Washington State University Football

Head Coach Kirby Moore has added former Oregon State defensive back Alton Julian to his coaching staff, with Julian serving as a defensive graduate assistant. Julian arrives in Pullman after spending the 2025 season coaching cornerbacks at Eastern Oregon University. Julian was a defensive back at Oregon State from 2020-24, seeing action in 22 games, totaling 56 tackles and earning Pro Football Focus Second-Team All-Pac-12 honors in 2021. Originally from East Palo Alto, California, Julian attended College of San Mateo for two seasons before transferring to Oregon State, where he graduated in 2022 with his degree in Public Health.

Andrew Browning begins his first season as part of Kirby Moore’s coaching staff, serving as the defensive line coach. Browning arrives in Pullman having spent the previous eight seasons in Berkeley as part of the California coaching staff. Browning recently completed his seventh season as the defensive line coach and his eighth campaign overall at California in 2025, having served one season in a quality control role on the defensive side of the ball in his first season with the Golden Bears in 2018. In 2019, Browning was promoted to defensive line coach. Since his promotion, he was a part of five teams that qualified for bowl games and helped guide the Bears’ defense to 24 or more sacks in five of his seven seasons. (The lone seasons without 24 sacks was during the COVID-19 shortened season and 2025). During his time in Berkeley, Browning mentored a number of all-conference performers, including Zeandae Johnson (2019), Brett Johnson and Zeandae Johnson (2020), JH Tevis (2021) and Xavier Carlton (2024). Prior to arriving at California, Browning spent five seasons at the University of Texas, El Paso. In 2017, UTEP’s defensive linemen combined for 144 tackles on the season, along with 11.5 tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries. Senior Sky Logan led all UTEP defensive linemen in tackles (42) and fumble recoveries (two). UTEP’s starting defensive lineman combined for 172 tackles in 2016. Under Browning’s direction, Mike Sota emerged during his sophomore season with 47 tack

Andrew Seumalo begins his first season as a member of head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff, being named as the assistant defensive line coach in January of 2026. Seumalo is no stranger to the Pacific Northwest, having been a student-athlete and later a graduate assistant coach at Oregon State. Seumalo arrives in Pullman having spent the past eight seasons at Lafayette College in Easton, Penn. For the 2025 season, Seumalo served as the inside linebackers coach as well as the recruiting coordinator. During his time at Lafayette, Seumalo has worked with both inside and outside linebackers, as well as the defensive line. In 2024 after the graduation of Billy Shaeffer, Seumalo relied on seniors Tim O’Hearn and Semaj Cross to fill the void. Together, O’Hearn and Cross tallied 87 tackles, eight and a half tackles for loss and four sacks. O’Hearn collected 5.5 tackles for loss and three sacks while forcing a team-leading three fumbles. Cross started 11 of 12 games at the OLB position, ringing up 40 tackles to go along with one interception and one forced fumble. The 2023 season saw the Leopards lead the conference in scoring defense, rushing defense and red-zone defense. Shaeffer turned in a stellar final campaign under Seumalo's tutelage. He led the team with 83 tackles for a Patriot League-best 21.5 TFL and 10 sacks, good enough for 10th in the nation. Shaeffer was one of three national finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, which is doled out annually to the national defensive player of

Andy Belluomini has joined Head Coach Kirby Moor’e first staff in Pullman, serving as the assistant quarterbacks coach. Belluomini served on Moore’s offensive staff the past three seasons at Missouri. Over the past three seasons at Missouri, the Tiger offense has averaged at least 28.9 points per game each season, including 32.5 in 2025. Missouri went to bowl games in each of his three seasons while finishing the 2025 campaign 32nd nationally in total offense. Also in 2025, the Missouri offense feature consensus All-American Ahmad Hardy, who finished second nationally in rushing yards and rushing yards per game. From 2020-22, Belluomini served as the quarterbacks coach at Illinois State, after spending the 2019 season on staff at Northwestern. Prior to that, he was a member of the South Carolina coaching staff joining them in April 2017 and serving as an analyst for the offense in his first year in Columbia. Belluomini also worked as a quality control coordinator at the University of Florida, a position he held from 2012-16. He assisted with the offensive skill position players under offensive coordinators Brent Pease, Kurt Roper and Doug Nussmeier. Prior to his arrival in Gainesville, Belluomini spent one year in an offensive/special teams quality control role at Northwestern and one year as the running backs coach at Butler University in Indianapolis. Belluomini earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Boise State University in 2010. During his time in Boise, h

