Aug. 1—It was Christmas in July for Washington State football.
The Cougs kicked off fall camp Wednesday morning at Rogers Field with approximately 120 players resuming football activities for the first time in 96 days.
“You have a hard time falling asleep that first night, like the butterflies you feel ’em, you get back to that like first time ever putting on the pads,” sixth-year linebacker Kyle Thornton said. “This is like Christmas Day for us. It’s amazing.”
With clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid 80s, the Cougs got to work 31 days away from the season opener versus Portland State Aug. 31 at Gesa Field.
The first day of fall camp offers a return to something known, with football activities following a summer of strength and conditioning, and a peek at what is new.
New to NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools in 2024 is radio helmet communication. Quarterback John Mateer had the chance to use a helmet radio during Wednesday’s practice.
“I was just so excited to come out here,” Mateer said. “In our walk-through, right. We have the new helmets, you know, they’re talking to us through the helmets. Like, I was getting a little overstimulated. There’s so much going on and I was so excited and ultimately jittery to get out there, I dropped a snap in the walkthrough. And I was like ‘oooh,’ but you know, it takes a little mistake like that to really lock it in and realize I got a job to do and I can just be excited to be out here. So after that I was crisp, it’s fun, it’s football.”
Mateer and Eckhaus in QB competition
Mateer split reps with senior Bryant (R.I.) transfer Zevi Eckhaus. The pair are locked in a starting QB competition. Mateer took reps with the first team and Eckhaus took snaps with the second team.
Each QB completed 10-of-17 passes, with the pair facing seven-on-seven action and full 11-on-11 snaps.
Mateer said he felt good about the offense’s performance.
“Yeah, no doubt,” he said. “We did really well. KW (Kyle Williams) was really good, man. He caught probably like five or six passes, getting open.”
Mateer connected with Williams several times, beating coverage and creating plays. The senior receiver enters his final fall camp and second at WSU as the Cougars’ top pass-catcher.
The Cougs went with just helmets for Day 1 and will again today. They add shoulder pads Friday and don full pads Aug. 6.
As for the QB competition between Mateer and Eckhaus, Mateer said there is no bad blood.
“I wouldn’t say he’s like my best friend — like, I hang out with a lot of linemen — but I mean, it’s nothing against him,” he said. “It’s not like I don’t like him. Yeah, he’s a great dude.”
New rules
The Cougs will have to adjust to several new rules passed by the NCAA earlier this year, including the use of helmet radios by one player on field for both offense and defense, tablets on the sideline and the two-minute warning.
Dickert said WSU received the helmet radios last week and will opt to use them only on offense with the QBs.
“You got to get those guys, like I said, playing a certain way without talking too much in your head. So there is a balance,” Dickert said. “That first scrimmage will be big to really get the mechanics of all those things.”
As for the two-minute warning, Dickert said the Cougs “need to rep the heck out of it.”
“It’s kind of simplified-a-little-bit offensive strategy as you look at it; defense has been way different,” he said.
Leaders emerging
In his second year on the Palouse following a three-year junior college career, cornerback Stephen Hall has emerged as a dynamic player and a likely starter for the Cougs.
“He’s emerged as one of the best leaders on this football team, and not because of what he wants to accomplish, but what he wants that group in those corners to do,” Dickert said. “And I think he’s just given his wisdom as leadership every day and I thought it was really evident today on the first day.”
Hall contributed two pass breakups on the first day of fall camp.
Thornton enters 2024 as the defensive leader. The sixth-year Coug was a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, reserved for the best college football player who was a walk-on.
Thornton walked on to the late Mike Leach’s Cougars in 2019, earned a scholarship in 2021 and garnered a starting role in 2023. He represented the Cougs at the Pac-12 media event alongside Williams and Dickert.
“The cool thing about Kyle’s story isn’t just that he was a walk-on and now he’s a starter — it’s that he’s still getting better,” Dickert said. “Every day he comes out to get better, and he has done that whether it’s physically (or) mentally as a leader. Proud of that kid and what he’s gonna give us this year.”
Williams and Thornton formed the Cougars’ Kyle contingent to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 media event in July. In his senior year, Williams has the chance to pilot the trajectory of the Cougs with more than just his catching and blocking.
“You can’t just be about yourself. I showed them a clip this morning about a guy from the NFL: ‘You’re a great player, show other people how to be great players and why you’re a great player, and then we get a team of great players,'” Dickert said. “I think he’s done a really good job of that so far.”
While fall camp operates in first team, second team and reserve/role capacity, the reps taken by individual players all count the same with coaches intently watching.
“So the first four days, we’re really investing tons of time to try to identify four-to-six guys that can really help this team now,” Dickert said. “I told the players, ‘You can’t find out…
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