Notebook: WSU CB Kenny Worthy III to enter transfer portal, Cougars sign Australian punter Ethan Gurney

PULLMAN – At the end of one fall camp practice in August, Washington State cornerback Kenny Worthy III beamed about the progress he was making. He looked like a better cornerback, sure, a stronger athlete surging into the Cougars’ rotation.

But he felt most proud of a different type of growth he was experiencing.

“That’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Worthy said. “Just not taking everything as a personal attack and taking it as someone trying to help me because someone cares about me enough to tell me what I need to get better at.”

Now it looks like he will keep getting better at a different school. Worthy plans to enter the transfer portal, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review on Friday, becoming the third Cougar to do so since the end of the regular season. On that front, he joins quarterback Jaxon Potter and wide receiver Devin Ellison, both of whom made their decisions on Thursday.

247 Sports was the first to report the news.

The transfer portal doesn’t open until Jan. 2, but with regular seasons over across the country, players are beginning to make plans for the portal.

A redshirt freshman from the Phoenix area, Worthy totaled 23 tackles (13 solo) and one pass breakup in all 12 games, logging 348 total snaps on defense. Playing backup cornerback, Worthy allowed 15 receptions on 28 targets, which is a respectable rate.

One of the best signs of Worthy’s development, perhaps signaling he was ready to become an even more prominent part of WSU’s secondary in the years to come, happened in the Cougars’ win over Colorado State on Sept. 27. On one play, he was called for pass interference. Two plays later, he punched out a fumble and handed possession back to his team’s offense.

“I think he’s grown so much,” WSU coach Jimmy Rogers said after that game. “He’s a competitor, and he’s only gonna get better. I do think that he could be a really, really special player here. He’s gotta continue to clean up some of the things. I felt like that wasn’t a PI on him, on that one, on the one that he had, but he’s getting better every week, and I’m proud of Kenny.”

Without Worthy in the fold, WSU will have to get creative at the cornerback position this offseason. Veteran starters Colby Humphrey and Jamorri Colson are graduating, and with their lack of playing time this fall, it’s unclear whether transfers Kai Rapolla and AJ Davis will fit in to the Cougs’ long-term plans. The most obvious candidate to elevate might be true freshman Trillion Sorrell, who stood out in fall camp and played in four games this fall, preserving his redshirt season.

Sorrell was committed to South Dakota State and Rogers, then followed Rogers to WSU last winter. Rogers has sung Sorrell’s praises on several occasions since then.

“Trill is in a pivotal point right now,” Rogers said on Sept. 22, “because he is a guy that we’re gonna lean on, and he’s gotten reps in games and has taken reps at corner. Wen you don’t notice that a freshman is on the field at times, when you watch the film, it’s a good sign, because it means he’s doing his job and he’s there is no weakness there.”

Ellison is also portal-bound, according to a Thursday report from 247 Sports, but that is hardly news. He played just 19 snaps in two games in his one season at WSU, missing some games due to injury and others because he wasn’t in the rotation. He departed the program in mid-November, putting an end to a curious saga.

On top of Potter’s decision to enter the portal on Thursday, three Cougars have made public their plans to leave the program. Potter started each of the first three games of the season, Worthy was a standout backup and Ellison’s time as a Cougar came to an unceremonious end, meaning WSU has yet to lose a long-term starter to the portal since the end of this regular season.

The Cougars (6-6) will learn their bowl destination on Sunday.

WSU adds Australian punter to class of 2026

Turns out, the Cougars weren’t done rounding out their signing class.

WSU added one more player on Friday, announcing the signing of Australian punter Ethan Gurney, who hails from Mercedes College and a coaching program called Prokick Australia.

Cougar fans might recognize the name of that program. That’s the organization that produced former WSU punter Nick Haberer, who handled punting duties from 2021-24. Last winter, he transferred to Vanderbilt, which is now pushing to make the College Football Playoff.

Gurney is the third special teamer in the Cougars’ class of 2026, joining kicker/punter Greg Hubbard and long snapper Jeremy Sousa. Hubbard is an incoming freshman while Sousa previously played two seasons of junior college ball.