In praise of WSU’s secondary, which has thrived under thankless conditions

PULLMAN – Playing in the secondary can be a tricky situation. If you do it poorly, and the opposing quarterback lights you up, you become an instant liability. Everyone notices. It is a story right away.

But if you do it well, you run into a problem of the complete opposite nature. Eventually, quarterbacks do not even throw your way. Nobody really notices. You are locking down wide receivers in ways that become thankless.

Such is the case for the Washington State secondary, which has quietly blossomed into one of the team’s strongest units, if not the strongest. Veteran safeties Tucker Large and Cale Reeder have patrolled the middle of the field. Cornerbacks Colby Humphrey and Jamorri Colson have gotten even less fanfare, but they have been just as effective – same for redshirt freshman corner Kenny Worthy III.

Nine games into the year, WSU is allowing just 181 passing yards per game, which ranks No. 21 nationwide.

The head of the snake has been Large, who began as a walk-on at South Dakota State, became a star and followed coach Jimmy Rogers to WSU last offseason. Through nine games, Large has the Cougars’ best Pro Football Focus coverage grade, coming in at 76.0, far above average. He has two pass breakups, tops on the team, and if not for a stray holding call on Colson in WSU’s loss to Ole Miss last month, he would also have an interception.

His backfield mate, Reeder, has been equally as good. He has not allowed a touchdown all year – Large’s one TD allowed came late in the first half of a win over Toledo, which was the Rockets’ only scoring play of the game – and he has all but taken over the reins at the strong safety spot.

Earlier in the season, he was sharing the role with fellow veteran safety Matt Durrance, but that has begun to change. Durrance played only 16 snaps against Toledo, then only 8 against Oregon State. Meanwhile, Reeder played 55 against Toledo, 52 against OSU. It is clear coaches are more comfortable rolling with Reeder for the most part.

But if there is one part of Reeder’s game that needs a tad work, it is his tackling. In the Cougars’ loss to the Beavers on the first of the month, Reeder missed five tackles. WSU has been able to mitigate the damage of those under Rogers, whose group has found ways to swarm to the ball, but whiffs have been a yearlong bugaboo for the Cougs.

At the cornerback spots, WSU has enjoyed some of the same levels of success. Colson was targeted just once against OSU, only twice apiece against Virginia. On those five plays, Colson allowed just one catch. Humphrey has permitted a few more catches recently – in his last three games, he has allowed 7 receptions on 11 targets – but those have not cost the Cougars in any big ways.

“It doesn’t really matter how we play at the end of the day,” Large said last month, after WSU’s close loss to ACC power Virginia. “On defense, obviously want to play really good, but the only thing that really matters is a W or L. So if we come up short on getting a W, job just wasn’t done. So we gotta be better as an overall team.”

The Cougars have done so. Their next task comes on Saturday, when they will take on Louisiana Tech, whose starting QB went down with a season-ending injury last weekend.