Anatomy of a field-rushing: How did WSU players navigate the crowd after beating Wisconsin?

PULLMAN – Ron Stone Jr. found himself on the left side of Gesa Field at Martin Stadium when the crowd started to descend, students clad in crimson and gray flocking to Washington State players .

In the immediate aftermath of WSU’s upset of No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday, the Cougars’ edge rusher wanted to greet a few Wisconsin players as they were leaving the field.

“But then they started sprinting off and the fans kind of cut them off,” Stone said. “So I ended up not seeing anyone and kind of just made my walk toward the locker room very slow, and took the pictures along the way.

“And then, ended up in the locker room celebrating.”

Stone ’s experience on the field, watching the fans rush toward him and his teammates, aligned well with that of other Cougars. They couldn’t follow through on whatever plans they had for after the game – they were too busy celebrating with students. They wore smiles, took pictures and soaked up the moment, the eyes of a large college football TV audience trained on them for one night.

On the field, WSU players treated it like the celebration it was. As head coach Jake Dickert did a TV interview, wide receiver Kyle Williams jumped in the background and smiled directly at the camera. Defensive lineman Na’im Rodman, all 6-foot-2 and 300 pounds, had trouble wading through the crowd. Outside the throng at midfield, safety Jaden Hicks dapped up a friend, and in the middle of it all, a line of Cougars jumped up and down like it was at a rave.

What better way to commemorate one of the biggest wins in school history?

“Honestly, I don’t know where I was,” Williams said. “I was just in the middle of people, and the crowd just pushed me to where I was supposed to be. So I ended up finding the locker room, by God’s luck, but it was an amazing experience, just having the enthusiasm by the fans, their support, their spirit. It was just so dope. I wish I could go back.”

“It was good for the student section. It was good for Pullman,” WSU quarterback Cam Ward said. “This is a memory that I’ll never forget, for sure.”

Washington State has experienced a few field-rushings but perhaps none like this. The last time fans stormed the field came in 2018 after WSU toppled Oregon following an ESPN College GameDay broadcast. In 2017, they did it twice: After the Cougars dethroned No. 5 USC and after they sneaked by Boise State in triple overtime.

Saturday’s field-rushing, though, was different in at least one way. The Cougars hadn’t just beaten the top-20 Badgers for a second straight season. They hadn’t just done it on a national broadcast. They had accomplished it all with something crucial to prove: That they belong in a power conference, the kind that grants them this stage on a regular basis.

When Dickert did his on-field, postgame TV interview , he broached the topic immediately: “In this moment, it’s everything. We belong in the Power Five. … I’m just so damn proud of them.”

Still, not every WSU player anticipated the field-storming. Safety Jackson Lataimua, who recovered a key fumble that the offense parlayed into a touchdown, said he and his teammates expected to win the game – so he wasn’t entirely focused on what would follow.

“I turned around, I think like 30 seconds (left),” Lataimua said, “and I saw the victory formation out there and I just turned around. I kind of knew. I got that feeling, like, ‘Oh, it’s about to go down.’

“I was back there just kind of telling them like, ‘Yo, let’s go, let’s go.’ Then I had seen everybody jumped, so I kind of ran toward the middle, to get away from all of that.”

Ahead of the game, Stone couldn’t make up his mind on whether he expected students to rush the field if the Cougars won. He chatted up teammates, like Williams, long-snapper Simon Samarzich and edge Quinn Roff, and asked them what they were anticipating.

When he saw the result, the fans cascading onto the field for the happiest party of their collegiate lives, Stone understood the moment. These, he remembered, weren’t just casual supporters of the team. These were people committed to seeing their team succeed, whatever that requires.

“I think one of the things that we often forget about as players sometimes is how involved our community is with our team – how important it is to them as well,” Stone said. “I kind of misspoke last week, when I said it doesn’t matter how many people we play in front of, because at the end of the day, those people in the stands are part of our team. Obviously, they’re not on the field, but they had a huge impact on the game, and we need those people every time. We play better when they’re in there getting loud and getting energetic.”