In WSU’s loss to No. 4 Ole Miss, DE Isaac Terrell makes his name one to remember

OXFORD, Miss. – Isaac Terrell ambled into the side room with a box of food in his hands and a quiet confidence in his soul. His hair was still wet from a shower, which he had used to recover from making four tackles for loss in his Washington State team’s narrow loss to No. 4 Ole Miss, and he walked with a slight gimp.

When he finally settled down at a table, ready to discuss the way he almost singlehandedly pulled a gear out of the Rebels’ offense in Saturday’s game, he looked like his usual self: Soft-spoken, thoughtful, confident. He might come by all three naturally. With the way he’s breaking out this season, making TFLs by the bushel almost every week, he’s building more and more of the third.

“It was really just effort,” said Terrell, who goes by the nickname Bobby because of his resemblance to Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy. “O-line was gassed because they run a really fast tempo, and their O-line wasn’t conditioned enough. And as the game kept going on, they just kept getting more tired, more tired. I don’t know, it just kinda fueled me to try even harder, because I was just seeing them tired. I was like, I’m ready to go. I’m ready to roll.”

Terrell’s emergence is a key development on WSU’s defensive line, which is a little depleted. Starting defensive tackle Max Baloun is out for the season with a knee injury. Backup Kaden Beatty was not on this week’s two-deep because he broke his foot in the Cougars’ last game, coach Jimmy Rogers said. Even in Saturday’s game, veteran defensive end Raam Stevenson missed several snaps with his own injury.

Enter Terrell, who has used this entire season to make splashes. On the year, he has 41/2 sacks. On one, he forced a safety. On another, here in Oxford, he forced a fumble. It isn’t a stretch to say he was the Cougs’ best player on Saturday. It might not even be ridiculous to say he was the best player for either team.

“Trusting the scheme, just the knowledge of being in it and understanding,” Rogers said, “sometimes the chances you can take and then going out and executing those. He plays with his hair on fire. He’s really physical. He’s an explosive kid. When you care like how he cares, because he’s banged up and he’s still out there battling, I think good things can happen. I’m proud of him and proud of many of them. There’s no player in the country that’s 100%, and he’s one that’s battled through injuries, and you wouldn’t notice the difference by how he plays.”

If there’s a current WSU player who likes this new coaching staff more, he hasn’t made it clear. On several occasions this season, even during fall camp, Terrell has talked about why he likes Rogers, defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit and the rest of the coaching staff. They’re positive, Terrell likes to say, and they infuse him with the type of confidence that has unlocked his best season yet. “(They) just believe in me,” Terrell said. “Trust me.”

What’s interesting about Terrell’s story: He would have another year of eligibility if he didn’t play so much as a true freshman. In 2023, he played in seven games, three more than the four required to retain a redshirt. But in those extra three games, he only played a combined nine snaps, meaning he burned his redshirt over nine plays.

Two years later, Terrell is making his new coaches look like wise men. He’s making his decision to play at WSU, where he takes pride in his role, look even smarter.

“This is just Cougar football,” Terrell said. “Everyone on the team, they don’t necessarily have God-gifted size, speed and strength. Everything wasn’t handed to us. And so everyone on the team comes from a background of earning what they have, and that’s why they play at WSU – because other schools overlooked them. So they came and played here. So each week, we just continue to get better and progress, and defense as a whole has been working really hard to get better.”