WSU redshirt freshman Anthony Palano to start at MLB, plus five freshmen to see key roles

PULLMAN – Washington State has its starting middle linebacker for this season.

The Cougars will start redshirt freshman Anthony Palano, coach Jimmy Rogers said Wednesday evening, entrusting Palano with a key role on the team’s defense. Palano, the team’s first confirmed starter, played six games for Rogers last season at South Dakota State, all on special teams.

Listed at 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds, Palano seized control of the middle linebacker spot with a spectacular fall camp, earning consistent reps with the first-team units on defense. Just 19 years old, Palano will be one of the Cougs’ youngest starters.

“His prep and growth that he’s taken in the spring, and he’s never really had a freshman mindset, even when he was with us at South Dakota State,” Rogers said. “He knew how to line up. He knew what he was doing. He knew what to say. He just needed live reps to continue to get underneath of himself and execute a defense. And along that, there’s going to come bumps along the way, but he’s extremely intelligent.”

Palano may have earned the starting position anyway, but his path to that spot became clearer in the wake of the season-ending injury to fifth-year senior Keith Brown, who is out with an undisclosed upper-body injury. Based on observations from WSU’s fall camp, which concluded last week, Palano will join veterans Parker McKenna and Caleb Francl at the linebacker spots.

Palano was a three-year varsity starter at Buffalo Grove High in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A class of 2024 prospect, Palano played several positions, including safety and wide receiver, giving him the foundation of versatility that has served him well at WSU.

Out of high school, Palano earned offers from South Dakota State, Butler and Valparaiso, all of the FCS ranks. He chose the Jackrabbits in large part thanks to his relationship with defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit, who himself is from the state of Illinois.

On Wednesday, Rogers also confirmed the team would release a depth chart ahead of its Aug. 30 season-opener against nearby Idaho.

Freshman cornerback Tyrone Cotton III is also recovering from a shoulder injury, Rogers added.

Several freshmen expected to exceed 4-game limit

Five freshmen are expected to play more than four games, Rogers said, which would put them over the four-game limit and remove them from redshirt eligibility: Wide receiver Carter Pabst, cornerback Trillion Sorrell, safeties Kyle Peterson and Damarius Russell and linebacker Sullivan Schlimgen.

Pabst, Sorrell, Russell and Schlimgen were all part of SDSU’s class of 2025, electing to follow Rogers to WSU last winter. The exception is Peterson, who committed to the Cougars in July 2024, when Jake Dickert was the team’s head coach.

Pabst, a Kansas native, has made perhaps the biggest splash of the group of five. He authored some of the top highlights of fall camp, including a 65-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Zevi Eckhaus, underscoring the consistency that has caught coaches’ eyes.

“Carter Pabst has had an unbelievable fall camp,” Rogers said.

At cornerback, Sorrell will likely slot in somewhere behind Colby Humphrey and Jamorri Colson, who project to start. During fall camp, Sorrell made plays by the bushel, knocking away passes and picking off others.

Schlimgen has earned Rogers’ praise on several occasions since fall camp started, signaling how much coaches believe in his game IQ, physical gifts and his ability to put them together. Expect him to play behind the Cougs’ three starters, then somewhere alongside second-teamers redshirt freshmen Gage Jones and Carsten Reynolds, plus redshirt senior Gavin Barthiel.

At the safety spot, Peterson and Russell’s situations are a bit trickier. Because they’re playing behind WSU’s most veteran position group, which includes Tucker Large, Matt Durrance and Cale Reeder, their playing time figures to be harder to come by.

But Large and Reeder have missed a handful of fall camp practices. Rogers said he expects both to be ready for the Cougs’ season-opener, but Large has sat out as he rests and “deals with some stuff right now.” At last week’s media day, Reeder was seen on crutches, same as he was the following day of practice.

“He’ll be back in the next two weeks,” Rogers said on Aug. 14, putting Reeder on track for the season-opener. “He has a slight issue with his knee. We’re kinda monitoring him and trying to take care of his body more than anything else. We expect him to be ready to go here in the next two weeks.”