Inside the perspective that led WSU DE Matyus McLain back to Pullman
PULLMAN – Matyus McLain’s life trajectory changed in the middle of nowhere, on a nondescript part of Interstate 5 in Oregon. It was early January, and after spending the first three years of his career playing defensive end at Idaho, McLain entered the transfer portal to look for a new home.
He had no shortage of suitors. He was coveted by Wisconsin, so he booked a trip to Madison, only for the Badgers to pull out a day before. He was recruited hard by Kansas State, another Power 4 school that offered sums of NIL dollars for McLain’s services, as was Utah, which coaxed McLain into visiting campus in Salt Lake City.
But as McLain thought harder about where he wanted to spend the 2026 season, he narrowed his options down to three: Oregon State, which he had just visited. UCF, which was really trying to get McLain down to Orlando. And Washington State, the school only a two-hour drive from his hometown in North Idaho, the same team that he grew up attending games with his parents, Drew and Julianne.
So on this afternoon in early January, the three were cruising down the interstate, headed from Corvallis to Portland. UCF coaches weren’t just in touch with McLain. They were hoping that when the three arrived at the Portland airport, they could hop on a flight to Orlando for a visit. The Knights gave him a sizable NIL offer, and McLain had to think about things.
He grew up rooting for WSU, and he had long dreamed of playing for the Cougars. But now with a chance to realize his dream, his mind wandered. Why would I go right down the road? he thought to himself. Who would want to do that?
“Forge another path, Matyus,” McLain told himself.
But then McLain thought back to his visit at WSU, thought about the way he clicked with defensive coordinator Trent Bray and defensive line coach Andrew Browning, the latter of whom showed a level of detail that impressed McLain. He thought back to the camaraderie he shared with head coach Kirby Moore. “I was like, I can live the dream that I wanted to because of these people,” McLain said.
McLain understood that WSU likely couldn’t offer him the same amount that UCF did, but that didn’t bother him. He placed more importance on playing for coaches he trusted, at a place he had always admired. So on the road, he called a Cougar representative and told them that the Knights were after him hard, that they had delivered a substantive NIL offer. Could WSU meet him somewhere in the middle?
About 30 minutes later, he was told yes.
So when the three arrived at the Portland airport, they passed on the flight to Orlando. Instead, they boarded their scheduled flight back to Spokane, then drove 80 minutes back to Priest River, Idaho, a place that rarely produces players of McLain’s caliber.
About a day later, McLain announced his commitment to Washington State.
“It’s the world for me,” McLain said, “honestly.”
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The thing about McLain, the thing that sets him apart before you even watch him play, is that he looks the part. He stands 6-foot-4, and listed at 253 pounds, he is every bit filled out. He smiles easily, laughs even easier. If you didn’t know him, didn’t know his background and had to guess what he does for a living, football player would probably be one of the first things you guess.
He’s delivered on that kind of potential already. At Idaho, he redshirted in 2023 before playing 11 games in a reserve role in 2024. But he broke out in 2025, starting in all 12 games. He totaled 42 tackles, 131/2 for loss and 4½ sacks. He also forced one fumble.
WSU fans might remember that one. It came in Idaho’s season opener, a road matchup 8 miles west at Gesa Field, where the Cougars were nursing a three-point lead in the game’s final two minutes. In an effort to bleed clock, on a second-and-8, WSU decided on a handoff for running back Angel Johnson. Cougar QB Jaxon Potter took a shotgun snap, turned around and put the ball in Johnson’s midsection.
Johnson angled right, then tried to reverse to his left. He didn’t make it that far. He was greeted by McLain, who came surging through the line of scrimmage, created his own gap and flattened Johnson, springing the ball loose in the process. A teammate, Donovan Parham, fell on the ball and the Vandals tied the game with a field goal moments later.
“I turn on the tape in the first game, and we can’t block the guy,” Moore said, thinking back to how he identified McLain out of the transfer portal. “So in terms of the impact that he had at Idaho, and just in terms of the pass rush and being able to stop the run, those are important things for us from a defensive standpoint. And his leadership and charisma and connection with his teammates really stood out.”
“I wish we would have scored there. Would have been nice for us,” McLain said. “It was just fun to be in the stadium that I grew up watching people play in. And now I’m finally here. I’m super excited to actually play in it.”
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As for the opportunity to play at Gesa Field, even as an opponent?
