How WSU DC Jesse Bobbit built one of the nation’s finest defenses

PULLMAN – Jesse Bobbit squints and looks out of his office window, a fifth-floor perch with a picturesque view of Gesa Field, where his Washington State defense has made mincemeat of nearly every opponent that has dared set foot in the place this fall. On this November morning, sunlight bathes the entire scene in brilliant colors, the green turf and the crimson Cougar logos and even the occasional white speck on Bobbit’s beard, belying the defensive coordinator’s young age of 31.

When he turns away from the window and swivels his chair back to face his desk, where a black laptop flanks another monitor, Bobbit has come up with an answer to the question: Five years ago, could you have seen yourself in this position?

“To see myself sitting in this chair, at a level like this, a school like this, in this position, I could see it,” Bobbit says. “But I didn’t see it happening this fast.”

In a brilliant debut season as WSU’s defensive coordinator, Bobbit has shredded the traditional path to a position like this, the kind that goes low-level FCS to high-level FCS to low-level FBS, the type of rollercoaster grind that takes years to complete. Instead, Bobbit began his college coaching career as a GA at South Dakota State in 2019, worked the same job at WSU from 2020-21, then worked as SDSU’s safeties coach in 2022 before becoming the Jackrabbits’ DC for each of the following two seasons.

Before he knew it, he was flourishing as the DC of the Cougars, who are playing the kind of defense that only arrives in Pullman once in a blue moon. Ahead of a road test this weekend against No. 21 James Madison, one of the top contenders for the Group of 5 College Football Playoff spot, WSU ranks No. 18 nationally in total defense. Across their last four games, the Cougs are permitting only 10 points per game. In their last six, they were yielding only 11 – both of which meet Bobbit’s goal of 14 points a game or fewer.

Bobbit’s success on defense underscores the larger transformation unfolding at Washington State, which is trading the high-flying Air Raid offense for a physical approach, doing so to the tune of a 5-5 record this season. It has not been a perfect transition. The Cougs opened the Jimmy Rogers era with a narrow win over FCS Idaho, absorbed a road blowout to North Texas, hung with rival Washington for three quarters before things unraveled, gave SEC power Ole Miss a close game, blew a two-score lead in the fourth quarter of a road loss to Virginia, which stands as the team’s biggest missed opportunity all year, then watched their offense all but vanish in a road setback to Oregon State.

But with only a couple exceptions, the common denominator has been the Cougars’ defense, which has laid the foundation for everything. Their secondary ranks among the nation’s best, allowing only 169 passing yards per game, which is No. 15 nationally. Even with a barrage of injuries at the position, the kind that would decimate other teams, WSU’s defensive line has proven exceptionally deep, permitting only 135 yards a pop, good for No. 49 in the country. In short, the Cougs are delivering on Bobbit’s biggest goal of all.

“We’re winning on defense,” Bobbit said.

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Good luck finding a soul that believed in WSU’s defense in September, after the Cougars gave up more than 50 points in back-to-back weeks, first to North Texas and then to Washington. At the time, the Cougars were missing tackles, missing assignments, missing starters, missing everything. Of course, context sung a different tune – thanks to five turnovers by the offense, the Cougs’ defense started five drives in its own territory, and a pick-six padded the Huskies’ lead the following week – but overall, there are not many positive ways to spin getting 50-balled in two straight games.

“Giving up that many points,” Bobbit said, “I mean, that makes me sick to my stomach, even thinking about those points just being scored.”

So to recenter his guys, to get them to believe in results that seemed almost impossible, Bobbit asked them to change the way they think about the whole thing. In team meetings and at practices, he instilled a different mentality in them. When the Cougars have to take the field at a moment’s notice because of a turnover, no longer should they feel annoyed. They should want to head back out there, to prove they are one of the nation’s finest units.

Has it worked? Look for yourself. When North Texas took over in WSU territory after those five turnovers, the Mean Green scored touchdowns on all five drives, needing an average of two plays to find the end zone. About a month later, when quarterback Zevi Eckhaus threw two interceptions against Virginia, the Cavaliers turned it over on downs after one pick. After the second, which came in the fourth quarter, they managed only a game-tying field goal.

