Darryl Monroe leaves the Cougars

Darryl Monroe entered last season as the spokesman of the Washington State defense.

Well-spoken and a two-year starter heading into his junior season, Monroe was WSU’s defensive representative at Pac-12 Media Days and was asked to further engage with fans by conducting video walkthroughs of the football operations building and interviewing freshmen in short videos produced by the athletic department.

On the first day of fall camp he tried to set the tone for the season, saying, “Last year was just a taste, it was like a little drop of blood to a shark. He’s fiending so now we’re fiending for success, so right now the sky isn’t even the limit. We’re trying to go past that, go to outer space.”

Now, Monroe has quit the team. Cougfan.com’s Chris Shaw first reported Monroe’s departure and I have since confirmed it.

More on this after the jump.

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After redshirting as a freshman, Monroe started the first 32 consecutive games of his career. Obviously, big things were expected of him this year, and he expected big things of himself after bulking up this offseason.

“I feel like everything is a lot easier right now,” he said during camp. “Just shedding, getting off blocks is easier.  Snatching receivers down is easier. Even like in special teams when we do one-on-one punt drills, just clubbing the guy by, watching him go five yards, I can definitely feel the difference and I love it so I’m just going to keep working and transferring it to gametime.”

But when the games actually started it seemed that Monroe was a step slow, missed tackles and Mike Leach said after the team’s game at Nevada that Monroe had not played up to expectations and needed to “clear his mind.”

After the Stanford game he lost his middle linebacker spot to Peyton Pelluer and never got it back, although he did play extensively. While it’s unknown if this is related to his decision to leave the program it’s also worth noting that Monroe was involved in more practice fights than typical toward the end of the season and seemed to be frustrated at times.

It is believed but not certain that Monroe is close to graduating. If he is he would be able to transfer to another Division I school. His departure means the Cougars have an opening at backup middle linebacker, which will be yet another storyline to watch this spring. Personally, I’d keep an eye on Chandler Leniu.