A second WSU receivers coach departs Cougars, headed to Oregon

PULLMAN – When Mike Leach writes his second autobiography, he may well recall this winter as the period in which his coaching tree became a forest.

Three coaches who were once assistants under Leach, two of them this past season, have become first-time head coaches, coordinators, or assistants at the FBS level since the 2015 regular season ended.

But it is impossible to sow a forest without making a few cuttings, and the Cougars will have to replace their second receivers coach this offseason.

Fox Sports reporter Bruce Feldman, who co-wrote Leach’s first autobiography, reported Monday morning that David Yost will leave his position coaching inside receivers at Washington State to take an assistant coaching position at Oregon. Footballscoop.com reports that Yost will be the Ducks’ new quarterbacks coach.

Former outside receivers coach Graham Harrell left WSU shortly after the Sun Bowl victory over Miami to become the offensive coordinator at North Texas under first-year head coach Seth Littrell, another former Leach assistant.

Dave Nichol, the former East Carolina offensive coordinator, who got his first student assistant job under Leach at Texas Tech, replaced Harrell.

Yost coached inside receivers for the Cougars since 2013, shortly after he left his position as the offensive coordinator at Missouri, citing exhaustion with the job (he also coached the Tigers’ quarterbacks and served as recruiting coordinator).

While Yost, with his Jeff Spicoli haircut, was always a fun presence on the WSU sideline, he was never a very public figure in Pullman, mostly because of his stated desire to never speak to the media about any topic on the record.

But his results on the field spoke for him – the WSU receivers led the country in receptions every year since Yost joined the Cougars. In 2015 no other team came within 100 receptions of WSU’s wideouts.