The secret sauce, Bobbit says, has to do with the culture that he and head coach Jimmy Rogers have spent the last 11 months installing around the program. The two words that set the tone: selflessness and accountability. Coaches ask players to check their egos at the door, to be OK with rotating on defense, enough to sacrifice individual numbers for collective success.

Bobbit sees it materialize in lots of ways. One of the more recent examples came about three weeks ago, when WSU was preparing for a road test against Oregon State. Redshirt freshman Anthony Palano had started each of his games at middle linebacker, but because of some tackling issues, coaches had begun to pivot to true freshman Sullivan Schlimgen, who was already earning more snaps at that position.

During that week’s practice, Bobbit said, he opened up a competition between Palano and Schlimgen. “There always is,” Bobbit said, “but truly, like, hey, you’re competing to start this week.” After the Cougars’ first few practices of the week, Bobbit made his decision. On Wednesday night, he met first with Palano, and he gave him the news: Schlimgen would be starting over Palano against Oregon State. Palano said he understood and took the news in stride.

“And I said, you should be hungry. You should be pissed off,” Bobbit said. “Awesome. Use that. And then I went to Schlimgen and told him that he would be starting, and he was pretty giddy and was excited. I said, you’ve earned this, but it doesn’t mean it’s done. It’s gonna be a constant competition. And so that’s the challenge.

“Those two, if you saw them at practice, you saw them together, you’d never think these two are battling for starting and playing time. If I say something to one of them, they’re going to tell the other one, so then we can have success. That’s kinda that selfless mentality I’m talking about.”

In many ways, WSU’s defense is a brick wall. In others, it’s an enigma. On the season, the Cougars rank dead last in the country in Pro Football Focus’ tackling grades. WSU defenders have missed 155 tackles, which is the second-most nationally, where that mark has hovered for much of the season. Veteran linebacker Caleb Francl has played some of his best football lately, but he still ranks fourth nationwide with 22 whiffs, and Palano ranks No. 17 with 17 misses of his own.

Yet the Cougars’ defense has blossomed into one of the country’s best. In a blowout win over Louisiana Tech last weekend, WSU defenders held the Bulldogs to just three points and 167 yards of total offense. In the same game, they missed 12 tackles. Even the week prior, in a 10-7 loss to Oregon State, the Cougs’ defense looked scintillating. But that group still missed 18 tackles.

How do those two realities co-exist? The secret is in what Bobbit calls swarm. The Cougs have missed a few tackles that led to the types of explosive plays that Bobbit wants to limit – cornerback Colby Humphrey couldn’t bring down a Virginia ballcarrier for a game-tying touchdown, for example – but more often, they’re rallying to the ball, mobbing the ballcarrier like moths to a flame. That doesn’t just negate the impact of missed tackles. It also limits explosive plays, which Bobbit calls passing plays of 20-plus yards and rushes of 12-plus, and he wants to hold opponents to five or fewer per game.

That has not happened by accident. In each practice, the Cougars hold a segment dedicated to swarming the ball, where defenders have to diagnose the play and run to the ball. “And if we’re not, they’re doing up-downs,” Bobbit said. The truth is WSU’s defense is designed to encourage check-downs, which forces opponents to grind out long drives, but it also forces the Cougars to make tackles in space, which is where some misses have happened.

In 10 games, WSU defenders have met Bobbit’s goal of five explosive plays or fewer on six occasions. In that department, one of the Cougs’ best games came in their loss to Oregon State, which managed only four explosives. But those came at costly times for WSU.

On their go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, the Beavers ripped off 25 yards on a pass from quarterback Maalik Murphy to receiver Taz Reddicks, who secured a circus catch along the sideline, his feet just in bounds. Three plays later, including a 37-yard rush from OSU running back Anthony Hankerson, the Beavs took a lead they never relinquished.

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“Well, within what I called up front didn’t help get any sort of a pass rush, and he had all day long,” Bobbit said. “Took accountability for that. It’s not on the guys. The next play, if there was a weakness in it, could we have executed technique better? But if there was a weakness in that play, and how we pressured, if I call a lot of our other calls, that’s not a 40-yard run, yeah? So I have to take ownership for that too. I think that’s the positive: guys are willing to take ownership, from coaches to players.”

