Keith Brown has built his approach to football around blocking out the static. During Washington State’s fall camp, he wiped social media from his phone. In a season like this, he’s learned, the noise can be a trap.
He’s even gone into games without keeping close track of the score. In WSU’s home loss to Arizona last month, Brown said he reached halftime not knowing where things stood until he asked a teammate. That kind of focus has helped define what the Cougars are trying to do on defense: survive the chaos, stay together and keep competing no matter how rough the circumstances get.
“Just continue to compete,” Brown likes to tell his teammates.
That message will matter again when Washington State heads to Corvallis to face a heavily favored Oregon State team. WSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray is back in Corvallis, where he coached as Oregon State’s head coach for the 2024 season and part of the 2025 campaign. The Beavers opened as 17.5-point favorites and bring one of the nation’s most dangerous offenses, led by quarterback Brayden Atkinson and true freshman receiver Jesse Legree.
Brown said the challenge doesn’t change the way the Cougars approach it.
“I don’t think it affects it at all. It’s just another opportunity to go out there and compete,” Brown said.
“I’m sure our entire back end is just excited for the challenge, ready to do what they’re supposed to do. No matter who we’re playing, no matter what the rankings are and stuff like that, we always wanna go and play our best.”
With WSU’s offense drawing most of the attention - especially after the move from struggling Caden Pinnick to redshirt freshman quarterback Owen Eshelman - the defense’s work deserves a closer look. Bray’s unit has been asked to operate under ugly conditions, many of them created by an offense that has coughed up nine turnovers, seven by Pinnick.
The field position numbers tell the story. In BCF Toys’ field position value rankings, Washington State sits last in the country, No. 138 of 138 FBS teams. That metric blends the average starting field position of the Cougars’ offense and defense, and WSU has the worst overall starting ground in the sport.
The picture gets even harsher when you isolate the defense. The Cougars rank second-to-last nationally in average opponent starting field position at 65.2, which means opponents are beginning drives around their own 35-yard line on average. Only Rice has been worse in that category.
That isn’t a knock on Washington State’s defense. It’s the explanation for why some of the scoring against it has piled up the way it has.
In the Cougars’ 17-16 loss to Utah State over the weekend, a fumble by tight end Jack Pedersen handed the Aggies the ball at the Cougar 19. Three plays later, they were in the end zone and ahead for good.
BCF Toys’ defensive short field rankings show just how often WSU is walking into danger. The Cougars have been put into those situations 25% of the time, meaning the opponent has started at its own 40-yard line or better more often than most teams would ever want. Only 15 defenses have faced that kind of stress more frequently.
And yet the group keeps holding up. In Friday’s game, defensive end Linus Zunk and defensive tackle Jirah Leaupepetele each recorded sacks, and the Cougars forced seven punts. On the season, they’ve forced five turnovers, right around the middle nationally.
Through six games, Washington State is giving up 23.7 points per game, which ranks fifth in the Pac-12. On paper, that may not leap off the page. But with the field position burden they’ve been carrying, the number carries a different weight.
Brown said the defense’s strength comes from how closely connected the group remains.
“We’re a very connected team,” Brown said. “We have our captains group chats, leadership meetings and stuff like that, and we just continue to reiterate that we’re a team at the end of the day.
The last thing you wanna do is divide the team. There is no division.
We’re one team. I think honestly, we’re just as close as we were going into week one.
So I’m still excited for rest of the season.”
In Other News...
Oregon State Defense Could Decide How This Week Really Plays Out
Washington State heads into this matchup trying to steady its offense while dealing with one of the toughest scoring attacks it has seen all season. The Cougars are set to start Eshelman at quarterback, banking on his leadership and passing accuracy to help clean up an attack that has needed more consistency, while the defense gets a much bigger spotlight against Oregon State, the 10th-ranked scoring team in FBS.
That side of the ball has been one of Washington States strengths, sitting second in the conference, but this week brings a different kind of test. The Beavers passing game has forced the Cougars to lean on a secondary that still needs better communication, and how well that group handles the moment could go a long way toward deciding whether WSU can stay in control of the game. [Read more 🡒]