Mar. 26—The calendar just flipped to spring, but the Washington State football team is already thinking about the fall.
For the first time under coach Kirby Moore, the Cougars will hit the practice field and engage in traditional football activities just about an hour after sunrise today for the first of 15 spring football practices.
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Today’s practice begins at 7:45 a.m., as will the eight practices to follow on Tuesdays and Thursdays and one Friday.
WSU’s Saturday practices will take place at 11:45 a.m. with some notable exceptions, including the annual Crimson and Gray Game at 2 p.m. April 25 at Gesa Field, which will be open to fans.
The Cougars will also hit the road for two satellite practices. The first one will be this Saturday in Pasco, Wash., and the other will be the following weekend in Spokane. Both will be open to the public.
Entering his first spring camp as a head coach at any level, Moore said that he is excited to begin this stage of his debut season.
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“That’s why you get into this. We’re teachers first,” Moore said in a Wednesday video call with reporters. “Really excited about getting on the field, in between the lines with our guys tomorrow (and) seeing what it looks like. There’s gonna be some good, there’s gonna be some learning moments and (I) can’t wait to see where we’re at when we’re at the end of this thing.”
Who will be the Cougars’ QB?
WSU once again has a quarterback question and Moore confirmed it will be a three-way battle between UC Davis transfer Caden Pinnick, redshirt freshman Owen Eshelman and sophomore Julian Dugger.
Pinnick earned Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors this past season and was the runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award, recognizing the best player in the Football Championship Subdivision.
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At UC Davis, Pinnick completed 240-of-345 passes for 3,206 yards, with 32 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. He made opposing defenses pay on the ground, too, running the ball 125 times for 437 yards and three TDs.
Eshelman, one of former coach Jimmy Rogers’ recruits, redshirted last year.
In an appearance on the Puck Sports podcast, Moore praised Eshelman’s accuracy and said that he was dicing up WSU’s No. 1 defense when Moore visited leading up to the team’s bowl game.
Dugger was the Cougars’ backup/gadget QB for all of last year, being brought into the game to run the football. He was rarely asked to pass and did not complete a pass until the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, but broke free for a 34-yard touchdown run in that same game.
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The three will rotate between WSU’s No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 offenses and receive plenty of opportunities to show what they can do, Moore said.
“The best way to figure out how to get better at quarterback is to play,” Moore said.
The QBs will each be learning and implementing a new offensive system on top of sharpening their fundamentals and building chemistry with their teammates.
Moore said that, between seven-on-seven, mixed-group drills and situational exercises, the QBs will learn to play under pressure.
“It really comes down to production,” the former Missouri offensive coordinator said. “The two things we can control every play are our feet and our eyes and we’ve got to make sure that those are confident and then it comes back to completion percentage and taking care of the football.”
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Moore said that his staff will pay attention to how many explosive plays — generally defined as passes or runs of 20-or-more yards — that each QB creates against the No. 1 defense as opposed to what they do against the No. 2 defense.
Similar to previous seasons, when Jaxon Potter and Zevi Eckhaus competed last year and Eckhaus and John Mateer contended for the job before that, WSU likely won’t pick a starter until well into fall camp in August.
Moore declined to specify an exact timeline.
“I think the quarterback competitions — they decide themselves by what’s going on on the field,” Moore said. “And I am in no hurry for that to happen.”
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Who’s on the team?
There are a fair number of new faces in the Cougar football locker room, but not nearly as many as the 75 newcomers from last season.
Moore said his staff retained 11 of the 14 Potato Bowl starters who had eligibility.
With some of the marquee defenders, such as defensive end Isaac “Bobby” Terrell and Bryson Lamb following Rogers to Iowa State, Moore and his staff recruited 38 new players to Pullman who are on campus this semester via the transfer portal and high school recruiting. Additional true freshmen will join the team over the summer.
WSU’s retention turned heads among vocal fans on social media, with guys such as linebacker Keith Brown, wide receiver Tony Freeman (590 receiving yards and 415 punt return yards in 2025) and the Cougars’ top three running backs with eligibility — Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi — returning to WSU.
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The Cougars also retained the bulk of their offensive line, with three regular starters from last year returning in left tackle Ashton Tripp, left guard Jonny Lester and right guard Noah Dunham.
Returning tackle Jaylin Caldwell, who started a handful of games before a season-ending injury, and center Kyle Martin, who started the Potato Bowl, are also back.
Standout transfers include sixth-year offensive tackle Maximus McCree (6-foot-6, 296-pound former Washington Husky), senior defensive end Linus Zunk (6-6, 262 Vanderbilt transfer from Berlin, Germany) and sophomore safety Jaylen Thomas (San Jose State).
There are sure to be plenty more players who will emerge over the course of camp.
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When can fans watch the Cougars this spring?
The first of WSU’s two satellite practices will be at 11:45 a.m. Saturday at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium in Pasco, Wash., close to Prosser, where Moore grew up.
The second roving practice will be at 11 a.m. April 4 at Union Stadium in Spokane.
Player and coach-led kids clinics will follow both practices.
Moore said his staff is still working through what exactly fans will see at the end of April during the spring scrimmage.
However, Moore said that he would like the first two quarters “to be a true game,” with a running clock. The specifics and structure, such as whether it’s an offense-versus-defense set up or a split squad arrangement where either side has an offensive and defensive unit, will be finalized later in camp.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
