Cougars at NFL combine say opportunity not conference drove their decisions

The Washington State Cougars were on the practice field Aug. 4 when the news came down that the Pac-12 was breaking up.

Then came the even more bracing revelation – that WSU and Oregon State were left out of the party and would have to fend for themselves after the 2023 season.

It was news that hung ominously over the rest of the season.

The three WSU players who attended the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis this week – the last three who will ever do so as WSU players representing the Pac-12 – insisted the news had little impact on the Cougars’ season.

The two who left for the NFL with eligibility remaining – safety Jaden Hicks and cornerback Chau Smith-Wade – said the program’s uncertain future had no bearing on their decisions to turn pro.

Hicks had two years of eligibility remaining and Smith-Wade one.

Hicks said if he had decided to stay in school, he would have remained at WSU despite the Cougars playing essentially a Mountain West Conference schedule in 2024.

“I wasn’t gonna transfer,” said Hicks, a Las Vegas native. “I’m close with coach Jake Dickert, and so I told him, ‘I’ll be back at Wazzu if I come back to college.’’’

Hicks had lots of reasons to declare. Some rate him as the third-best safety in the draft with Pro Football Focus listing him 51st on its Big Board of all players available.

“I just feel like I was ready to make this next step,’’ Hicks said. “Feel like we put enough film out there, and I feel like I’m comfortable in myself that I can be one of the top safeties in this draft class.’’

Smith-Wade said he actually went into the 2023 season viewing it as probably his last in college even before the Pac-12 news broke, saying he’d debated turning pro following 2022.

“I was already deemed to go pro after this season,’’ he said. “And I had a talk with my coach, and he had the idea of me going pro into this last season already. So that had already been something that I was thinking.’’

The two were among a smaller class of underclassmen at the combine than usual, with NIL money and the transfer portal perceived as making it more tempting for many players, who in the past might have gone pro, to stay in college for another year.

Just 54 players were on the NFL’s official early entry list this year, down from 98 in 2021.

Smith-Wade said he felt it was simply time.

“This was always the goal for me,’’ he said. “I’ve been playing football since I was 4 years old, so …’’

As for whether the team’s uncertainty had any bearing on the results on the field, Smith-Wade and the other Cougar to attend the combine – edge rusher Brennan Jackson – said they didn’t think so.

Jackson, a sixth-year senior in 2023, served as a team captain and said he felt it was part of his job to make sure the uncertainty over the future didn’t affect the team.

“We didn’t want to get too bottled up in our mind thinking about that during the year,’’ Jackson said. “And I think our coaches did a really good job of not letting that creep into the locker room.’’

Smith-Wade allowed that it was something players talked about at times but said he didn’t think it factored into what happened on the field.

“It didn’t really change anything,’’ he said. “You had a lot of younger guys questioning their future at Washington State, but that’s about it. We kept our heads down and we continued to play.’’

Still, some inevitably wondered if the collective psyche of the team began to wander after WSU began the season 4-0 and ranked 13th in the country before losing six in a row.

“Obviously we started out really hot, and I think there was a little bit of complacency that came into our locker room,’’ Jackson said. “As a leader, I have to be someone that kind of sniffs that out and gets rid of that. That’s one of my biggest things I take back on that season is how could we have continued that success going forward.’’

It didn’t help that Smith-Wade got hurt in the seventh game of the season at Oregon and didn’t return. The Denver native revealed at the combine that he suffered an injury to the AC joint in his shoulder.

Smith-Wade, who was a second-team All-Pac-12 pick in 2022, could only watch as WSU went 1-4 without him down the stretch.

“Obviously we started out really hot, and I think there was a little bit of complacency that came into our locker room,’’ Jackson said. “As a leader, I have to be someone that kind of sniffs that out and gets rid of that. That’s one of my biggest things I take back on that season is how could we have continued that success going forward.’’

It didn’t help that Smith-Wade got hurt in the seventh game of the season at Oregon and didn’t return. The Denver native revealed at the combine that he suffered an injury to the AC joint in his shoulder.

Smith-Wade, who was a second-team All-Pac-12 pick in 2022, could only watch as WSU went 1-4 without him down the stretch.

“Not being able to play was very heartbreaking,’’ he said.

He underwent extensive medical exams at the combine but said he is fully healthy, appearing to prove that when he picked off two passes in the Senior Bowl to win honors as the MVP of the National team.

“Given that my Instagram followers shot up and my Twitter followers shooting up, I believe that I created a lot of buzz,’’ he said with a laugh.

Smith-Wade ran a 4.54-second 40-yard sprint that ranked 27th of 29 cornerbacks who ran at the combine.

But he had 18 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press to rank second, accomplishing a goal he had set of “wanting to show my strength in the bench press.’’

All of which, he said, showed that the time was right to come out even if the Pac-12 had remained as it had.

“I do believe and I know that I can be one of the greatest players to ever play this game in the NFL and given the glimpse of talent that I showed on the college level there is much more to show at the NFL level,’’ he said.

Jackson was in the first group of players to work out Thursday, which allowed him to be back in Pullman by Saturday and attend the WSU men’s basketball team win over UCLA. So what does he say when he runs into his former football teammates who remain and now face the unknown of life without the Pac-12?

“Obviously I don’t know what it’s going to entail for them,’’ Jackson said. “I know the schedule is going to be different. I just tell them it’s a new opportunity to shine. Any time you go on the field, no matter who the opponent is, that’s an opportunity to shine. And to just be open to the new change.’’