A veteran of college athletics for more than two decades, Brad Larrondo has joined Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff as WSU Football’s executive senior associate AD / general manager. Larrondo brings a wealth of experience to Pullman having spent the previous three seasons working closely with Moore at Missouri. For the 2024-25 seasons, Larrondo served as the CEO of Every True Tiger Brands, an NIL Marketing and Branding agency for Missouri athletes. The NIL marketing and brand agency has established itself as a leading collective in college football. Larrondo spent the 2023 season as an assistant athletic director/director football external relations & recruiting at Missouri. Larrondo arrived at Mizzou after two seasons (2021-22) at Auburn where he was an associate athletic director and football chief of staff under head coach Bryan Harsin. Larrondo served in a similar role under Harsin at Boise State. At Boise State, Larrondo was the primary sport liaison to the director of athletics for football, while also serving in a chief of staff role under the head coach. Named a senior associate athletic director and football chief of staff in July 2019, he was the athletic department's primary football contact and the liaison for the head coach, assisting with oversight of the football support staff. Larrondo also provided external support for fundraising and community outreach and assisted with the direction and growth of the program. He also worked closely with the Director of Athlet

Braden Swank begins his first season as a defensive graduate assistant on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff. Swank arrives in Pullman after spending the 2024 season at his alma mater, Montana Western, as an assistant linebackers coach. During the 2025 season, Swank help develop senior linebacker Jace Fitzgerald to Victory Sports Network (VSN) NAIA All-America honorable mention honors, as well as All-Frontier West First Team honors. Swank finished his career with 179 tackles and 75 pass breakups. Swank concluded his playing career in 2024, earning second-team all-conference honors after totaling 42 tackles on the year, to go with a national-best 23 pass breakups and three interceptions.

Washington State Head Coach Kirby Moore has named Brandyn Thompson to the Cougar football staff as cornerbacks coach. Thompson arrives in Pullman after spend...

Cadie Christensen begins her first season as a member of Kirby Moore’s coaching staff, serving as the director of recruiting operations. Christensen arrives in Pullman after spending the past season as the on-campus recruiting operations assistant at Arizona State University. Christensen had spent the previous three years at Arizona State, starting as an intern int eh recruiting department and progressed to the lead student intern before moving to a full-time role in May of 2025. Christensen received her degree in sports business from Arizona State and is pursuing her master’s in organizational leadership.

A veteran of more than two decades in college football, including 21 within the Pac-12 Conference, Dan Van De Riet joined the Cougars program as Head Coach K...

Daniel Platz begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff, serving at the Director of Player Personnel for Cougar Football. Platz has spent the ...

Derek Sage returns to Pullman as part of Head Coach Kirby Moore’s first staff in the role of wide receivers/special teams coach. It marks the second time coaching at WSU for Sage, who was part of Mike Leach’s staff as the outside receivers coach during the 2017 season. Sage arrives in Pullman following two years as the tight ends coach at Toledo, his second stint at Toledo after previously serving as Toledo’s wide receivers coach from 2014-16. During the 2025 season, Sage mentored senior Jacob Petersen, who recorded 25 receptions (third on team) for 335 yards and three touchdowns. In 2024, he led a tight end room that featured senior Anthony Torres, who caught 31 passes for 404 yards. Torres, who participated in the 2025 Hula Bowl was tied for third in MAC with nine TD receptions. Sage arrived at Toledo following two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Nevada in 2022-23. At Nevada, Sage coached five players who earned All-Mountain West league honors: wide receiver Dalevon Campbell and offensive lineman Isaiah World in 2023, and wide receiver BJ Casteel, offensive lineman Grant Starck, and running back Toa Taua in 2022. Prior to joining the staff at Nevada, Sage spent four seasons (2018-21) as the tight ends coach at UCLA. During the 2021 season at UCLA as special teams coordinator, Sage helped the Bruins lead the nation in punt returns yardage (20.00), as well as finish seventh in kickoff return yardage (27.38). While at UCLA, Sage helped develop three of the nation’s top

Derham Cato begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s Cougar staff, serving as the run game coordinator/tight ends coach. Cato and Moore reconnect in Pullman after spending the past three seasons together at Missouri. Cato completed his third season at Missouri in 2025, his second serving as the program’s tight ends coach. Cato arrived in Columbia after coaching stops at Maine, Washington, Davidson, Vanderbilt and his alma mater, Dartmouth. This past season, Cato was part of an offense that ranked 30th nationally at 32.2 points per game. His tight end group total 40 receptions for 370 yards and seven touchdowns, led by Brett Norfleet who had 31 receptions, 254 yards and five TDs. In 2024, Cato helped coach Norfleet to a sophomore season in which he hauled in 26 receptions for 235 yards and a pair of touchdowns, ranking third on the squad in receptions and touchdowns while accumulating the fourth-most receiving yards on the team. After taking over a tight end unit that combined for just 10 receptions, 112 yards a pair of touchdowns in 2022, Cato helped more than double the unit’s production in 2023 as rising freshman Norfleet became the offensive focal point at the position. He logged 18 receptions for 197 yards and three touchdowns, earning SEC All-Freshman Team honors. Before a brief stint at Maine, Cato served as the tight ends coach at the University of Washington during the 2020 and 2021 seasons after spending four seasons as an offensive analyst with the progra

