Apr. 24—PULLMAN — Jimmy Rogers isn’t done recruiting out of the transfer portal.
Washington State’s head coach earned two more commitments on Thursday, one from SMU transfer cornerback AJ Davis and one from New Mexico State transfer defensive end Buddha Peleti. A source confirmed Davis’ commitment to the Spokesman-Review, while Peleti announced his decision.
Advertisement
Those two additions, paired with fellow New Mexico State transfer defensive tackle Malaki Ta’ase’s commitment on Tuesday, makes four new Cougars to join the program this spring. They join Idaho offensive lineman transfer Sone Falealo, who shared his decision on Monday.
247 Sports was the first to report Davis’ decision.
Davis played 91 snaps across three seasons at SMU, where he totaled 12 tackles and three pass breakups, one per year. A rising junior from Dallas, Davis’ third year of action last fall ended early, when he left a win over Pittsburgh with a head/neck injury in Week 10. After appearing in 10 games, many on special teams, he never returned that season.
Davis was a three-star prospect out of high school, earning an offer from the Jake Dickert-led WSU coaching staff. His other offers included Baylor, Colorado, Virginia, Nevada, Liberty, Utah State, Tennessee State and Kansas, to which he committed. He decommitted a few months later, signing instead with hometown SMU.
Advertisement
Davis is joining what is already a loaded WSU secondary corps. South Dakota State transfer Colby Humphrey will likely man one of the Cougars’ starting cornerback spots, while the other might go to returner Jamorri Colson or Cal Poly transfer Kai Rapolla, the latter of whom missed a large chunk of spring practices with an injury.
Combined with the Cougars’ depth at the safety spots, where South Dakota State veteran transfers Tucker Large, Matt Durance and Cale Reeder will likely receive a lion’s share of snaps, their secondary looks to be blossoming into a real strength of the team. That’s a stark contrast from last year’s WSU defense, which was often undone by shaky safety play.
Meanwhile, Peleti is bringing experience to a WSU defensive end corps that was light on it prior to his arrival. Peleti, whose birth first name is Fallauga, played three seasons at New Mexico State, where he piled up 58 tackles, 9.5 sacks and two forced fumbles. He collected two sacks on two occasions, including in a loss to Texas A&M.
Listed at 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, Peleti’s presence looks like a valuable one for WSU, which lost a lot at the defensive end/edge spot over the offseason. At that position, the Cougs’ most tenured player is veteran Raam Stevenson, while rising junior Isaac Terrell figures to slot in alongside him this fall. But Terrell, promising as he is, never cracked a consistent rotation spot in either of his first two seasons at WSU.
Advertisement
A native of Los Angeles-area Hesperia, California, Peleti was a two-star prospect out of high school in the class of 2022. After entering the transfer portal on April 18, Peleti earned offers from FAU, Arkansas State, South Alabama and FCS Sacramento State, he posted on social media.
For WSU, these additions amount to more efforts to assemble the right group for the upcoming roster limits of 105 players, a new rule going into effect beginning this fall. That’s part of the expected House v. NCAA settlement, which took something of a setback on Wednesday, when a judge said she would deny the settlement unless the NCAA and its members change the proposed policy of limiting roster sizes.
Judge Claudia Wilken said the NCAA’s intent to immediately implement roster limits would cause some college athletes to lose their spot on their current teams, adding earlier this month that the NCAA ought to consider delaying its new roster size rules to “grandfather in” current athletes.
Wilken set a May 7 deadline for attorneys to meet the requirement.
Advertisement
As WSU prepares for new rules go into effect, 23 Cougars have entered the portal this spring, including three walk-ons in QB Reilly Garcia, kicker Connor Calvert and safety Aslan Fraser.
The full list includes Garcia, Calvert, Fraser, running backs; Djouvensky Schlenbaker, Jackson Cowgill and Rashad Mackenzie, defensive tackles; Zack Miller, Nathan Pritchard and Carson Osmus, offensive linemen; Camden DeGraw-Tryall, defensive end; Dylan Mauro, punter; Sean Embree and Dycurian Douglas, wide receivers; Warren Smith, cornerback; Hunter Haines and Aiden Knapke, safeties; Dajon Doss, linebacker; and Hunter Najm, quarterback.
