Washington State Football: Examining the Walk-Ons Pt Two

We’ve been really busy talking about a lot of things here at All Coug’d Up, but it’s time to get back to getting you all the news on the new Cougars as we head towards Spring football days here at the end of the month. We examined what made walk-on’s so important in part one of this series, now we go into the actual players WSU will be acquiring via walk-on status this coming Spring and Fall. Let’s meet 3 of the new Cougar walk-on’s, all at receiver right now.

•  WR Adam West: Mount Vernon HS in Mount Vernon, WA – 6’0″ 165

West was a multi-sport standout at MV high school and headed to Carroll College, the NAIA powerhouse out of Montana. After one redshirt year he decided he was meant for bigger things, thus coming to Washington State. He is said to have run a 10.9 100 yard dash in high school and is a better than average route runner. He’ll be slotted at inside receiver and is already enrolled at WSU, giving him the jump on conditioning and other aspects of the game as he’ll try to make a name and carve out a spot for himself in one of the deepest spots on the Wazzu football team.

• WR Leo Simmons III: Graham-Kapowsin HS in Graham, WA – 5’5″ 145

Simmons III was recruited as a preferred walk on by new inside receivers coach David Yost shortly after he arrived on the WSU staff, but he isn’t your typical Pac-12 recruit. At such a small stature, it’s not going to be easy for Simmons to make a difference but he has vowed to put on 15-20 lbs before arriving later this summer for voluntary workouts and, like most all of the walk-on’s, will redshirt and learn the system while getting strong enough to make himself competitive. After that he’ll try to make a difference on special teams and work himself into consideration for playing time in the slot.

• WR John Thompson: Bethel HS in Spanaway, WA – 5’9″ 185

Thompson is also slotted as a preferred walk-on for the inside receiver position, but comes in with a clear weight advantage on the other two guys we’ve talked about. Again, Yost was the main advocate for Thompson, so he will get a chance to truly compete down the road for some playing time. Also, he has 4.5 type speed (reportedly) and is pretty elusive with the ball in his hands. Thompson had offers at Idaho and Eastern Washington, but his sister graduated in 2008 from WSU and he fell in love with the school. It was an easy choice to choose Crimson and Gray, he said, even as a walk-on.

As you can see, Yost is busy trying to find a gem already. It’s great competition to have these guys on the team and the Cougs may just find some special teams help earlier than receiver help from these three. Stay tuned there’s more walk-on’s coming into the fold and we’ll get to them soon.