Cougars walk-on Jared Byers thrilled to be getting the ball

PULLMAN — There is probably no player on the Washington State University football team who has seen more Cougars games than Jared Byers.

After all, every game in Pullman for the past 18 years has been a home game for him.

From the 2002 Apple Cup double-overtime defeat that crushed his spirit to watching and cheering for former Cougars fullback Jed Collins, WSU football has played a big part in the 18-year-old's life.

A life he's always lived in Pullman.

But being a football player with aspirations to play beyond his stellar Pullman High career that ended last fall, Byers didn't think there was much chance he would stay in his hometown for college.

After all, as with most 6-foot, 200-pound, not-overly-fast, high school linebackers/running backs, Pac-10 schools weren't sending a lot of handwritten letters to the Great Northern League's defensive MVP.

So Byers was resigned to playing his college football outside the Palouse. "I never knew this opportunity was going to take place," Byers said, "but I'm extremely excited it did."

The opportunity he's talking about is, in general, the chance to walk on at Washington State.

That came about last spring when co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball, who has a son at Pullman High, helped Byers garner a walk-on spot with the Cougars.

But there's another opportunity Byers is referring to. Let's go back a little more than a month.

Byers was home — he lives with his parents and commutes — after practice one night when the phone rang. It was WSU coach Paul Wulff.

Would Byers, who played fullback in high school, mind switching over to offense this week, Wulff asked? The Cougars need a blocking back.

The freshman played a handful of plays that week against Oregon. More plays followed against Arizona State and Cal, all as a blocker. Then came Notre Dame last week.

Early on Byers leaked out in the flat after a run fake and caught a 12-yard pass from Jeff Tuel.

"I was so happy when they passed to me," he said, smiling. "My parents at home watching, they went crazy. ... I never thought I would be playing against Notre Dame, that's for sure, unless it was on a video game."

Note

• Rickey Galvin, a running back from Berkeley (Calif.) High who has rushed for 1,773 yards in eight games in 2009, has committed to WSU for 2010, according to Cougfan.com and the Oakland Tribune.