Slim harvest
PULLMAN – The colors haven’t started to fade on the Rose Bowl jacket draped over Will Derting’s shoulders.
Three years ago it was Derting, the freshman linebacker, who exploded onto the scene and helped take Washington State University all the way to No. 3 in the polls, all the way to that January date with Oklahoma. A year later, he cemented his stardom with another big year, helping carry the Cougars back to Southern California for a bowl game.
After that, his last two years were supposed to be about more bowl games. They were supposed to be filled with All-American honors and Butkus trophies.
They weren’t, however, supposed to be spent in casts, on crutches and on the couch for the holidays.
It’s amazing what can happen in two years.
“I really took winning for granted,” Derting said as he stares down his final collegiate game, an Apple Cup with nothing substantive on the line. “I thought that’s just what we did. I thought that always happened. And I really realized you need to cherish those moments when you’re winning and having success. They are hard to get.”
In those first two years playing for WSU, the kid from Okanogan, Wash., became a Cougars icon of sorts. He grew up on the farm, played in a town of which no one outside of Washington has heard. Derting became a general agriculture major in Pullman, just another in a long line of family members to spend their college years as a Cougar. His last two classes this fall before graduating in December? Crops is the first, Soils the second.
“He’s genuine, I guess, is a nice way to put it,” said WSU head coach Bill Doba. “He hasn’t always done everything right, but when he does do something wrong he’s the first guy to come and talk to you. He doesn’t alibi.”
In the process of becoming Eastern Washington’s most popular Cougar, Derting turned into the favorite of one other person, even if he won’t admit it – the head coach himself.
Doba has long spoken of Derting in tones used for no one else. The former linebackers coach, who once insisted to Mike Price that WSU offer Derting a scholarship, sees a toughness in his protégé that others don’t seem to possess. The way he describes Derting – straightforward, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth – are many of the same attributes others ascribe to Doba.
“They’re best friends on the team,” junior linebacker Scott Davis said of player and coach. “Dert knows everything before the players know because he’s always in there talking to Coach Doba.
“On the same page at all times. I don’t know, it almost seems like they have their own language. Everyone is out of the loop except for them two.”
Added linebackers coach Leon Burtnett: “Coach Doba recruited him. He coached him. There’s just a mutual respect for each other. I think that happens when you recruit a kid and he develops into a top player with us.”
Maybe that’s what makes the last two years so painful. The icon of WSU football’s success became iconic of its failures, too.
The descent was swift. In the first fall scrimmage of 2004, Derting dislocated his left wrist and had to play the entire season in a cast. Limited practice time at a new position, having moved from outside linebacker to the middle that summer, caused difficulties on the field. Trying to tackle with one hand didn’t help, either.
Flash forward to 2005, when Derting could have been on his way to another standout year until the fourth game, when a knee injury – the third of his football career – essentially wiped out his senior year.
The MCL tear came, of all times, on a quarterback sneak in near-garbage time at Oregon State.
“At least have me doing something else,” Derting said of the play. “I knew something wasn’t good in there. I felt cracks and kind of a pop when I did it. I knew I did something bad.”
Derting finally got back on the field last week against Oregon for his home finale, but just the first six plays on the field proved taxing. It’s unlikely that the defensive captain will play more than 15 snaps Saturday, and postseason surgery looks probable.
“He was really frustrated when it first happened,” Doba said. “Those are his hopes and dreams.”
Derting said his NFL dreams are far from over, and Doba agreed that some team will certainly give him a shot based on talent and toughness alone. He’ll get at least two shots to prove himself playing in a pair of all-star bowls designed to show players off for NFL scouts.
Generously listed at 6-foot, 233 pounds, Derting should project as a middle linebacker in the pros, too short and likely too slow to play outside.
“I think I’m physical enough to play in there,” Derting said of playing in the middle down the road. “Football has given me so much and I think it still has a lot to give. I don’t want to stop playing. As long as I can play I’m going to play.”
Talking about the future has never held as much appeal for the 22-year-old. (His mother, Margaret, once said that the women do most of the talking in the family.) Instead, Derting has always been about the present, every game and every snap. Injuries have robbed him of the one personal goal to which he admitted: cracking the top 10 in career tackles at WSU.
They’ve helped take the team successes as well.
“We could have done a lot better,” Derting said, finding the words that summarize his career best. “I just go and play football.”