WSU rounds out coaching staff with five additions, from chief of staff to scouting staffers

PULLMAN — Washington State coach Kirby Moore’s first coaching staff is just about wrapped up.

On Wednesday, the program announced the addition of five front office staffers: Chief of staff Dan Van De Riet, director of player personnel Daniel Platz, director of recruiting operations Ella Guerrero, director of recruiting strategy JR Blood and director of scouting Jake Morgan.

The Cougars have hired all position group coaches, including assistants for each and a variety of graduate assistants, which means their 2026 coaching staff has likely come together in entirety.

Van De Riet: A veteran of more than two decades in collegiate football, Van De Riet pent past two seasons as chief of staff at Michigan State and previous seven in a similar role at Oregon State, where he overlapped with WSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray. He likely also knew Bray at Nebraska, where he spent three years as associate AD for football operations and previous 14 years in a first stint at Oregon State in football operations.

Platz: Spent the past three years working for Moore at Missouri as a graduate assistant in the player personnel department. He graduated from Mizzou with a degree in statistics and certificate in sports analytics.

Guerrero: Spent the previous two years as the assistant director of recruiting operations at Missouri. She also worked two years as student assistant in Baylor’s recruiting department.

Blood: In the past five months, he worked as an NIL marketing and athlete relations coordinator with Every True Tiger Brands, Missouri’s primary NIL arm. He also spent the previous year as a personnel scouting assistant for Missouri football…was a quarterback on the 2024 Tigers team after four years at Southern University.

Morgan: Worked in the football scouting/personnel department as a student assistant the past four seasons at Missouri. In that role, he identified and evaluated potential prospects, analyzing and film breakdown for position coaches.

Those five additions round out the rest of WSU’s staff which looks like this: Offensive coordinator/QBs coach Miller, defensive coordinator/LBs coach Trent Bray, cornerbacks coach Brandyn Thompson, running backs coach Josh Green, wide receivers coach/special teams coordinator Derek Sage, safeties coach Greg Burns, tight ends coach Derham Cato, offensive line coach Jack Abercrombie and defensive line coaches Andrew Browning and Eti Ena.

Assistants include assistant defensive line coach Andrew Seumalo, assistant offensive line coach Josh Taufalele, assistant special teams coach Peyton Yanagi, assistant strength and conditioning coach Kainon Clark and graduate assistants Braden Swank and Alton Julian.