Eti Ena joins Head Coach Kriby Moore’s first staff in Pullman, serving as defensive tackles coach. Ena comes to Pullman after spending the previous two seasons coaching the defensive line at New Mexico State. During the 2025 season, Ena mentored defensive tackle Ezra Christensen, who garnered multiple All-American honors following the season. After posting 42 total tackles, 11 tackles-for-loss and six sacks, Christensen earned First Team All-America honors by Pro Football and Sport Network, as well as third-team honors from HERO Sports Group of Five All-America teams. Prior to arriving in Las Cruces, N.M., Ena served as the co-defensive coordinator/defensive tackles coach at the University of Hawai’i in 2023, and the defensive line coach in 2022. Ena spent six seasons at Eastern Washington in numerous roles, including defensive ends coach, (2016-2021), associate head coach (2017-2021) and defensive coordinator (2019-2021). Ena helped guide the Eagles to the national title game in 2018 season and a semifinal appearance in 2016. In 2018, he coached an Eastern Washington defense that led the FCS with six defensive touchdowns and allowed just 22.7 ppg, the school’s lowest average in more than two decades. Additionally, Ena mentored multiple EWU players who earned all-conference and All-America honors including Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP Jay-Tee Tiuli. During his time at EWU, he coached six NFL players, including 2016 FCS All-American Samson Ebukam who currently plays for th

Former Washington State football student-athlete Greg Burns returns to his alma mater as part of Head Coach Kriby Moore’s first staff, serving as secondary/s...

Jack Abercrombie begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff as the Cougars offensive line coach. Abercrombie and Moore are very familiar with each other having spent the past three seasons working together at Missouri, where Abercrombie served as an offensive analyst in 2023 and an assistant offensive line coach in 2024 and 2025. During the 2025 season, Missouri rushing offense ranked eighth nationally at 234.1 yards per game, led by consensus All-American running back Ahmad Hardy and first-team All-SEC offensive lineman Keagen Trost. During the 2024 and 2025 NFL Drafts, Missouri had three offensive linemen selected as Armand Membou as a first-round pick of the New York Jets in 2025 (#7 overall), while New England picked Marcus Bryant in the seventh round of that same draft. In 2024, Javon Foster was a fourth-round selection by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Prior to Missouri, Abercrombie spent two seasons at VMI as the offensive line coach after joining the staff in June of 2021. He was promoted to run game coordinator in February, 2022. The Keydet offensive line continued to perform at a high level in the 2021 fall season as VMI ranked highly in several offensive categories. Abercrombie arrived at VMI from the University of Missouri where he spent the 2020-21 season as an offensive graduate assistant coach and worked primarily with the offensive line. Prior to his stint in Columbia, Abercrombie spent two seasons at Mississippi State where he was an offensive gradu

Jonah Chong begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff, serving as an offensive graduate assistant. Chong spent the 2025 season as the assistant wide receivers coach at South Dakota State. There he helped mentor Alex Bullock to All-Missouri Valley Football Conference honorable mention honors after a season that included 71 receptions for 936 yards and five touchdowns. Prior to SDSU, Chong concluded his collegiate career as a quarterback at Northern Colorado, where he played in 11 games, throwing for 50 yards and rushing for another 69. Chong spent one season at UNC, one at the University of Hawai’i, and began his collegiate career at Nevada, where he spent three seasons.

