‘I’ll go to war with the guys here’: Local roots run through Eastern Washington’s new-look defensive line

While Eastern Washington did, for the most part, hold over players from last season into this one, one position group – the defensive line – was particularly decimated by departure.

At the time, it really hit Jacob Newsom.

“At first, when some of those guys transferred out, I was hurt,” the EWU senior defensive tackle said this week. “I can’t speak for the rest of the guys, but I was hurt personally.”

He was hurt because they were his friends, guys he went to practice every day with. Soon after, though, he came to an understanding.

“I realized if you truly do care about someone, you want what’s best for them,” Newsom said. “And if they think that (is what’s best for them), then they can do it.”

The Eagles (0-1) definitely have a new look on the front line of their defense compared to last season. During the offseason, the ends and tackles group lost 12 players for various reasons. So depleted were they during spring practices that it impacted just how much work the team could do in some situations. The Eagles simply didn’t have the bodies.

Yet even with all that turnover, coaches said that the team’s defensive linemen held their own last week against North Dakota State and that they expect to make steady improvements as they head into Saturday’s game at Fresno State (1-0), which is scheduled for 6 p.m..

“(Against NDSU) you saw guys play without hesitation,” second-year defensive line coach Matt Ulrich said on Monday. “Guys were playing fast. Guys were confident that they knew what they were doing. They had their eyes in the right spot.”

Some of last year’s departures were due to graduation or the exhaustion of eligibility, either of which was the reason why Debore’ae McClain, Mitchell Johnson, Caleb Davis and Emmanuel Osuoha left. But starting tackle Joshua Jerome opted to transfer to Hawaii to play out his final year, and seven others with multiple years of eligibility remaining also chose to leave the program.

The offshoot, though, is their departures left room for transfers, redshirts and even some true freshmen to get into the rotation against North Dakota State, and many of them hail from east of the Cascades.

“We always try to get guys that are Washington guys and local guys if we can find the guys that are talented enough to play here,” Ulrich said. “It just happened to be the last couple of years there’s been some really good linemen in the area that fit the mold as far as what we’re looking for. We’ve gotten lucky to have those guys in our backyard.”

Proximity was a big reason why Ben Voigtlaender committed to Eastern Washington after graduating from Mead High School in 2020. Voigtlaender had also been coached by former EWU players Greg Peach and Dario Romero, as well as current EWU defensive backs coach Zach Bruce.

“There was just something about those guys and the success they had on and off the field that was really impressive to me,” Voigtlaender said Monday, “and I equated that to the fact that they were Eastern Washington Eagles.”

Voigtlaender served on a mission his first two years out of high school but rejoined the team in person in June 2022. That was a busy summer for him: In August, on the same day as a team scrimmage, he got married.

“I played in the first half of our scrimmage, and then right before halftime I tailed off and got married,” he said. “My wife (Rachel’s) only deal was I couldn’t get hurt and I had to make sure I was there on time.”

Voigtlaender played significant minutes in the defensive line rotation last week, making two tackles. Aside from appearances on special teams last year, it was the redshirt freshman’s first game action since high school.

“To go from Joe Albi Stadium to U.S. Bank Stadium (in Minneapolis), that was a really cool experience,” he said.

Newsom is another one of the locals. He graduated from Colville High School in 2019, and in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season Newsom started all seven games for the Eagles. But each of the next two seasons, teammates passed him on the depth chart.

“I was kind of lost. I was struggling with confidence last year a lot,” Newsom said. “I started my redshirt freshman year, and I thought I’d be a dude for years here.”

Then he saw many teammates leave after the 2022 season – only to see a significant turnaround in the position group as new players joined.

“Coming into this year, the offseason was amazing,” Newsom said. “… I’ll go to war with the guys here any day.”

Senior Brock Harrison, the lone returning regular starter on the defensive line, became a team captain. Junior Matthew Brown earned a starting spot. Justis La’ulu, a redshirt last year, switched from offensive line to defensive tackle and became Brown’s backup.

The Eagles also brought in transfer Isaiah Perez, a 2020 Othello (Washington) High graduate who went on a mission and then played a year at BYU. He backed up Newsom at the other tackle position in Week 1.

They also recruited Da’Marcus Johnson to play his final year of eligibility with the Eagles after playing the last three years at Fresno State.

“When I first saw (Johnson) play, I thought, ‘How in the world did we get this guy?’ ” Newsom said. “This is a guy who belongs at a Power Five school. He’s a crazy athlete. A lot of size and a lot of length. And he’s a craftsman with his tools.”

Jaden Radke, a true freshman who graduated from Okanogan (Washington) High last spring, played significant minutes at defensive end against NDSU, rounding out the depth chart up front.

“It’s not something we ever really plan on doing in playing a true freshman,” Ulrich said. “We needed a guy to step up, and Jaden is unlike most freshmen. He came in pretty developed in the weight room for one, and he’s a 4.0 student who is incredibly sharp for a freshman and for an 18-year-old.”

The local ties in the position group go deeper, including redshirt freshman tackle Ethan Williamson, a 2022 Mt. Spokane grad; true freshman Brandon Thomas, from Central Valley; and redshirt freshman Elijah Rodriguez, a Richland High graduate who converted from linebacker to defensive end.

The defense’s challenge this week will be different against a pass-first Bulldogs offense. The Eagles did not fare well in their two FBS matchups last season, losing 70-14 at Oregon and 52-17 at Florida two weeks later.

But the new-look front of the defense is aiming for continuous improvement, regardless of the opponent.

“Every week I am confident in what our defense can do,” Harrison said during media availability on Tuesday. “We’re building more and more. We’re not there yet, but we’re going to get there. We all believe in our team. We believe in what we have.”