“There was some high emotions,” McLain said. “Maybe a little bit of resentment at times, because I was like, they didn’t want me. That’s not really my mojo, though, for the most part. I’m a very happy, easygoing guy.”
He does have a point. As a three-star high school prospect in the class of 2023, McLain earned offers from exactly one school: Idaho. He took unofficial visits to a handful of other schools, going to a camp at Eastern Washington, but none extended offers. He had a preferred walk-on offer from WSU, but not a scholarship. “He knew if he wanted to go to college,” Julianne said, “he needed a scholarship to go to college.”
He now has that and more from WSU, where coaches have featured him prominently across the first six practices of spring camp. He has regularly taken reps with what appears to be the Cougars’ first-team defense, using his size and speed to zip into the backfield for simulated sacks, avoiding quarterbacks at the last second to minimize contact and possible injuries.
Barring a set of unforeseen circumstances, when fall comes and WSU heads across the state to kick off the first game of the Kirby Moore era, McLain will jog out for the Cougars’ first snaps of defense. He has all the tools he needs, the skills, the mentality. The interesting part is how rare someone like that – big, athletic, FBS-caliber player – comes out of Priest River, population 1,800.
Few people know it like Brad Martin, McLain’s high school coach for his junior and senior seasons in 2021 and 2022. To understand what McLain produced at that level, to get a proper grasp on the destruction he brought to Priest River Lamanna, you have to understand this: McLain won a total of two games in his four years of action.
The Spartans went 0-8 in 2019 and 0-7 in 2020. In 10 of those losses, Priest River didn’t score. Martin arrived in time for the 2021 season, in which the Spartans lost seven games, only winning one by forfeit over Orofino. Priest River went on to win two games in McLain’s senior season, one over Medical Lake and one over the same Orofino club that had forfeited the year prior.
Still, Martin knew what he would get from McLain, who played all over the field for the Spartans: Primarily at defensive end and tight end, plus running back, fullback and other positions. There weren’t many things he couldn’t do, even fewer that he wouldn’t. He was a pure athlete, also competing in wrestling and track, becoming the kind of versatile athlete that helped the Spartans stay competitive, even when they weren’t winning.
It almost begs this question: Why did McLain keep playing so hard? What kept him going when things were going so badly for his team?
“My parents are two of the hardest working people I know,” McLain said, “especially growing up with my sister, who has special needs.”
Indeed, to understand McLain is to understand the people he calls family. His younger sister, 18-year-old Marjorie, has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe, rare form of childhood epilepsy characterized by multiple types of seizures that are hard to treat. She’s able to live a relatively normal life, Matyus says, and her condition has improved across the last several years. But the seizures can be a challenge. When Matyus was a high school freshman, Marjorie had brain surgery.
Matyus likes to say that has affected him in lots of ways, but count this among them: He makes sure to appreciate the opportunities he gets, the chances to live out his dreams. It’s a big reason he kept going at Priest River, when his Spartans found themselves on the wrong end of blowout after blowout. What was there to complain about when his sister was going through something like that?
Drew and Julianne, Matyus’ parents, understand this about their son: Marjorie’s condition instilled a sense of maturity in Matyus that paved his way back to Pullman. From a young age, Matyus felt a responsibility to care for his younger sister, to do whatever a young boy can do for his sibling. That changed his life in ways that stick with him today.
Perhaps that’s why, with the chance to play in the Big 12 for tons more money, McLain turned down both to play at Washington State. He saw the dollar signs, but he also saw the memories he made coming to WSU games growing up, from the 2015 Sun Bowl to a handful of others. Matyus figures he’ll be able to make more money in other ways later in life. Fewer, he knows, are the chances to fulfill a childhood dream.
“Like, sure, they have more money, but are they able to develop you and keep you the person that you are?” McLain said. “I’m a happy guy. I love the game. Are they able to keep that in you while continuing to develop you? Anybody can throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at your face and say, hey, come here. But who knows if they can coach you?”
It’s another lesson he internalized back home in Priest River. Around that time, Martin was chatting with another coach at PR, Jesse Hellinger, who had been around the game for quite some time. On several occasions, Hellinger remarked to Martin they would likely see McLain playing on Saturdays soon. Then one day, the two were watching McLain take part in some agility drills, some lifting in the weight room.
Hellinger was taken aback.
“He goes, ‘Coach,’ ” Martin recalled, “we might see that guy on Sundays.”
If McLain gets there, he’ll do so by spending his Saturdays wearing crimson.