Joshua Taufalele begins his first season in Pullman as a member of Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff after being named assistant offensive line coach. Taufalele has spent the past six years working in an off-field position as Boise State, including his latest position as associate director, extended studies, which he has held since September of 2024. Prior to that, he was assistant director, graduate recruitment in extended studies, manager, graduate recruiting in extended studies, after beginning his time in Boise as a student success coach in 2019. Taufalele spent three seasons coaching at Montana State, beginning in 2017 as offensive line coach and adding the title of recruiting coordinator in 2018. In 2019, he served as recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach. During his three seasons, the Bobcats went 24-15 and reached the FCS Playoffs in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, Montana State was eighth in FCS in rushing offense at 258.1 yards per game, 25th overall in total offense, and seventh in fewest sacks allowed at less than one per game. The teams advanced to the FCS Playoffs for the first time since the 2014 season, reaching the second round. In 2018, Montana State reached the FCS semifinals after finishing 18th in the FCS in rushing yards and 12th in fewest sacks allowed. Prior to arriving in Bozeman, Taufalele was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Foothill College (California) in 2016 and spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons as the offensive line graduate assistant

JR Blood begins his first year on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff, serving as the director of recruiting strategy. Blood played for Moore at Missouri during the 2024 season. Blood arrives in Pullman having spent the past five months as an NIL marketing and athlete relations coordinator with Every True Tiger Brands, which works closely with Missouri football. He also spent the previous year as a personnel scouting assistant for Missouri football. He spent four years at Southern (2020-23) and a year at Missouri (2024) playing quarterback. He played only one game for Mizzou, against Alabama, taking only two snaps. At Southern, he earned two letters, playing in 16 games (11 starts), completing 159-of-276 (.576) passes for 2,183 yards with 14 touchdowns. He received a mass communications degree from Southern.

Justin Green begins his first season in Pullman as part of Kirby Moore’s first staff after being named the Cougars running backs coach. Green arrives in Pullman having spent the past 14 seasons as the running backs coach at Montana. Green, from San Diego, Calif., has worked with the running backs at Montana since the 2012 season. He worked as a student assistant coach at Montana in 2011, before taking over the running back room and spearheading Montana’s recruitment. In that time, he coached some of the most prolific backs in school history, including Eli Gillman, Nick Ostmo, Marcus Knight, Jordan Canada, and the Nguyen brothers. Gillman, a junior for UM in 2025, won the Jerry Rice Award for the nation’s top freshman in 2023 and is on pace to shatter Montana records in the run game, ranked No. 3 in rushing TDs with 49 and No. 4 in rushing yards with 3,677 following the 2025 season. This past year, Gillman ranked fifth nationally in rushing yards with 1,540 and third in rushing touchdowns with 21 as he was the Big Sky Offensive Player of the year and named to multiple All-America teams. Ostmo quietly became one of the best running backs in program history, battling through injury to finish No. 5 on UM’s all-time leading rusher list with 2,625 yards. Knight set new school records for rushing touchdowns (23) and points scored (150) in the 2019 season, en route to Hero Sports All-America honors. Canada is ranked fourth at Montana in career rushing yards (3,435) and rushing touchd

Kainon Clark begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff as an associate director of football athletic performance. Clark spent the previous fi...

Kingston Fernandez enters his fourth season with Washington State Football and his first as the program’s Director of Player Relations. Fernandez arrived in ...

Washington State University Interim Director of Athletics Jon Haarlow announced Dec. 12, 2025 that Kirby Moore has been named the Cougars' Head Football Coac...

Kyra Shea begins her first season in Pullman as the director of football operations on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff. Prior to arriving in Pullman, Shea spent two seasons in a similar role at Weber State. She spent the 2022 season as executive assistant to the head coach and assistant director of football operations. From 2019-22, Shea was an administrative and operations assistant at the Air Force Academy. She also spent time in on-campus recruiting positions at Northern Colorado and her alma mater, Colorado State. Shea earned her bachelor’s degree in natural resource tourism from CSU in May 2019.

Malcom Hardmon begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff, being named the director of football athletic performance. Hardmon had previously s...

Matt Wade joined Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff in January of 2026 and will serve as a senior offensive analyst. Wade and Moore previously spent one season together at Fresno State in 2022. Wade joined the Fresno State coaching staff as an offensive quality control for the 2022 season when Moore was the Bulldogs offensive coordinator. He assumed the role of quarterbacks coach for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. In his time on staff at Fresno State, Wade coached a pair of the program’s most accurate pass throwers in program history in Jake Haener and Mikey Keene. Haener was drafted in the fourth round by the New Orleans Saints in the 2023 NFL Draft, becoming Fresno State’s first QB to be drafted since Derek Carr in 2014. Entering 2024, Wade had three quarterbacks ready for game action throughout the season in Mikey Keene, Joshua Wood and Jayden Mandal. All three played throughout the season, but Keene started in all 12 regular season games. He earned All-Mountain West honorable mention honors in 2024, continuing the trend at Fresno State with five consecutive seasons with an all-conference quarterback. Fresno State ranked fourth in the Mountain West in passing offense, averaging 242.5 yards per game. Keene had a .705 completion percentage in 2024, the second-best mark in Fresno State history. He completed 277-of-393 pass attempts on the year. His 277 completions in 2024 are the 8th most in a season in program history. Keene set the program’s single game completion percentage record

