SportSpyder - The Latest Washington State Cougars Football News

[NCAA: WSU Cougars Athletics] - Ten Cougars Named to 2026 NFF Hampshire Honor Society

Washington State Athletic Communications — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 04:56:58 GMT

IRVING, Texas (April 22, 2026) – Washington State University had ten football student-athletes named to the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame 2025 NFF Hampshire Honor Society, it was announced recently.

[The Seattle Times] - WSU’s linebackers enjoy their best day of spring practice

Greg Woods — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:30:23 GMT

The WSU defense ruled the first practice of the final week of spring ball, which is set to conclude with the Cougars' annual Crimson and Gray spring game Saturday.

[NCAA: WSU Cougars Athletics] - Crimson and Gray Game Set for Saturday

Washington State Athletic Communications — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:31:10 GMT

PULLMAN, Wash. (April 22, 2026) – Washington State Football will host the 2026 Crimson and Gray Game, Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. in Gesa Field. The game will feature the Cougar football team, led by first-year head coach Kirby Moore, going through drills before transitioning into the live segments for roughly an hour, concluding with a kids clinic on Gesa Field.

[247 Sports] - Quartet of linebackers emerging as cornerstones for WSU

Jamey Vinnick — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 23:41:28 GMT

Depth has proven to be plentiful

[247 Sports] - WSU baseball staring down six massive conference games at home

Jamey Vinnick — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:17:16 GMT

Cougars are just one game out of first place in conference standings

[247 Sports] - Julian Dugger celebrates WSUs quarterback battle

Jamey Vinnick — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:41:17 GMT

Cougar southpaw's accuracy has steadily improved this spring

[247 Sports] - Linebackers wreak havoc on Day 12 of WSU spring ball

Jamey Vinnick — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:12:36 GMT

Cougars continued to get pressure up front as final week of spring kicks off

[The Spokesman-Review] - Keith Brown, Carsten Reynolds pick off passes as WSU LBs enjoy their best day of spring practice

Greg Woods — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:47:50 GMT

PULLMAN — The ball fluttered through the air like a leaf petal, changing direction by the millisecond, tipped at the line of scrimmage by one Washington State defender and headed in the direction of another.

After a few seconds, the wayward pass from quarterback Caden Pinnick settled into the hands of linebacker Keith Brown, who secured it and took off in the other direction. In this Tuesday morning practice, the Cougars were operating under touch-tackle rules, so Brown was whistled down after a short return at Gesa Field, where they were practicing late-game scenarios.

Still, that didn’t stop Brown and teammates from celebrating so enthusiastically that students in nearby classes probably wondered what all the hullabaloo was about. He spiked the ball, which bounced around on the sideline. WSU’s defense, which was charged with stopping its offensive counterparts from reaching field goal range and tying the game in this simulated scenario, had done its job.

That was the story of the Cougars’ first practice of their final week of spring ball, which is set to conclude with their annual Crimson and Gray spring game on Saturday afternoon. When things shifted back to Rogers Field, fellow linebacker Carsten Reynolds picked off a pass thrown by quarterback Owen Eshelman. Incoming redshirt freshman linebacker Isaiah Hung broke up a pass, and transfer linebacker Nylan Brown surged into the backfield for what would have been a tackle for loss, capping perhaps that position group’s best day of practice yet.

“I think (it’s) just Coach (Trent) Bray being the defensive coordinator, coaching the linebackers, just them having a great perspective of what the guys around him are doing,” WSU head coach Kirby Moore said. “I think that really helps guys in coverage, obviously, playing to the strengths of whatever the coverage is called, and understanding the strengths of it and the weaknesses, I think, can really help them make plays on the ball.”

For the Cougars, it matters because of the linebacker position group’s outlook this fall. WSU has a solid top three in Keith Brown, Nylan Brown and transfer DJ Warner, the last of whom was out of action for Tuesday’s practice. In Bray’s 4-2-5 scheme, two of those will likely start. But beyond that, Washington State is thin on experience, which means things could get dicey for that group if coaches need to establish depth.

That’s what makes Tuesday’s practice so encouraging for Moore, Bray and WSU defenders. It may have been only two hours on an April morning — a lot can change between now and August, for better or worse for the Cougars — but it could symbolize that some of their younger linebackers could be ready sooner than later.

If there’s been a surprise among that group, it has belonged to Hung, who redshirted last fall in a relatively uneventful first season of college football. A native of the Kansas City area, Hung initially committed to former coach Jimmy Rogers when he was at South Dakota State. When Rogers accepted the job at WSU, Hung followed him, but he never got on the field last season as other, more experienced linebackers played ahead of him.

Those days of Hung’s career may be ending. He has the size, listed at 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds, and Tuesday was hardly his first standout practice of the spring. He may be able to provide the depth that the Cougs really need.

“It started in the winter,” Moore said of Hung. “He really attacked the winter conditioning with (strength) coach (Malcolm) Hardman and his staff in the weight room and developing that elite edge. You see it translate into the field. He’s got great size, athleticism in terms of just his ability to, whether it’s when he sees something go and then in coverage, break on the ball, and he’s got some length to tip balls and be disruptive for the offense.”

