Three’s a happy crowd

PULLMAN – There is a school of thought that players who are close on the field have to be close off.

How else could they develop the almost ESP-like bond they display on ESPN if they aren’t spending all their waking hours together?

Sorry, but on the Palouse, that’s a rural legend.

At least it is in the case of Greg Trent, Cory Evans and Kendrick Dunn, Washington State University’s three senior linebackers.

On the field the trio is as tight as an offensive lineman’s jersey, working together seamlessly while anchoring the middle of WSU’s base 4-3 defense.

Off the field? Well, Evans knows where he can find Trent.

“Greg is so caught up with going home and getting rest,” Evans says.

“We go our separate ways, but when we’re here, it’s like a bond,” Dunn said.

A bond cemented as much with the shared laughter in the locker and weight room as it is with the sweat left on the football field.

They’ve shared nicknames – Dunn is Baldy; Trent, Darkness; and Evans, by far the most loquacious of the trio, has earned two, Red Fox and Cajun.

They’ve shared a past – all come from the high school football factories of Texas (Trent and Dunn) or Louisiana (hence Evans’ Cajun nickname).

And they’ve shared the trauma that came with leaving home and relocating to Pullman – Trent and Evans four years ago, Dunn last year.

“Me, coming from a small town it was, whew, hard, just to adapt,” said Evans, who grew up in Boyce, La., a town of 1,190 in central Louisiana. “But the guys here, they took me in. People like Scotty (Davis), (Steve) Dildine, Brian Hall, (Will) Derting, they all took me in – took me, Greg and Jason (Stripling) in, just guided us.

“That just made everything easy on us. It made you forget about stuff like going back home. Personally, I never felt homesick, because I felt like I was here with family.”

Trent, who hails from Keller, Texas, just northwest of Dallas, sees it the same way.

“It wasn’t too bad, because, you know, sooner or later you have to leave what you’re comfortable with, and go out and see new things and stuff,” Trent said. “Coming here was a lot easier, like Cory said, Scotty, Derting, they took us in and they taught us the ropes and everything. They made Washington State feel like home.”

So when Dunn joined the group last season, coming from Hearne, Texas, along with childhood buddy Alfonso Jackson, Evans and Trent paid it forward.

“It was hard, though playing with these two made me feel more comfortable,” Dunn said. “They were like brothers, teaching me what I needed to know.”

Of course, Dunn’s physical limitations weren’t overlooked.

“He’s short,” the 6-foot-1 Evans said was his first thought when seeing the 5-11 Dunn. “He looks fast, though. He has to be fast. That’s the first thing I thought when I seen Greg, too – he’s short.”

The similarities in stature between Dunn and Trent, also 5-11, weren’t lost on the trio.

“Coach B (former coach Leon Burtnett), right before I hosted him said, ‘He looks just like you,’ ” Trent said. “I thought he was just playing around. After I saw him, we were about the same height, bald head – I’m usually bald – and …”

“When I first saw (Trent) I thought it was a me, split,” Dunn said, before shifting gears and describing his first impression of Evans, the heaviest of the three.

“When I first saw him, I thought he was d-lineman,” Dunn said, before the group started laughing.

“I was about 240 at the time,” said Evans, who is now listed at a “svelte” 235.

Maybe that’s why, when asked what they miss about home, Evans reels off a half-dozen food items, including gumbo, jambalaya and crawfish.

“Man, that’s why you’re a d-lineman,” Dunn said.

Evans didn’t miss a beat, however, adding another three or four items through the laughter.

If Evans, 22, is the talkative one and Dunn, 22, the one with the cutting humor, Trent, 21, is the unquestioned leader. It’s a role born not only on the field, where he’s started in the middle for most of his first three years, but also in his quiet, forceful personality.

When the three are talking with a reporter outside WSU’s weight room, wide receiver Brandon Gibson walks by and drops some verbal bombs, including, “That’s cute. I’ve got to get a picture of that,” Trent is the one who responds.

“Shut up, BG. Let us get our three minutes of fame,” he said.

Thanks to the schedule, the three, along with the five other Cougars from Texas, will get to play in front of friends and family when they travel to Waco the third week of the season to take on Baylor.

Waco is 45 minutes from Dunn’s hometown, a couple of hours from Trent’s and about a six-hour trip for Evans’ relatives.

“I’ve got family from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri coming,” Trent said.

“We’re fighting for tickets,” Evans said.

It will also be the first chance for Dunn to see his 3-year-old daughter Makyla, who lives in Hearne with her mother and Dunn’s family, since he returned to Pullman for summer workouts.

“That’s why I’m really excited for the Baylor game,” he said.

If the Cougars’ defense serves as the trio’s surrogate family now, then the three play the role of the eldest siblings. And they understand what goes with that role.

“The defense itself, we still have a lot of responsibility,” Trent said. “Leadership-wise, it’s taking your role on the team. We’re seniors. This is like our team. You want this season to become the way you want it to become.

“So naturally, your body and mind just wants to take leadership because you want to control how your season goes.”

It’s something they all agree on whether they are on or off the field.