Aug. 2—PULLMAN — When Buddha Peleti heats up on Washington State’s defensive line, he turns into a spectacle unto himself. With long curly locks flowing out of the back of his helmet, Peleti uses his blazing speed to dash around opposing offensive linemen, his 6-foot-2 frame to knock them back, his three years of college football experience to know when to utilize which.
A transfer from New Mexico State, Peleti sharpened all three tools on Saturday’s fourth day of WSU fall camp, recording a trio of solo sacks in perhaps the best individual day of camp thus far. In team period after team period, Peleti generated consistent pass rush, underscoring the theme of Saturday’s practice: The Cougars’ defensive line made life hard on their counterparts on the offensive line, forcing quarterbacks to scramble and scrap their plans.
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“It was awesome. The juice and the energy from that group has been great,” said WSU defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit, whose group also got productive days from defensive tackle Max Baloun and defensive end Raam Stevenson. “They gotta set the tone on a daily basis. It starts with them. It’s fun when you get to a third-down day and they get to really let it loose, get all the games in and stuff.
“It was good not to just see one or two guys having success, but a lot of the guys on the D-line. Guys that stand out: Buddha, Raam, man, they were in the backfield a ton. Loved seeing what they were doing on third down. It was great.”
To Bobbit’s point, lots of Cougar defenders got involved. On one play in a team period, transfer defensive end Malaki Ta’ase posted a sack, even stripping quarterback Zevi Eckhaus for a fumble. On another, Ta’ase teamed up with tackle Titus Miller for a sack. On yet another, linebacker Anthony Palano created some pressure.
All told, it was the most promising fall camp practice yet for WSU’s defensive line, which is sorting through an array of personnel, many of them newcomers. The frontrunners for meaningful snaps this fall include Baloun, returner Bryson Lamb, transfers Kaden Beatty, Soni Finau and Darrion Dalton. In the defensive ends room, top candidates are Peleti, Stevenson, Ta’ase returner Isaac Terell.
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That also means WSU’s offensive line has had better practices. The Cougars’ top group — which has mostly included left tackle Ashton Tripp, left guard Johnny Lester, center Brock Dieu, right guard AJ Vaipulu/Noah Dunham and right tackle Christian Hilborn — was on the wrong end of many of the defenders’ highlights. It’s only the fourth day of fall camp, giving them plenty of time to regroup, but Saturday’s session went the defense’s way.
The Cougs’ defense did it without a few of their best pieces. Safety Tucker Large missed his first day of practice, but he didn’t have any visible injuries and he’s a shoo-in for the team’s starting free safety spot, so it’s likely coaches were giving him a rest day. For his entire career, he’s played under head coach Jimmy Rogers, who trusts him as much as anyone on the roster.
Cal Poly transfer cornerback Kai Rapolla also sat out, as did wide receiver Branden Ganashamoorthy, joining the group of defensive tackle Mike Sandjo and linebacker Jovan Clark, both of whom are expected to miss at least a week with injuries. Idaho transfer offensive lineman Sone Falealo, who got in a scuffle in Friday’s practice, was not seen at Saturday’s.
Resting or not, Large helped establish the same chippy atmosphere in Saturday’s practice that hovered over Friday’s, handing out a tongue-lashing to a teammate after one play. Rogers did not seem pleased with Large after that incident. In another sequence, linebacker Keith Brown and running back Kirby Vorhees speared each other, seemingly in response to Brown’s hard hit on running back Angel Johnson a moment prior. And on the field adjacent, wide receiver Jeremiah Noga and freshman safety Kyle Peterson exchanged swings at each other.
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Later in practice, Brown and Vorhees made up with an embrace, perhaps signaling that Bobbit and Rogers’ message is taking hold: They like trash talk and chippiness, chirping and energy. But there is a line.
“You gotta have an edge on defense,” Bobbit said. “Throwing punches? No, we’re not throwing punches. KB (Brown) shouldn’t run through Angel like that in a situation that was like a kill shot. No, let that be, run by, hoot and holler, celebrate. But at the end of the day, you gotta have a mentality, and we will have a mentality on defense. Our mentality is that we’re going to win on defense.”
Only four days into fall camp, it’s clear Rogers, Bobbit and WSU coaches are trying to strike a delicate balance: How do we invite trash talk and energy without letting things get out of hand? To find equilibrium, coaches have set up a new tradition, which they didn’t have at their previous stop of South Dakota State: Every evening after practice, position coaches meet with their players.
In those meetings, Bobbit said, coaches and players reflect on what happened at that day’s practice. They remind each other of team standards and what constitutes crossing a line. In the Cougs’ post-practice huddle with Rogers on Saturday, he seemed to call some players out who had done so.
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“I will do the same thing on defense,” Bobbit said. “It is my job, and this staff’s job — and the players’ job — to hold each other accountable. We will talk through those things and make sure that lines don’t get crossed, because it’s a penalty in a game.”