[247 Sports] - Kirby Moore highlights ballhawking day as WSU linebackers shine

Jamey Vinnick — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 22:45:47 GMT

A second-year 'backer continues his breakout spring

[247 Sports] - 3 big WSU questions in final week of spring football

Jamey Vinnick — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 20:21:02 GMT

Two practices and the spring game remain, along with Friday's expected walkthrough

[Mercury News: Pac-12 Hotline] - Washington State athletics: Pivotal year awaits as Jon Haarlow takes charge alongside president Elizabeth Cantwell

Jon Wilner — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 18:21:21 GMT

University president Elizabeth Cantwell promoted Jon Haarlow to the post of permanent AD because of their shared vision.

[The Seattle Times] - Jon Haarlow, WSU’s new athletic director, ready to lead Cougars through NCAA turbulence

Greg Woods — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:09:09 GMT

After being elevated to WSU's athletic director, Jon Haarlow said he intends for the Cougars to be "disruptors" and "lead the Pac-12 from the front."

[247 Sports] - WSU President Betsy Cantwell challenges critics explains Jon Haarlow at center of AD vision

Jamey Vinnick — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:58:10 GMT

Cougar President is tired of the 'woe is me' mentality

[The Spokesman-Review] - In formal introduction, new WSU AD Jon Haarlow ready to lead Cougars into 'most important fall in the history of WSU athletics'

Greg Woods — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:56:55 GMT

PULLMAN — Before he started his day in earnest, Jon Haarlow had to head to the bookstore. He was in search of a crimson jersey, the kind that would fit in seamlessly at Washington State’s Beasley Coliseum, where the Cougars were set to host conference power Saint Mary’s later in the evening on Feb. 21.

At the time, Haarlow was WSU’s interim athletic director, but he was ready to join the student section for that night’s game. A few days prior, he had delivered a speech in a management class, and afterward, a group of students approached him. He saw the same group of students a few days later in Spokane, where WSU fell to Gonzaga, and a few days after that, he used a mutual connection to learn they would be attending that night’s game against Saint Mary’s.

So when 7 p.m. rolled around and the Cougars tipped off against the Gaels, Haarlow found himself square in the student section, rocking a crimson jersey.

“I thought it created a little bit of emotion,” Haarlow said. “We gotta win that student group back, which we’ve got some things moving forward on that. I take pride in being open and what that emotion is.”

Almost exactly two months later, Haarlow was formally introduced as WSU’s 16th athletic director, elevating from the interim role with a news conference Monday at Gesa Field. Formerly the program’s assistant vice president and senior deputy athletic director/chief operating officer, Haarlow sees that day — joining WSU students at a basketball game — as the type of leadership it will take to steer the Cougars forward to what he called “the most important fall in the history of WSU athletics,” when the Cougs will begin competing in the reimagined Pac-12.

Haarlow, the second straight WSU athletic director to be elevated from the interim position, was hired using what university president Betsy Cantwell called “non-traditional due diligence.” Instead of hiring a search firm, Cantwell relied on “number of consultants,” she said, including presidents and athletic directors at other universities.

Cantwell, who said that required no financial commitment on WSU’s part, seemed to indicate in a previous interview that the Cougars were considering hiring a trio of people to do the job of athletic director. On Monday, she clarified that was “conceptual,” saying she always planned on the athletic director being one person.

Cantwell laid out her vision for the leadership of WSU’s athletics programs like this: An athletic director, which is “an uber operational position. It’s much more complicated than it was even when (previous AD) Pat Chun was here,” Cantwell said.

“Then we need someone whose one job is revenue generation, not necessarily philanthropic, but ticket sales, concerts, all of the ways that you see out there others generating revenue. “Then the third leg is, if you look at — I’m gonna pick some of the most out there — Kentucky, which put all its athletics infrastructure in a separate organization, or Stanford and Maryland, which hired someone from private media to be a component of the team. I call that a deal-maker, someone who understands these kinds of really unusual deal structures that we’re not used to, whether it’s private money, whether it’s putting conglomerates together.”

WSU does have a chief operating officer, Brad Hutchins, who was hired in September. That means, Cantwell said, that the Cougars will look to make one additional hire to complete her three-pronged approach to the top of the athletics institution.

Haarlow, who declined to say how much NIL money the Cougars’ football and basketball programs are working with, joined WSU in 2021 as senior associate athletic director and chief financial officer for the athletics program. In spring 2022, he accepted a role on the university’s Pullman campus as assistant vice president for business and financial services, where he provided financial leadership for the university in areas including debt, cash and investments while collaborating with key institutional units, including accounting, reporting, payroll, student accounts and contracting services.

That kind of background led Haarlow to the full-time athletic director position. Asked to lay out his vision for WSU athletics in 2026 and beyond, he said this: “Make no mistake about it, I believe that we can lead the Pac-12 from the front.”

“We can be disruptors, ready to pivot, because we know there’s another shoe that’s going to drop in the NCAA,” Haarlow said. “We wanted to make sure that we’re agile and we can be flexible, ready to attack that. So this isn’t just a one-phased approach.”

Haarlow, who led the charge in hiring football coach Kirby Moore and soccer coach Chris Citowicki as the interim AD, is one of many Cougar front office members who want to ensure the new Pac-12 has access to the College Football Playoff....