What LB Buddah Al-Uqdah and OT Fa’alili Fa’amoe’s departures mean for WSU

PULLMAN – The punches keep coming for Washington State.

In the past two days, the Cougars have lost two more starters to the transfer portal. Linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah made his announcement on Tuesday, and right tackle Fa’alili Fa’amoe was reported to have entered the portal Monday.

That’s on top of losing the biggest player of all, quarterback John Mateer, who entered the portal Monday. The nation’s leader with 44 total touchdowns, Mateer’s departure amounts to the second consecutive year the Cougars have lost their starting QB to the portal after Cam Ward left for Miami last year.

As of Tuesday evening, WSU has lost 22 players to the transfer portal, including 10 starters and three backups. That number may come as a surprise to head coach Jake Dickert, who said earlier this month he was expecting around 15 to 20 players to hit the portal. Now his team has nearly hit that range with only impact players.

“The first step is realizing there are no rules. That’s the first step,” Dickert said Monday, referring to the way Mateer fielded lucrative offers before entering the portal, ostensibly the kind of tampering violation that often goes unpunished. “Tampering is now part of it. It’s a word that’s a buzzword for everyone to use, but if you’re not recruiting other people’s rosters, it feels like in today’s world, that you’re gonna fall behind. So it does put us in a tough spot.”

WSU’s most recent losses, Al-Uqdah and Fa’amoe, add up to particularly brutal blows for the team.

Al-Uqdah started all 12 games at linebacker this season, totaling 19 starts in his WSU career after joining the starting lineup midway through last season. The team’s leader with six takeaways – three interceptions and three forced fumbles – Al-Uqdah also led the club with 76 tackles, 51 solo. He also led the Cougars with 17 missed tackles, although that shows how often Al-Uqdah was in the mix on defense.His nose for the ball came up big for the Cougs on several occasions this season. In WSU’s loss to Oregon State on Nov. 23, he snagged a pick-six, the first of his career. In the Cougs’ comeback win over San Diego State on Oct. 26, he secured a fourth-quarter interception, which set up the offense’s game-winning touchdown moments later.

Al-Uqdah authored several more key plays throughout the season. In a win over Utah State on Nov. 9, he forced a fumble and recovered it, and in a Oct. 19 victory over Hawaii, he intercepted a pass and returned it some 25 yards the other way. The Cougs could almost always count on him to make some sort of game-changing play on defense.

A Los Angeles native, Al-Uqdah was a three-star prospect out of City Honors College Prep in WSU’s class of 2022. He turned down offers from Washington, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico to become a Cougar.

What does Al-Uqdah’s departure mean for WSU, which is set to take on Syracuse in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27? It likely indicates more snaps for linebackers Keith Brown and Parker McKenna, both of whom came on strong toward the end of the season, and an even bigger role for veteran linebacker Kyle Thornton, who will be playing his final game in the crimson and gray.

It could also give Dickert an extended look at true freshman linebacker Frank Cusano, who Dickert mentioned earlier this month he’d like to give more snaps in the bowl game. Cusano, a three-star prospect out of Granite Bay, California, impressed in spring camp and took a redshirt year this fall. At 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, Cusano has the frame to make an impact, and WSU coaches have been high on him since he made a plethora of plays in fall camp.

“He just has a bright future,” Dickert said in a Zoom news conference, “and to give him some game experience is gonna be really big to set up what he can be early in the season next year.”

To make up for Fa’amoe’s early exit, WSU will have to shuffle its offensive line, which was expected to return four of five starters next season. Without Fa’amoe, who started seven of nine games at right tackle after coming back from a knee injury, coaches could ask guard/tackle Christian Hilborn to move to right tackle, which is what they did when Fa’amoe missed the first three games of the year.

The 6-foot-5 Fa’amoe finished the season with a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of 72.2, well above average, allowing two sacks on 12 pressures.

A converted defensive tackle who switched to offensive line ahead of the 2022 season, Fa’amoe was a staple on the Cougars’ offensive line the past several years, with sack-free outings in the final six games of this season.

What WSU does depends on the status of center Devin Kylany, who missed the final two games of the regular season with a knee injury.

In his place, usual right guard Brock Dieu moved to center, and Dickert was effusive in his praise for Dieu’s versatility in those situations.

If Kylany is out again, it’s possible Dieu returns to center, Hilborn plays right tackle – and maybe redshirt freshman Noah Dunham gets the nod at right guard.

It’s also feasible that WSU keeps Hilborn at right guard and gives an opportunity to redshirt freshman Ashton Tripp, who coaches have spoken highly of in the last two seasons.

But if Kylany can play, the Cougars will probably go with the offensive linemen who started most of the season: left tackle Esa Pole, left guard Hilborn/Rod Tialavea, center Kylany, right guard Dieu, then perhaps Hilborn or Tripp at right tackle.

In other news, here is a short list of players WSU has recently offered out of the transfer portal and their numbers this season.

• WR Jordan Dwyer (FCS Idaho) // 78 catches, 1,192 yards, 12 TD

• OT Ayden Knapik (FCS Idaho) // 12 starts, 12 pressures, 3 sacks

• RB Herschel Turner Jr. (Utah State) // 79 carries, 405 yards, 4 TD

• WR Leland Smith (Purdue) // 6 catches, 72 yards, 2 TD

• DT Davonte Murray (FCS Tennessee-Martin) // 24 tackles, 5 TFL, 2 forced fumbles

• DB Caleb Wooden (Auburn) // 17 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 pass breakups

• DB Jordan Walker (Chattanooga) // 60 tackles, 7 pass breakups

• LB Bryun Parham (Washington) // 12 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 pass breakup

• DB Matt Jung (Division-III Bethel) // 62 tackles, 9 INT

• WR Mark Hamper (FCS Idaho) // 48 catches, 966 yards, 6 TD