Defensive line lacks experience

PULLMAN – You look down the two-deep for Washington State University’s defensive line and three letters stand out. DNP. As in did not play last season.

Which could be considered a bad thing or a good thing. It all depends on your perspective.

It could be bad because the Cougars are in a rebuilding mode in the key positions up front. There were only 10 starts combined last year for the eight guys who will probably play a lot in the Sept. 5 season opener against Pac-10 rival Stanford.

But it might be good if you consider Washington State’s rushing defense was worst among all 119 Football Bowl Subdivision schools in 2008.

The Cougars yielded 247.6 yards a game, nearly 6 yards a carry and saw the opposition cross the goal line 50 times on running plays.

“Last year was such a rough season all the way through,” said the group’s most experienced returning player, senior defensive end Kevin Kooyman. “People were looking down at the D-line and we’ve got to step up.

“We’re supposed to be the core of the defense, so we really look at it as a challenge.”

The group that’s taking up that challenge includes just two guys who played last season, Kooyman and tackle Toby Turpin, though Turpin didn’t see extensive action until the season’s second half.

There are six newcomers, from senior Jesse Feagin, who sat out last year due to academics, to junior Casey Hamlett, who transferred in last spring after Division II Western Washington dropped its program. There are two junior college transfers, a redshirt freshman and a true freshman.

“We definitely have made a lot of improvements since last year,” Kooyman said. “We are a lot bigger inside than last year and we’re going to be a lot more aggressive.”

Defensive line coach Malik Roberson, in his second year, agrees, especially with the latter part of that statement.

“We’re asking the guys,” Roberson said, “to play sideline to sideline.”

It’s a bigger, stronger group of Cougars Roberson is asking to “fly around.”

Turpin and Kooyman each added 18 pounds of muscle over the off-season while redshirt freshman Dan Spitz and junior college transfer Bernard Wolfgramm each added more than 20 during their redshirt year.

There’s also the introduction of freshman Travis Long, who is running with the first string less than three months after graduating from Gonzaga Prep.

Asked what Long has showed in his first 21 collegiate practices, Roberson answered, “Speed, great pad level and … we get the real good pass rush, real good pass rush.”

But Long is a freshman.

“He’s going to be a great player,” Kooyman said. “I’m trying to lead him in the right direction. … My freshman year, I felt kind of lost. I was playing, what 230 (pounds)? I was getting pushed around.”

Long is bigger, at 247 pounds, though still the lightest of WSU’s top eight. But after last year, any type of reinforcement is welcome.

“I’m excited to see how he plays,” Kooyman said. “We need big guys, we need athletic guys, to compete at this level.”