How WSU’s Jeremiah Noga gained the tools to be a top wide receiver

PULLMAN – Before long, John Noga figured out a trick. The father of five comes from a long lineage of football talent, so as he worked to shape the next generation, he wanted to put his kids through intense workouts in sand pits. That included Jeremiah, his oldest son.

But this was years ago, long before Jeremiah blossomed into an Oregon State standout wide receiver and transferred to Washington State for this season. Back then, Jeremiah wasn’t even a teenager, which meant he tired quickly. How could John get the most out of his son in these settings?

The answer, he figured out, was to disguise the workouts. He brought along his oldest daughter, Makenzie, who was four years older – and had Jeremiah chase her. They traipsed all around the sand pits, located at a park in their hometown of Grants Pass, Oregon, until Jeremiah was wiped out.

“She would never give him a break,” John laughed.

In the years that followed, Jeremiah became stronger and stronger. He didn’t fall behind his sister as easily. Then he found it easier to outrun her. John and his children went three days a week to the pits, going to lift and run in the evenings after school and work, and soon enough Jeremiah was strong enough to complete workouts in earnest.

Several years and a few chapters of life later, Jeremiah still thinks about those days sometimes. On a Friday night, he might have enjoyed a solid game for his Hidden Valley High team. On Saturday, he went right back to the pits with his dad, all while his friends took the day off and rested.

“My dad didn’t let that happen. He built that into me,” Jeremiah said on Wednesday, a few days removed from his first game at WSU. “I’m harder on myself than the coaches are on me. It has to be that way. If we want to be a great team, each player has to be that way. So hats off to my dad. He’s the way I am right now.”

Even in his final season of college eligibility, which he’s using to catch balls from WSU quarterback Jaxon Potter in head coach Jimmy Rogers’ first season with the Cougars, Noga remembers those days like they were yesterday. When he thinks about his journey, starting as a walk-on at Oregon State before taking his talents to Pullman four years later, he’s quick to credit John: For his work ethic, for his attention to detail, for his obsession with fixing the minutiae in his game.

For Noga, it’s one thing to talk about the influence his dad had on him. It’s another for him to put it on display naturally. A few days after hauling in five receptions for 54 yards in WSU’s win over Idaho, the second-best game of his career in both metrics, Noga felt more drawn to his mistakes: Missed assignments, routes he could have run better.

“I’m more of the type of guy to look at myself and see my MAs or my minuses, and I’m like, dang, how do I fix that?” Noga said. “Instead of the good play I just did. So when I come on the sideline or watch film the next day, it’s more of me trying to fix the negative things instead of the big things, trying to get better each day.”

If Noga is critical of himself after that type of game, in which he caught three passes of 10-plus yards, the Cougs might be in a better spot at wide receiver than they expected. They entered this season without a bonafide star at wideout. The candidate who figured to fit that bill the best, junior college transfer Devin Ellison, is set to miss his second straight game to open the season with a heel contusion, an injury Rogers said the team “can’t figure out.”

For Noga, the door was already cracked. Now it might be fully swung open, allowing Noga to take the tools that helped him earn a scholarship at Oregon State – a bigger frame, reliable hands, unrelenting work ethic – and use them to bolster WSU’s offense.

In some ways, after he decided to transfer from Oregon State last winter, Noga and the Cougs were always meant for each other. Noga grew up earning things, from a scholarship to meaningful playing time, and he prefers it that way. So when he got a call from Rogers, who emphasized that Noga would have to earn his spot in WSU’s wide receiver rotation, it was music to his ears.

Rogers liked what he saw all along. Noga was productive enough at OSU. He also had the motor WSU coaches were looking for. Rogers likes to say you can judge a wide receiver’s effort when they aren’t getting the ball, when they’re asked to block. Noga checked those boxes too.

“And he always plays full speed,” Rogers said. “I love him. He’s been a great worker. He doesn’t say much. He came in and earned the players respect by how he works. And he’s really smart, so he’s been able to pick this offense up and execute at a high level for us.”

“He’s big and long and he catches the football, but also that he’s an experienced guy,” said safeties coach Pete Menage, referencing what makes Noga a tough cover for his guys. “He’s crafty and he’s tough. That’s the one thing that maybe stood out right away to me when he got here was, man, that Noga kid is pretty tough. He’s a receiver, but he’s not afraid to go mix it up. That’s definitely been the thing that I think has maybe pushed him into the position that he’s in, right now, above just being able to catch football and run the right routes.”

About a month ago, when the Cougs were wrapping up their first week of fall camp, Noga found himself streaking down the sideline and settling under a bomb from Potter, who had lofted the pass in-stride to Noga. In hindsight, it was the type of play that earned Potter the Cougs’ starting QB role, the type that helped Noga cement himself in his team’s receiver corps.

But about an hour later, when asked to recount the play, Noga’s mind didn’t go right to it. Instead, he gravitated to a rep earlier in practice, when he made a mistake on the same route. He was working on memorizing the playbook, he said, on establishing better rapport with quarterbacks.

Only then did he break down the play, a 65-yard touchdown pass at Gesa Field. Noga has yet to make a play like that during a game, but if he’s made anything clear since then, it’s this: The more he critiques himself, the better chance he has of doing so.

“It just comes from my dad,” he said.

These days, Noga isn’t getting fooled by his dad’s tricks. He’s living out the lessons he learned from him.