Here is another way the Cougs have unlocked a ferocious defense: With Bobbit’s help, they have internalized the reality that sometimes, they will play their best in losses. It has happened on several occasions, from games against Virginia and Oregon State and even No. 6 Ole Miss. In each of the five games the Rebels have played since topping WSU, they have scored more than the 24 points they put up against the Cougars.

In fact, the Cougars played so well on defense against Ole Miss and Virginia that in the weeks since, Bobbit has fielded calls from Power 4 coaches, who want to pick his brain about how he held those offenses in check.

But in scenarios like those, Bobbit has trained his guys to look inward, no matter how well they played. What could we have done to win that game? He acknowledges it is human nature to shift the blame to the Cougs’ offense, and in fairness, that group probably deserves some. Eckhaus threw two interceptions apiece against Virginia and Oregon State. If he plays even a hair better, if WSU’s offense does not slog through so many listless drives, the Cougars probably win.

But Bobbit has trained that thinking out of his guys, insofar as you can train 18-to-23-year-olds to not be 18-to-23-year-olds. “That has nothing to do to discredit the offense,” Bobbit said. “If they score 70, it needs to be a blowout. If they score 10, then how do we win the game? So that’s what’s been cool, is that guys have really bought into that mentality. I’m proud of that as a coach.”

Selfless as they may be, the players who have produced such a sterling defense deserve some credit too. Veteran safety Tucker Large, whose position coach was Bobbit as a South Dakota State freshman, has played a near-flawless year. Third-year sophomore Isaac Terrell has been the team’s breakout star, piling up five sacks, including tying a program record with four tackles for loss against Ole Miss. Cornerback Colby Humphrey and linebacker Parker McKenna have picked off their defense’s only two passes of the season, another ironic twist to an otherwise scintillating group.

The Cougs have also built remarkable depth on their defensive line, which has been besieged by injuries. In the Apple Cup, starting defensive tackle Max Baloun went down with a season-ending knee injury. Backup Mike Sandjo has played only four games with an injury, and fellow backup Kaden Beatty has played five. Terrell missed one game with his own injury. Defensive end Raam Stevenson missed three.

Somehow, none of it has made a significant dent in the Cougs’ run defense, which has thrived thanks to defensive tackles like Bryson Lamb, Darrion Dalton, Soni Finau and defensive ends like Buddha Peleti, Jack Janikowski and Malaki Ta’ase, the last of whom registered 1.5 sacks last week against Louisiana Tech. Through some combination of training and divine intervention, defensive line coach Jalon Bibbs has those guys playing with their hair on fire.

Putting them in positions to succeed, though, has been the work of Bobbit’s life. To hear him tell it, it began in Pullman.

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Somewhere in his house, Bobbit has a head coaching manual, which he put together some five years ago, when he was a WSU GA. “I should probably take a peek at it,” Bobbit laughs, acknowledging he has not checked it out in a long time. He completed his master’s in 2021 under Dr. Tariq Akmal, WSU’s associate dean for academic affairs, who had Bobbit do his final project on leadership.

In those years, Bobbit learned what he now considers critical to his leadership style. He learned to value tough love, to value empowerment. Back at South Dakota State, he crafted an acronym that now powers his approach to defense, TUFF: team, understanding, focus, finish. His Cougar defenders have wielded it in wins and losses alike. But he also feels like his players’ effort has waned at times, signaling just how high Bobbit has planted the standard around this place.

This is around the time when Bobbit brings up an interesting fact: Only eight points separate WSU from its 5-5 record and a possible 8-2 season. The Cougars lost by three to Ole Miss, by two to Virginia, by three to Oregon State. With wins in those games, could WSU be in the playoff conversation? “Maybe that’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t say so,” Bobbit says.

The Cougs will not get there this season. But the more they play defense the way they have been, swarming to the ball and stuffing runs and prompting Power 4 coaches to call them inquiring about how on earth they just did that, the more they make the playoff seem possible in the years to come.

“We came here to compete, to get into the College Football Playoff,” Bobbit said. “So I think that’s where we’re going. That’s the mentality. We’ll be happy when we achieve that.”