Washington State’s defense is starting to sound like a unit that knows exactly what it wants to be.
As fall camp rolls on in Pullman, Kirby Moore says the Cougars are getting the kind of pre-snap ownership and communication that can make a defense go. The head coach pointed to the veterans leading that charge, with Tony Freeman, Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Daniel Blood among the names he highlighted.
“It’s the guys you expect,” Moore said on Wednesday. “I would say Tony Freeman, Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods, Daniel Blood, who I think I acclimated very quickly this spring.
On defense, the edges, the linebackers. I thought Keith Brown and Jirah (Leaupepetele) did a really good job yesterday stopping the run, and that continued today.”
Brown had the kind of Wednesday that stands out in full pads. He was physical in the middle, knocked plays off track and helped set the tone as the defense’s on-field organizer.
“Just a really good job communicating,” Moore said. “And you’re the centerpiece, you have the mic.
Coach (Trent) Bray does a great job with those guys, with the volume of defense and different schemes that we want to run on first down, second down, third down. I think he just does a really good job of verbal combat, pre-snap, and executing.”
The linebackers, in general, were everywhere. DJ Warner and Isaiah Hung kept showing up around the ball, creating problems for the offense both in the pass rush and against the run.
“Two great guys to bring up,” Moore said. “DJ and Isaiah do a really good job operating.
Training room opens at 7 a.m. They are pounding on the training room door at 6:45.
Taking care of their bodies on a day-to-day basis, being in the film room with Coach Bray, I think that’s showed up more and more, meeting extra, doing more than what’s expected. That’s one thing we talk about all the time, and it’s showing up on the field.”
Wednesday also brought the first full-pads session of the fall, and Moore said Brown’s energy in the middle was a clear marker of where the defense is headed. He also praised the group’s growing volume and urgency in how it operates before the snap.
“Just communication. We should be competing with the other side of the ball to see who’s louder.
And that communication, it’s only going to get louder. We go from practice to scrimmages, to home games, to away games.
We have to make sure every one of our teammates can hear us. And you can never assume.
And that’s something we have to work at every snap.”
On the other side of the ball, Moore wasn’t shy about what needs cleaning up. He said the offense put the ball on the ground too often and gave away too many self-inflicted mistakes.
“Ball was on the ground too much. Defense made a good play in skelly. Some of the meshes, just things we can control, self-inflicted penalties and things that we can control on offense.”
The quarterback competition remains unresolved, and Moore said the staff will keep gathering information as camp moves through more situational work. The next checkpoints are coming quickly, including the end-of-half and end-of-game work, followed by Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We have to keep watching it. We’ll get more situations, we got the end of half (today) and we’ll get end of game here shortly.
We’ll get the scrimmage on Saturday. And that’s going to be really critical.
We have to make sure we stay on schedule on offense. And it really starts with the quarterback.”
Moore also said one player is dealing with a minor foot issue.
“He’s got a mild kind of foot sprain there. I think he’s working through, so he should be back here quickly.”
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