Analysis: As WSU falls in Holiday Bowl and heads into offseason, Kyle Thornton and Kyle Williams’ commitment shines

SAN DIEGO – Kyle Thornton took his time getting off the stage. Bright lights in the media room illuminated his eye black and burnished his crimson Washington State jersey, the final time he would wear it, his WSU career coming to an end with a loss to Syracuse in Friday’s Holiday Bowl.

As he headed for the exit, Thornton steeled himself and took one step down off the stage, walking slowly. Before he walked away, he had brothers to greet – interim head coach Pete Kaligis, quarterback Zevi Eckhaus and receiver Kyle Williams, all of whom had gathered to discuss the game and what comes next, their program heading into an offseason with lots of questions to answer.

As they depart the team, Thornton and Williams can no longer make plays for WSU. Instead, they can provide a blueprint for what the administration should look for in the team’s next group – talented, committed players who demand better from those around them. Aspirational young men who saw Pullman as more than a springboard to something better.

In many ways, Thornton and Williams represent what’s special about Washington State. The university and program supply a place to focus on football, to develop as players and men, to take the underdog mentality and turn it into results, beating programs with better resources and higher dollar amounts at their disposal.

Thanks to Jake Dickert’s departure for Wake Forest last weekend, and nearly 30 players entering the transfer portal this month, the Cougars have tons of questions to answer this offseason: Who will be the next head coach? How will that decision affect the rest of the roster? What of the current signing class?

Because of the way they’ve played during their WSU careers, Thornton and Williams can provide some guidelines.

On Friday, Williams did it with his game, totaling 172 receiving yards and one touchdown on 10 catches, taking down Dez Bryant’s receiving record in this Holiday Bowl. He took one short slant 66 yards for a score, and he used his elusiveness to make many a defender miss, wrapping up a career that cements his status as one of the best WSU receiver in a decade. Far and away, he was WSU’s best player at the bowl.

Thornton had a quieter outing, with four tackles, but his best stuff isn’t always in the numbers. It’s in the veteran presence he provides, in the leadership he shows and the trust he’s earned. In his sixth year as a Coug, Thornton had a college career that will be remembered around this program for a long while.

Thornton could have made zero tackles in this game and still left the program with his legacy in hand. He made the key play in WSU’s Apple Cup win in September, operating from the linebacker spot to bring down Washington running back Jonah Coleman short of the goal line, sealing the Cougars’ first win in the rivalry series in three years. A former walk-on, Thornton waited his turn and capitalized on the moment he envisioned all along.

“I’m not sure I have the words for it. I think that’s why it’s kind of expressing itself as the tears I’m showing up here,” Thornton said. “Just so many emotions, so thankful for the journey. The biggest thing that comes to my mind is grateful, grateful for all the individuals, all the coaches, all the players, all the staff, just all the people who touched my life and helped shaped me who I am today, especially this man right here to my left (Kaligis). There’s not many like him, and I wouldn’t be here without him.”

Sometime in the next few days, WSU Athletics Director Anne McCoy will decide on a new head coach, a decision that will shape the next era of this program. In previous years, hiring a new WSU coach was important for the reasons that hiring a new coach is always important. Now, as the Cougs prepare for an independent 2025 schedule and get ready for the new Pac-12’s launch in 2026, it is paramount.

Hire the wrong guy and Washington State could find itself in a worse place in a tumultuous time. Outside of a forgettable 2023 season, the Cougs have enjoyed steady bowl appearances during the last decade, but that could change. Without the traditional power-conference status that attracted many recruits, WSU could steep to a place it hasn’t been since Paul Wulff roamed the sidelines.

Hire the right guy, though, and the Cougars could set in motion a new era for the program. Theirs will never be the same institution, but they could make the most of it and establish themselves as the new Pac-12’s cream of the crop. By the time realignment churns again in the 2030s, they could find themselves in a position to reaffiliate with a power conference operation – whatever that looks like by then.

A lot hinges on the decision by McCoy, who could hire anyone from Montana State head coach Brent Vigen to Alabama assistant JaMarcus Shephard, who spent the 2016 season as the Cougars’ wide receivers coach. Or it could be a surprise candidate that hasn’t crossed as many minds.

Whoever it is, though, should be someone like Thornton and Williams, someone like many of the WSU seniors who saw this thing through. Thornton could have left. Same goes for Williams, who put together a 2023 season that put him on the radars of coaches around the country who would have wanted Williams on their team.

They stayed through the institutional change that has shaped the next several years of Washington State and the university at large, through the collapse of the Pac-12, through the departure of their head coach, through the early exits of their teammates and through winning streaks and losing skids alike.

There should be no shame in doing otherwise – Mateer fetched somewhere around $3M in the transfer portal, and though fans have every right to feel spurned, it’s the players’ and coaches’ jobs to look out for themselves. But there can also be glory in staying. That’s what Thornton and Williams have earned, and it should color what becomes next of this program.

“It means everything,” Williams said of the conclusion of his WSU career. “It’s been a long college journey for me, and it’s been roller coaster, a lot of ups and downs. But to finish it off where a lot of things went left, and you just see the commitment of everybody, just the brotherhood, camaraderie of the team, it was something special. If I could do it again, I would do it over and over and over.”

“It’s been a fight for the Cougs for a long time, and honestly, we wouldn’t want it any other way,” Thornton said. “It’s all we know. It’s how we are. We love to fight, and it’s what brings us closer, and it’s what makes us who we are. In all honestly, why I chose to stay is because I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I wanted to be a part of that group, be a part of that group of fighters.”