Veteran defensive coach Neil Fendall has joined Head Coach Kirby Moore’s Cougar staff as a senior defensive analyst for the Cougars. Fendall arrives in Pullman after spending the 2025 season as the safeties coach/pass game coordinator at the University of Idaho. Prior to Idaho, Fendall spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons as the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Linfield (Ore.), his second stint with the Wildcats. In 2024, Linfield went 7-0 in Northwest Conference play to earn the league title and a trip to the DIII playoffs. Two players that Fendall coached earned All-American honors. Cornerback Chance Sparks was named a first-team All-American honoree and kicker Gavin Dalziel was named a fourth-team All-American. Fendall arrived at Lindfield prior to the 2023 season following one season at NAIA Southern Oregon where he was the defensive coordinator. He was the head coach at Caldera High School in Bend Oregon in 2021 and at Sisters High School in Sisters, Oregon from 2015-20. He was the secondary coach at Cal Poly from 2012 to 2014 and started his collegiate coaching career at Linfield from 2006-2012 where he served as secondary coach. He played safety at Portland State where he was a part of three NCAA 1AA playoff teams and served as the team captain before graduating in 1997. He and his wife, Lynne, have three children, son Taylor, and daughters Hannah and Gracie.

Peyton Yanagi begins his first season on Head Coach Kriby Moore’s staff, being named an assistant special teams coach. Yanagi arrived in Pullman following two seasons as a special teams quality control coach at Army West Point. At Army, Yanagi word closely with special teams coordinator Sean Saturnio to develop the special teams units, primarily working with the long snappers. During his two season at West Point, Army complied a 19-8 record, including bowl victories in each season. Prior to West Point, Yanagi spent the 2023 season as the special teams coordinator on former WSU linebackers coach Ken Wilson’s staff at the University of Nevada, mentoring K Brandon Talton, who finished his career as Nevada's career leader in field goal makes (81). Before the 2023 season at Nevada, he spent a short stint as a special teams intern at Tulsa and in 2022 was the Special Teams/OLB graduate assistant at Nevada. Yanagi is a graduate of the University of Oregon in 2022, spending four seasons (2018-21) as a long snapper for the Ducks, taking home several academic honors, such as being on the Pac-12 Conference Academic Honor Roll and twice being named an Oregon Scholar-Athlete. As a member of the Ducks, he was a two-time Pac-12 Champion (2019-20) and was a Rose Bowl Champion (2019). A Honolulu native, Yanagi helped lead Saint Louis School to back-to-back Division I state titles in 2016 and 2017. Following his senior season in 2017, he was selected to play in the Polynesian Bowl. Peyton Yana

Skip Velotta begins his first season on Head Coach Kirby Moore’s staff after being named an assistant director of football athletic performance in January of 2026. Velotta arrives at Washington Sta after spending the previous year completing an strength and conditioning internship with LSU Football. He also served a similar internship with Iowa football from Jan. - May 2024. As a student-athlete, Velotta spent four years as a safety at Notre Dame, seeing action in 27 games. He concluded his collegiate career playing one season at LSU in 2024. Velotta received his undergraduate degree in political science and government from Notre Dame, and his master’s in kinesiology and exercise science from LSU.

A veteran of the Pac-12 Conference and former head coach at Oregon State University, Trent Bray has been named to Head Coach Kirby Moore’s Cougar staff as the program’s defensive coordinator. Bray is a native of Pullman, as his father Craig served as the secondary coach on both Dennis Erickson’s (1987-88) and Mike Price’s (1994-99) staffs. Bray brings more than 10 years of experience in the conference, including the previous two seasons as head coach at Oregon State (2024-25), also serving as defensive coordinator for the 2025 campaign. It marked Bray’s second stint with the Beavers, previous working as graduate assistant/linebackers coach from 2012-14, before returning to Corvallis in 2018 to coach linebackers. Bray, a 2022 Broyles Award nominee for the nation’s top assistant coach, completed his sixth season during his second stint with the Beavers in 2023. He came back to Oregon State in 2018 as the team’s linebackers coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator in November 2021. The OSU defense immediately became of the top units in the Pac-12 under his guidance. Oregon State gave up six fewer points per game in 2022 compared to 2021, while also allowing 55 fewer yards. The Beavers also posted a Pac-12-best 71 pass breakups. In addition, Oregon State led the conference in red zone defense, while allowing the fewest plays of 10 or more yards. The Beavers’ 2023 defense was stout, allowing 340 yards and 21.3 points per game under his tutelage, both of which ranked among t