WSU lands veteran New Mexico State OL transfer, SMU transfer DT

PULLMAN – Washington State has landed two of its most experienced players of the spring.

The Cougars signed two new transfers on Monday, the program announced on social media: New Mexico State transfer offensive lineman AJ Vaipulu and SMU transfer defensive tackle Mike Yoan Sandjo-Njiki. They make WSU’s sixth and seventh additions of the spring.

Vaipulu, the third New Mexico State player to transfer to WSU this spring, amounts to one of the Cougars’ most experienced additions. In three years of action at NMSU, Vaipulu started 37 games, all at the guard spots (he started one game at center). Last season, he earned an All-Conference USA second-team honor, allowing just one sack on 20 pressures.

Listed at 6-foot-2 and 295 pounds, Vaipulu immediately infuses a veteran presence into a WSU offensive line corps lacking in that department. The Cougs’ starters will likely include center Brock Dieu and tackle Christian Hilborn, both of whom have started multiple seasons at WSU, but their supporting cast is largely inexperienced and unproven. The list includes redshirt sophomore Ashton Tripp, redshirt freshman Noah Dunham and redshirt junior Jonny Lester.

Combined, those three have played in 17 games, with no starts.

That’s the importance of Vaipulu, whether or not he joins the starting lineup. A native of Riverside, California, Vaipulu was a three-star prospect out of high school. In the class of 2022, he earned one other offer, which came from Hawaii.

If statistics are any indication, Vaipulu appears to thrive more in the run-blocking department than pass blocking. Last season, he earned a Pro Football Focus run blocking grade of 68.6 and a pass blocking grade of 58.8. He was at his best in games against Liberty and Western Kentucky, against whom he recorded run blocking grades of above 80.0, an excellent figure.

Vaipulu seems to be less effective protecting the passer – last year, he led the team with 408 pass-blocking snaps, but finished with one of the offensive line’s lowest grades – but that figures to matter less in WSU’s new offense, which will likely lean heavily on the run. That was the indication all spring from new head coach Jimmy Rogers, who teamed up with offensive coordinator Danny Freund to torch opponents on the ground at their previous stop of South Dakota State.

Vaipulu joins defensive linemen Buddha Peleti and Malaki Ta’ase as New Mexico State transfers to join WSU this spring.

Meanwhile, WSU also beefed up its defensive line corps with the addition of SMU transfer defensive tackle Sandjo-Njiki, who started his career with one season at Navarro College (Texas) before transferring to SMU, where he played 28 games in three seasons. Last fall, he totaled three tackles and one forced fumbles for the Mustangs, who made the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Checking in at 6-2 and 302 pounds, Sandjo-Njiki saw his most action last fall in a game against Pitt, when he posted one half tackle in 15 snaps. In his other four games – against Louisville, Virginia, Cal and Penn State in the CFP – his snap count hovered around five.

But Sandjo-Njiki saw more meaningful playing time in 2022 and 2023, when he combined for 11 tackles (3.5 for loss), 1.5 sacks and one pass defended. In that pair of seasons, Sandjo-Njiki played 421 snaps in 23 games, finding a niche as a backup for the Mustangs, who followed a 7-6 campaign in 2022 with an 11-3 flourish in 2023.

That experience figures to help Sandjo-Njiki at WSU, which has made an obvious effort to upgrade its defensive line since spring ball concluded on April 12. Since then, the Cougars have added Sandjo-Njik, Ta’ase, Peleti and San Diego State transfer Darrion Dalton, who is similarly experienced.

That group will compete with the DTs already on the Cougs’ roster, including key pieces in returner Bryson Lamb, South Dakota State transfer Max Baloun and Cal Poly transfer Soni Finau, which is the trio that saw the majority of first- and second-team reps during spring ball. Redshirt junior Rashad Mackenzie was part of that group, but he entered the transfer portal on April 16.

Mackenzie is one of 25 Cougars to enter the portal this spring as the team looks to maximize the incoming roster limits of 105 players. Many of that group included players who didn’t figure to see the playing time they would like, but WSU has lost senior wide receiver Tre Shackelford and highly touted freshman safeties Hunter Haines and Aiden Knapke in more meaningful departures.