Mar. 28—PASCO — The play of Washington State’s spring ball, even through only the first two days, was drawn up for Branden Ganashamoorthy. On the faded green grass at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium, the site of Saturday’s practice, Ganashamoorthy jumped off the line of scrimmage and headed down field.
Then he planted his foot in the ground and angled left, toward the sideline, looking up for the ball. The pass from incoming redshirt freshman Owen Eshleman, one of three quarterbacks vying for WSU’s starting job this fall, was a dime. It landed right in the chest of Ganashamoorthy, who hauled it in with ease, a 30-yard completion that coaxed a round of applause from the fans who had attended this open practice.
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“BG made some nice plays down the field,” WSU coach Kirby Moore said, “and that showed up today.”
Ganashamoorthy’s name doesn’t always come up among WSU’s receiver corps, but maybe that is beginning to change. He redshirted as a true freshman in 2023, played in 11 games the following year and then all 13 last fall, recording modest numbers and finding a niche as a downfield blocker.
In Saturday’s practice, he hauled in receptions by the bushel. He did drop one pass, which has turned into something of a trend early in the Cougs’ spring slate, but he made up for it by securing a handful of receptions in the opportunities that followed.
In that way, many of WSU’s highlights on Saturday belonged to Ganashamoorthy, but honors for best practice belonged to the team’s running backs. At least, that’s the way Moore saw it. He liked what he saw from all three tailbacks, the trio who figure to combine for a fearsome unit in six months’ time: Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi, all returning from last year’s team.
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At this early stage in spring practices, the Cougars aren’t tackling yet, though. Which leaves this question open: How do coaches evaluate their running backs’ progress? Why did Moore feel so good about how they fared?
“There’s some footwork things,” said Moore, who grew up roughly 30 minutes away in Prosser. “There’s some vision, in terms of where that hole is and hitting it and having that right patience. And then taking care of the football. They did a good job in the pass game a couple times. So I thought they’ve had a nice start to spring ball.”
For WSU, it’s no accident that all three returned. Two, Vorhees and Pulalasi, had made plans to enter the transfer portal. Pulalasi actually spent some time with his name on the open market. Those stood to be costly losses for the Cougs. Without a starting quarterback in the fold, where would their offense come from?
On New Year’s Day, Vorhees shocked just about everyone in Washington State’s orbit by re-signing with the program on a new NIL revenue-sharing deal. Exactly one week later, Pulalasi withdrew from the portal and did the same. By that time, Woods had also re-signed, which meant that the Cougs would return each of their top three tailbacks from the previous season.
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To pull Vorhees back into town, Moore described events this way: The two met in Pullman, then he spent some time back home in Florida. Around that time, Moore drew on his experience at Missouri, where he had just worked as offensive coordinator for three seasons, engineering some of the country’s best rushing offense. “I sent him a couple of those highlights,” Moore said.
“That’s one thing we’re working through this whole spring ball, is what’s our best personnel on the field?” Moore said. “Obviously, if those guys are within our top five skill guys, gosh, we gotta find more ways to get two running backs on the field.”
Still, plenty of good football belonged to WSU’s defense, which got an interception from San Jose State transfer Jaylen Thomas, who projects to start this fall. On a later play, the Cougs enjoyed a combined simulated sack from defensive tackles Kaden Beatty and Damarhje Lewis, who have been practicing with what appears to be the Cougs’ first-team defense. And incoming redshirt junior Michael Hughes got home for what would have been a sack, too.
In the middle of that unit has been Kent State transfer Nylan Brown, a projected starter, one of the first portal players to commit to Moore and the Cougars during the winter. What made Brown want to head to WSU? Brown hardly hesitated: “It was the people.”
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“It was literally the people,” said Brown, a 5-foot-11, 244-pounder whose build looks impressive from a mile away. “Coach (Trent) Bray (defensive coordinator), Coach Moore made it super easy for me to make that decision, being able to talk to them one-on-one. The way Coach Bray has already put people out there that’s already my size in the NFL made it no-brainer for me. I wanted to take that next step, and Washington State was an easy choice for me.”
