp. Really excited to get to work with these guys.”
Perhaps top of mind around the program: Who will start at quarterback? The front-runner is incumbent senior Zevi Eckhaus, who started WSU’s Holiday Bowl loss to Syracuse last winter, but he will have competition. In the spring, the Cougars landed commitments from transfer QBs Julian Dugger (Pitt) and Ajani Sheppard (Rutgers).
They also return third-year sophomore Jaxon Potter, who has impressed Rogers and offensive coordinator/QB coach Danny Freund, leading the two coaches to consider all four for starting duties this season.
To Rogers, this is where the importance of split practices comes in. While one half of the team is lifting or studying film, the other will be on the practice field, giving quarterbacks chances to work with their own units. Rogers did not say which quarterbacks will be working with which players, but because fall camp practices will be open to the media, those details will be reported.
“It gives quarterbacks an opportunity to lead,” Rogers said, “and to have a voice of their own without another person there to where they feel like it’s combative. I think at the quarterback position, it’s really important to have a voice of one and people to believe in you.
“So there is gonna be a competition. They’re gonna get graded daily, and they’re gonna be pushed on things to improve on, and the best player will play, will be the starter. When I determine that, it’s up in the air. I gotta see how these guys progress before we claim anybody anything.”
In an interesting twist, Rogers also said this: “Could there be a role for multiple quarterbacks? We’ll address that if that’s the case.”
Rogers pointed out that there will be far more position battles than just quarterback. The Cougars will also host competitions at offensive line (where returners Brock Dieu and Christian Hilborn will anchor the unit) and at defensive line, cornerback and wide receiver. They might be in good shape at linebacker — veteran returners Keith Brown and Parker McKenna will likely join South Dakota State transfer Caleb Francl in that group — but they have holes to fill at other positions.
South Dakota State transfer running back Angel Johnson, who missed spring ball because of an injury, is back healthy, Rogers confirmed. The same goes for fellow running back Dylan Paine, who suffered a torn ACL early last season. The only injured players are SMU transfer defensive tackle Mike Sandjo, who is expected to miss a couple of weeks before returning for the season opener, and freshman linebacker Jovan Clark, who will miss the first week of fall camp because of a back injury, Rogers said.
As WSU prepares for the season, the roster stands at 117 players, a dozen over the new limit of 105 established by the House vs. NCAA settlement. But one provision of the settlement allowed for the “grandfathering in” of returning players who don’t count against the roster limit, explaining why the Cougars can operate over the limit.
Some younger faces might get lost in that shuffle. Not freshman linebacker Sullivan Schlimgen and freshman cornerback Trillion Sorrell, Rogers said, indicating that if any freshmen enter the mix for snaps this fall, those two are the most likely.
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